After two meets were cancelled due to rain last week, the majority of the track & field team managed to compete on Wednesday, February 27 at the Centennial Home Meet #2. Two school records were broken, and 41 personal records (PRs) were set by 32 Bears. Additionally, 77 athletes competed in at least one event for their very first time.
Setting new school records were Caelan Jones ('21), crossing the finish line in the 300mH in 43.59 seconds, breaking his PR by over 1 second, and Connor McDaniel ('19), who jumped for a record 20'3.5" in the long jump, beating his PR by over six inches. In addition, Grace Wolf ('20) came very close to breaking the 300mH record held by senior Taya Jackson, with a 44.73 second first place finish.
Reviewing top finishers from Wednesday's meet, starting with the 100m dash, the Lady Bears dominated the race, taking all but third place in the point scoring first 8 positions. Grace Wolf led the pack and finished first in 12.58, followed by Quiniche Peets ('19) in 1373 and Katherine Moore('19) in 4th place with a personal record time of 14.34. In the 200m dash, Taylor Barnes ('22) crossed the finish line first for the bear in 29.75 to earn 2nd place. On her heels were Kennedy Daniels ('21) in 3rd with a time of 30.03, and Grace Counsell ('21) in fourth, crossing the line in 30.36. The next sprint for the girls was the 400m dash, and Liv Bollenbacher('22) was the first lady bear to cross the line in 1:07.6 for fourth place and a new PR, followed by Sydney Todd ('21) in 1:08.4, also a PR and fifth place, and Cassidy Booker ('20) in 1:12.4 for sixth place. Juniors Michaela Prevallet and Raleigh Matthews ran in both the 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles, with Michaela coming in first in the 100mH with a time of 1708 and 2nd in the 300mH in 47.88 seconds, and Raleigh coming in third and then fourth with times of 20.99 and 58.63 seconds. Also in the 100mH was sophomore Sydney Todd ('21), crossing the line in 20.91 to earn second place. The winner in the 300mH was Grace Wolf ('20) as mentioned previously, clearing the hurdles and reaching the finish line in 44.73 seconds.
For the girls' distance events, Delaney Goodell('19) crossed the finish for the win in the 800m race in 2:35.7, with freshmen Emily Meeker and senior Lauren Harris capturing 2nd and 3rd in 2:41 and 2:44. In the 1600m, freshmen Katie Malone finished in 4th place overall with a time of 6 minutes, with fellow freshmen Faith Hirschi crossing in 6:08 for 6th place, and junior Annika Phelps setting a PR by 20 seconds to finish in 6:18 with 7th place. Sophomore Lola Merrill earned first place honors in the 3200m with her time of 12:40, and also scoring for Cambridge were junior Sarah Anderson in 4th with a time of 13:48 and freshman Paige Consolo with a time of 15:30 for 6th place.
For the field events, the Lady Bears competed in the high jump, pole vault, discus and shot put events. Liv Bollenbacher ('22) and Jaiden Stidston('21) finished in second and third place respectively for the high jump, with Liv clearing 4'6" and Jaiden clearing 4'. In the pole vault, the Lady bears took home places 1-4. Michaela Prevallet('20) was 6" shy of her PR with a 9'6" vault, senior Delaney Goodell cleared 8', freshmen Liv Bollenbacher cleared 6', as did junior Raleigh Matthews.
Veteran Harmoni Brown('19) lead the discus event, earning first place for a mark of 81'10". Angelina Cofrancesco's ('21) mark of 68' was enough for second place, while Annastacia Regnier('19) earned 4th with a 65' throw and Muthoni Thumbi ('20) threw for a mark of 65' in her first meet. Similarly, Harmoni threw for first in the shot put with a mark of 30'5", a new PR, though still two feet shy of the school record. Jaida Turner('21) also PR-ed with her mark of 27'4" for second, edging out Annastacia Regnier's mark of 27'3.5" in third that was yet another PR in this event. Angelina Cofrancesco's first shot put mark of 23'3" earned fifth place, and Madeline Matthew's('22) mark of 21'8" came in 6th.
For the boys, in the 100m dash, Hayden Gardella ('21) earned second place with a PR time of 11.71 seconds. Christian Graham('20) was close on his heels finishing in 11.94 seconds and fourth place. Both athletes did well in the 200m as well, with Hayden setting another personal record and again earning 2nd place with his time of 23.76. Less then a second behind, Christian earned another fourth place to help the team score, and had a time of 24.41. Four boys earned points with this 400m performances, starting with junior Jack McHale's first place in 52.32 seconds, shaving more than 1 second off his PR. Evan Bell ('19)earned second in 54.17 seconds, and Cooper Carrow ('20) set a PR with his 3rd place finish in 54.83. Finishing the scoring in the 400m was William Stewart('19) in seventh place, crossing the line in 56.47 seconds. In the hurdles, Michael Hudson('20) had a 4th place finish in a PR time of 19.02 for the 110m hurdles, and a fifth place finish in 45.3 seconds in the 300m hurdles. Adithya Chimalakonda('20) crossed the line in 23.16 to earn sixth place in the 110m hurdles. As previously mentioned, Caelan Jone's('21) first place 300mH finish earned him a school record and personal best time of 43.59.
In the distance races, four bears managed to earn points in the 800m, led by Kaine Dudley's('21) first place finish in 2:10. Senior Christopher Manna finished in second, crossing the line in 2:12.4, and Caelan Jones ('21) and Rishi Murudkar ('19) earned fifth and sixth place with their efforts, crossing the line in 2:15.3 and 2:15.8. In the 1600m race, the bears finished in 6 of the top 7 places. Freshmen Lyle Donovan crossed the line five seconds ahead of his brother, senior Jack Donovan to earn first place with his time of 4:43. Jack earned second place with his 4:48 time. Josh Gargan ('20) earned fourth place honors with his PR time of 4:50, and on his heels was senior Mark VanDeWater crossing the line in 4:51. Sasha Severtson ('19) ran a personal best time by six seconds to earn 6th place with a time of 4:56, and sophomore Boston Grant crossed the line for 7th place in 5:01. Two runners finished in second and third place for the bears in the 3200m race. Junior Will Carrow finished in 11:07, and Bryce Floyd('22) finished in 11:46.
The field events for the boys included the high jump, long jump, pole vault, discus and shot put. Connor McDaniel('19) tied his personal best with his first place 6'0" high jump, and William Stewart('19) cleared 5' for second place. In the long jump, as mentioned above, Connor set a new school record with his 20'3.5" jump and earned first place. William Stewart had a mark of 17'11.5" for his jump, and earned 4th place in the event. Christian Graham('20) set a personal record with his first place earning pole vault of 9'6", and freshmen Noah Prevallet cleared 6'6" at his first meet for Cambridge to earn 5th place. Christian Wong('21) won 3rd place honors in the discuss, and fifth in the shotput. His discus mark of 85'7" was a personal best, and his mark was 25'8" in the shotput. Tyrone Baines('21) also participated in both throwing events, earning sixth in the discus with a mark of 70'6", and a third place in the shot put at 26'11". Andrew Pardo('21) was the final point earner for the shot put with his mark of 25' that was also a personal best, and earned sixth place.
Both teams came away the meet winners over host Centennial and rival Alpharetta. The Lady Bears earned 322 points compared to 2nd place Centennial at 207, and the boys won with 248 points over Centennials 202.
The next meet is the Milton Showcase Invitational against some track powerhouses and several 7A schools this weekend on March 1 and March 2.
Go Bears!
