Cape winter track opens at Central
The Cape boys’ and girls’ indoor track & field teams traveled to Sussex Central Monday afternoon to take part in the first polar bear meet of the season. The meet contested all events except the 3,200 meters, and coaches used the meet to find teachable moments to help the young runners through their events.
“We wanted this meet to be a fun, teachable, learning experience for the kids and just get them into the feeling of competing again, and I think the meet and the coaches accomplished that,” said coach Derek Shockro of the Golden Knights. “Both teams have a lot of young freshmen who have not competed in two years.”
The Vikings girls won all three relays. The team of Cadence McMahon, Ella Ruppert, Lina Frederick and Lindsey D’Ambrogi won the 3,200 relay in a time of 11:53, while the team of Hannah Maney, Lainey Shockro, Montana Jones and Tia Jarvis won the 800 relay. The Vikings also won the 1,600 relay with the team of Maney, Jones, Alexa Dougherty and Jarvis. Dougherty won the 1,600-meter run in 6:10 and the triple jump in 29-feet-10-inches, while Jarvis took the 400-meter dash in 1:05.3, edging out teammate Maney in 1:05.9. Ruppert, a first-year runner, won the 800 meters in 2:47, while Elizabeth Melson won the high jump in 4-feet-8-inches. Shockro, a sophomore, won the pole vault at 9-feet even, while Hailey Archambault won the shot with a toss of 27-feet-7-inches.
Jon Small won the 55-meter hurdles at 8.12 seconds to pick right up where he left off, while L.T. Messick ran 6.44 to win the 55-meter dash. A good race in the 800-meter relay saw Sussex Central edge out Cape with a time of 1:35.6 to 1:35.9 at the line. Liam O’Donnell ran a nice 1,600-meter race all by himself in a personal best of 4:41, while Andrew Wolak won the 400 meters in 53.8. Ben Clifton ran 2:13 in the 800 meters for the win, while the Cape boys won the 1,600-meter relay in 4:06. Small won the long jump at 19-10, while Billy Cerf jumped 4-8 to win the high jump. Bailey Fletcher jumped 8-6 in the pole vault for his first win.
The boys’ team will travel to Ursinus College this Saturday for the Ursinus High School Invitational before heading to Milford for a six-team invitational Wednesday, Dec. 15.
The girls’ team will not travel this weekend and will compete at Milford Dec. 15, before heading to the Bishop Loughlin Games Dec. 18-19 with a small group to compete in one of the largest indoor invitationals in the country to be held at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island, N.Y.
Marathon mania
The Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon and Half Marathon took place last weekend with 2,300 finishers in the half and full marathons. Altogether, 46 states were represented along with three countries, setting a new record. All but one runner finished under the seven-hour cut-off time. Tyler Muse and I spent a lot of time together, as he separated early from the pack and I led him through the marathon course. He split 57 minutes for 10 miles and 1:14 for the halfway mark. His second half-marathon was about two minutes faster than his first, which is almost unheard of in the marathon distance. There were nine water stops in the race: Rehoboth Beach Running Co. crew at Water 1, Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park at Water 2 and 3, Seashore Striders cross country team at Water 4, Sussex Academy cross country at Water 5, Cape girls’ track team at Water 6, Cape Leo Club at Water 7, Sussex Tech cross country at Water 8, and Cape Honors at Water 9. Special thanks to all the volunteers, water stop crews and agencies that took part to make it a success.
