The Cape Henlopen Vikings hosted their first tri-meet of the winter track season at Legends Stadium Feb. 24 against the Senators of Dover and the Eagles of Smyrna.
The meet attracted the best weather of the season with clear skies and temperatures in the high 50s. We saw some good performances from all three teams.
“It was good just to finally have a nice track day and see the kids finally put together some good performances,” said Cape girls’ assistant coach Gilbert Maull. “All three teams have some good-looking athletes who are going to score well at next week’s state championship meet.”
The Cape boys beat Smyrna by only five points in a close meet 63-58, as Smyrna won the final event of the day, the 4-by-400 relay, in a time of 3:39. Neither team ran a 4-by-800, but Smyrna also won the 4-by-200 relay in 1:54.2.
Cape’s John Small led things off individually in the 55-meter hurdles, winning in a good time of 8.20, while Hunter Jones took the 800 meters in 2:13.0. Cape’s Lance Kauffman won the 3,200 meters in 10:34.4, while Small also won the long jump in 19-feet-8 ½-inches and finished second in the high jump at 5-feet-4-inches for 13 points on the day.
Cape’s Josiah Miller had a season best in the shot with a toss of 47-5 ¼, then led off the 4-by-200 relay to bring the stadium to their feet. Barritt Ross leaped 5-6 in the high jump, while Jakob Hayes jumped 8-6 to tie for first in the pole vault.
In girls’ action, the Vikings won all three relays. The team of Katie Kuhlman, Lainey Shockro, Elizabeth Melson and Tia Jarvis won the 4-by-800 in a season-best time of 11:05.4. The foursome of Ashley Carrier, Janie Burkley, Aubrie Myers and Ariyanna Dabney won the 4-by-200 relay in 2:06.6. The team of Hannah Maney, Shockro, Montana Jones and Jarvis captured the final event of the day, the 4-by-400 relay, in a season best of 4:29.5.
Individually for the Vikings, Jones won both the 55-meter dash in 7.50 and the 200-meter dash in 29.10. Jones scored 11 ¼ points as the meet’s high scorer. Kuhlman took the 1,600 meters in 6:16.3. Jarvis won the 400 meters in 1:04.7, while sophomore Alexa Dougherty won her first 800 meters in 2:48.8. Hailey Archambault tossed the shot 29-2 ½ for her season best to win the event, while teammate Cailyn Bledsoe also tossed her season best of 27-8 ¼ for second.
The Delaware State Championships will be held Wednesday, March 3, at Dover High School, with the boys’ meet beginning at 11 a.m. followed by the girls’ meet beginning at 3 p.m.
