Track and field competes in SAC championships
photo by Matthew Dearolph
Senior Lukas Schoenfeld lead the pack at the start of the 800 meter race. Followed by junior Reagan Eastlick and senior Jacob Smith.
The track and field team ended the regular season at the conference championship meet at Lake Brantley on Thursday, April 8. The boys took third place overall and the girls finished in fifth place. The meet started at noon with the 4×800 relay, and the boys team finished second. Field events started at 1:30 p.m. with track events starting at 4:30 p.m.
Different from other track meets, the SAC championship meet is a “points meet” where runners are doubled, even tripled up, in events. Brayden Seymour tripled up in the 3200, the 1600 and four by 800 relay, and he placed second in all events.
“We focus on getting the most points this meet from postseason as it helps the school ranking in sports, and that sometimes requires runners to be tripled up in events,” long distance coach Jay Getty said. “This also helps us gauge our runners’ fitness and what events they will run for districts next meet.”
To prepare, the speed workouts became more intense the week before, with long distance runners doing four reps of speed workout instead of their usual three, and short distance runners included lifting and running stairs into their practice.
The meet had multiple personal records broken, and the top 10 school records set. The girls put up an impressive show with Molly McGrath PRing in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.60 seconds, placing her second in the school record books. She also broke into the 400 meter top 10 with a time of 1:01:36 running the 400 meter for only the third time in her high school career.
“I feel great to be so close to breaking the 100 meter record,” McGrath said. “I was worried about running the 400 as I haven’t ran it many times, and I’m trying to work on finishing strong the last 150 meters before districts next week.”
Despite falling in the 100 meter hurdles and injuring her shin, Ziann Facey PRed in the 300 meter hurdles, tied for third for the 300 meter hurdle school record. For girls field events javelin throwers Emily Hanus PRed for a throw of 56’0” and Jasmin Chapin broke into the top 10 for the first time with a throw of 50’1”.
On the boys side, Jonathan Leon who has already broken into the top ten for the 3200 meter he also finally broke into the top ten for the 1600 meter with a time 4:39:15 minutes, giving him the ninth spot.
“It’s a really good feeling being able to as a freshman get into the top ten for the mile and I’m looking forward to seeing if I can do it again in districts,” Leon said.
For boys field events, Parker Douglass and Porthos Sattler have both continued this season to break the javelin school record pushing each other to do it again, as both PRed in the javelin, breaking the school record once again with Douglass getting a 125’9” and Sattler got a 120’4”. Sophomore Neiken Ngyuyen broke into the top ten this meet for the first time in triple jump with a jump of 38’8.25”.
As the team heads into districts the dynamic shifts as the coaches look at individual athletes to see who can continue on to regionals as only the top four in each event qualify for regionals. With Seminole placing in first for boys and Lake Mary placing in first for girls the meet showed which runners have a chance of making it past districts.
“We are focusing on the opportunities we have now with who has a chance to make it to regionals and possibly states,” track coach Matthew Malkovich said. “We are trying this week to keep our players healthy and rested for districts, and to hopefully get some of our injured runners back.”
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