Cape track breezes through tri-meet

Cape hosted a tri-meet April 16 and breezed through both meets with little trouble. The boys’ team topped Polytech 112-34 and bested Sussex Tech 141-4.

Junior Stephen Hart had a big day in the field, as he won the high jump in 6-feet-1-inch, the long jump in 20-feet-½-inch, and the triple in 41-feet-11-inches to score 15 points as the day’s top performer.

Cape split the relays with Poly, taking the 3,200 and 1,600, while Poly grabbed the 400 and 800. Quick sophomore Trey Johnson won both sprint races, taking the 100 in 11:1 and the 200 in 22.8. Sophomore Elijah Shockley-Taylor won the 110-meter hurdles in 16.2. Sophomore Jason Baker, coming off a rarely run 5K on the track last weekend where he went 15:24 for a personal record, ran a nice mile in 4:30.3. Senior Ben Clifton won the 400 in 52.0. Sophomore Bernard Jones won the 300-meter hurdles in 43.9, while sophomore Brayden Redd won the 3,200 in 10:18.0.

In the field, senior Sean Powers won the discus in 132-8, while senior Eddie Houck set a personal best in the vault with a nice leap of 14-0.

The Vikings won 12 of the 14 individual events, and of the 12 events, six of the winning athletes are only sophomores.

Cape was equally dominant on the girls’ side, as the Vikings topped Polytech 104-41 and bested Sussex Tech 118-27.

Polytech won three of the four relays, taking the 3,200, 800 and 400, while Cape won the 1,600.

Cape won 11 individual events, including all six field events. Sophomore Anejah Johnson-Grace had a nice 13-point day, winning the 100-meter hurdles in 17.1 and the 300-meter hurdles in 52.7. She finished second in the triple in 30-3 ½. Senior Kennedy Johnson was a double winner, taking the 200 in 26.9 and the long jump in 16-8 ½. Freshman Harper Mamele also won two events, taking the 800 in 2:42.0 and the high jump with a personal best of 5-3. The Vikings have had several 5-foot jumpers, but when you move into the 5-2 and 5-3 range, it’s getting into rarified air. Elite freshman Mia Bender won the 400 in 1:06.9, while freshman Marley Fyock won the triple in 31-1. Junior Addison Bowman won the pole vault in 9-6, while sophomore Mallory Kaufman won the shot put in 29-8. Junior Jade Warrington won the discus in 87-6.

In other action, the Lake Forest boys topped Sussex Academy 77-69 April 16 in Southern Division action. Longtime Lake coach Charlie Pollard is now coaching at Sussex Academy. Several corrections were made following the meet, but it did not change the final outcome.

The Seahawks won the opening 3,200 relay, while Lake took the next three relays in the meet for a 15-5 margin. Each team won seven individual events in the close meet with impressive performances, but names were not included in the results, which makes it impossible to report.

Senior Ethan Boladas ran a personal best of 10.8 in the 100 meters, then returned to take a close 200 meters in 22.7. Sophomore Ryan Moody broke the 4:30 mark, recording a time of 4:29.6 in the mile. The Sussex Academy boys looked impressive, running 44.7 in the 400 relay.

Lake won the girls’ meet 77-69, the same score as the boy’s tally. Both teams split the relays, with Sussex Academy winning the 3,200 and 1,600. Although Sussex Academy lost both meets, it was a record-setting day for the Seahawks as boys’ records fell in the 100, 200, 400 relay, 800 relay, 110-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles and 1,600, while a girls’ record fell in the 400 relay. 

Boston Strong

The 128th Boston Marathon is in the books as a warm morning greeted the runners for the 26.22-mile trek to downtown Boston. The weather was a factor, as many dropped out or did not perform as they had hoped. I feel it was mainly because we have not had many warm days in the past month, and though it was not terribly hot, it was a temperature many were not accustomed to. A total of 54 runners from Delaware entered the historic race. Locals include David Miller, 71, Lewes, 5:16:10; Martin Rodriguez, 42, Selbyville, 3:48:33; and Mike Sewell, 54, Lewes, 4:18:37. Other familiar names are Tanya Karaman of Smyrna in 5:35:34, Mardiny Ung in 4:15:24 and Cindy Conant of Maryland in 3:24:32 for seventh in her age group. 

Beacon track

The Beacon boys lost to Selbyville 74-42 April 17 at Cape. Seventh-grader Aiden Crenshaw scored 13 points to highlight Beacon by winning the 800 meters in 2:27.0 and the triple jump in 32-11, and scoring second in the high jump in 5-4. Beacon won the 800 relay in 1:47.5.

The Beacon girls lost a close one 56-53 to Selbyville. Highlighting Beacon was an 11-point day by talented Kha’Niya Johnson with a win in the 100 meters in 13.8 and the high jump in 4-10. Johnson also finished third to pick up a point in the 200 meters in 29.8. Elana Edery won the 800 in 3:02.0, while Addison Wilson won the 200 in 29.6. Simone Bodis won the triple in 25-11, while Claudia Stazzone won the 400 in 1:07.6.

St. Martin goes viral

Local athlete Laura St. Martin, my dancing runner, was featured in a video as she finished up last year’s Cape Gazette Run & Fun Fest 5K. The video was posted on the Cape Gazette's social media accounts late last week to promote the second annual 5K to be held Saturday, May 11. It featured St. Martin dancing down the final stretch. For some reason, it took off and has over 4 million views on Instagram alone. 

“It's wonderful that the video makes people smile or even laugh. If running doesn't make you happy, you're not doing it right,” said Laura, whose nickname is Thunder but has also been referred to as Dancing Queen. “The local running community is amazing. I have met some incredibly supportive and resilient people. Dancing is a great total-body and cardio workout. I don't think I would run as well as I do if my training did not include dancing.”