For the third year in a row, the Lady Bears track & field team brought home the first place trophy at the annual Roswell Relays track meet, Saturday, March 16. With five gold medal finishes and two bronze medals in racing events, along with one new school record, the team claimed victory with 75 points to second place Cherokee with 64 points. The boys' team also set one new school record, and finished in 11th out of 25 schools.
The day started out cold, and with the wind only felt colder as the hours passed. The field events kicked off the day, and in the jumping events Liv Bollenbacher('22) finished out of scoring range for the Bears in the high jump, but cleared 4'4" for 10th place. Katarina Leavens and Kennedy Daniels represented CHS in the long jump, and finished in 23rd and 32nd with jumps of 12'10.5" and 11'2". In her first attempt at the triple jump, Kat Suplee ('21) finished in 22nd with a jump of 25'6". In the pole vault, Michaela Prevallet ('20) cleared 9'6" for sixth place and 3 points, while Liv Bollenbacher finished in 13th for clearing 7'6". In the throwing events, Harmoni Brown was short of her personal records, and threw for marks of 72'9.5" and 15th place in the discus, and 24'2.5" in the shot put for 22nd. Jaida Turner's mark of 25'11" in the shot put had her in 14th place.
For the boys' team, Connor McDaniel('19) finished in 3rd place with a 6'0" high jump, and his 19'2" long jump earned 15th place. William Stewart had a 16' long jump for 40th place. The sole triple jumper was Miguel Rodriguez, who landed at 33'8" for 30th place. In the discus, Phillip-Michael Collins ('21) finished in 7th with a throw that had a mark of 109'7", two feet shy of her personal best. Julian Petty had a personal best mark of 102' for 14th. Both participated in the shotput, this time with Julian finishing in 19th with a mark of 36'4.25" and Phillip-Michael finishing in 39th with his mark of 28'2.5".
The first relay race of the day was the 4x1600m relay. The girls' team finished in sixth place, and Afton Hirschi('20), Katie Malone ('22), Izzy Filipek ('21), and Lola Merrill ('21) had a combined time of 24:02, so just over 6:00 minutes each on average with Lola bringing in the fastest time at 5:49. In the boys race, with a team of all seniors, Mark Vandewater ran the first leg, followed by Sasha Severtson, Rishi Murudkar, and Jack Donovan for a 19:51 time that earned 8th place and one point towards the team score. This was followed by a co-ed relay race with 8 runners each running 200m that didn't get scored, but in which the Cambridge sprinters finished in 4th place.
After a brief break in the racing as field events finished up, the relays continued with the 4x100m races. The Lady Bears team of Quinche Peets ('19), Katherine Moore ('19), Taylor Barnes, and Grace Wolf('20) finished in 7th place for two more points. The boys' team crossed in 18th place and was composed of Evan Bell, CJ Thompson, Christian Graham, and Hayden Gardella. The two school records were then broken in the Distance Medley Relay races. First, the team of Clarissa Beck('19) running 1200m, Kat Suplee ('21) completing 400m, Delaney Goodell ('19) for 800m, and Ashley Sechrest ('20) as the anchor leg of 1600m finished in 12:50 to break the previous school record by six seconds, and earn gold medals as well as 10 points for the Lady Bears. This was followed by a gold medal for the boys' team, with the lead leg of 1200m run by Lyle Donovan ('22), then Cooper Carrow ('20) ran 1 lap of 400m, with Yahya Merchant ('20) running 800m, and the 1600m anchor leg was run by Jack Filan ('19) who ran his fastest 1600 yet in 4:21. The team beat the previous school record by just over 4 seconds, finishing in 10:49.
On the heels of these relays was the 100m dash, and Grace Wolf ('20) earned a gold medal with her time of 12.37 (.13 second slower than the school record). Quiniche Peet won her heat, and set a new personal record at 13.29s, but finished out of scoring range in 12th. Both boys set new personal records in the 100m, with Hayden Gardella running 11.65 and Connor McDaniel finishing in 11.75 for 27th and 32nd place out of 50 participants in 7 heats. Hayden finished second in his heat, and Connor finished 5th in heat 3. Then just the boys raced in the 110m hurdles, again setting new personal records. Michael Hudson ('20) finished in 17.88s for second in his heat and 16th overall, and Spencer Gray ('20) finished 1st in his heat in 17.93s and 17th overall out of 28 sprinters.
In the SMR, or sprint medley relay, the first two athletes run 200m, followed by a 400m leg, and a then a final leg of 800m. The Cambridge team of Katherine Moore ('19), Michaela Prevallet ('20), Olivia Bollenbacher('22), Delaney Goodell ('19) finished in 3rd with a time of 4:36 for the bronze medal. CJ Thompson ('19), Christian Graham('20), David Serrao('22) and Cooper Carrow('20) competed together for the boys, and finished just out of scoring range in 9th place out of 23 with a time of 3:52. Another break in the relays was marked by the 300m hurdles, this time just run by the girls. Grace Wolf ('20) earned her second individual gold medal of the day, crossing the line in 45.77. Teammate Taya Jackson ('19) was in 4th place, and had a time of 48.20. Then the final non-relay race, the 200m dash, saw the Lady Bears earn another individual gold. Junior Ryan Jackson finished in 26.12 to stand atop the podium in first place. Taylor Barnes ran a personal best time of 29.38, and was in 24th place out of 36.
The last distance relay race, the 4x800m, saw the team of Clarissa Beck('19), Faith Hirschi('22), Emily Meeker('22), and Ashley Sechrest('20) earn the bronze medal. All four girls ran personal best times individually in their 800m, but they were short of the school record by 2 seconds. The boys team of Kyler Wilson ('19), Cole Suplee ('21), Christopher Manna ('19), and Kaine Dudley ('21) finished in fourth, crossing the line in 8:42, for an average time of 2:10.5.
The final race of the day was the 4x400m relays, and the girls' came out on top with gold once again in a time of 4:12, or an average of 1:03 per lap. Grace Wolf('20) led the group, followed by Kat Suplee ('21), Taya Jackson ('19), who handed off to her sister, Ryan Jackson('20), as the anchor leg to finish 9 seconds ahead of second place, Roswell. The boys' scored their last points in the 4x400m as well, earning a silver medal and crossing in 3:46, only 1 second behind first place Central Gwinnett. Evan Bell ('19) led this race, followed by Hayden Gardella ('21), Jack Filan ('19), and anchor leg Jack McHale ('20).
As the total scores were added up, the Lady Bears emerged victorious and stood on the podium as overall meet winners once again.
This leads up to the Fulton County Championships next weekend, on Saturday, March 23, and finishing up on Monday, March 25. Good luck to all the varsity athletes at the county championships! Go Bears!
