Creative team names highlight Shamrock Shuffle
The Shamrock Shuffle 10-Miler added a relay portion this year. I am always amazed at the creativity of the relay names, and this year was more of the same. I thought I would feature the team names and competitors.
The Steel Curtin featured James Brown of Lewes and Dan Toohey of Rehoboth Beach. Locals Karen and Bobby Levin of Lewes ran under the name Team Runs-A-Lot. Team Girl Dad Boy Mom comprised Nikki and Frank Sheptock of Georgetown. Team Grant & Mike featured, not surprisingly, Grant Shaddix and Mike Fraundorfer of Lewes. Team Worst Pace Scenario featured Seth and Nicole Moore of Greenwood. Zell Flamer and Kywine Vann of Dover teamed for BXLN, while the Osprey Ooglers were the duo of Charles and Jillian Bradford of Philadelphia.
The most interesting team name for me was Team Green Giant & Sprout with Maureen Pinkerton of Rehoboth Beach and Amy Linzey of Ocean View.
Congratulations to all team members who were a part of the new event record of 192 participants.
High school nationals
There were two high school national championships last weekend for runners, jumpers and throwers to choose from, as the New Balance meet went to Boston and the Nike meet went to the Armory in New York.
Katya Geyer of Sussex Academy competed at the New Balance meet. The Delaware indoor champion in the high jump finished 42nd out of 51 girls with a jump of 5-feet-1/4-inch. There were six girls who cleared 5-7¼. And after misses were counted, it was a tie for the championship between junior Ella Michelitch of Minisink TC and senior Kaylee Meyer of Illinois. The meet record of 5-8¼ in the high jump was set in 2022 by Cheyla Scott of Charlotte, N.C., who recently took third at the SEC Championships jumping a personal best of 6-2¼ for South Carolina.
Junior Trey Johnson of Cape ran the 60-meter dash for Above Xpectations TC and finished 84th overall in 7.01. Junior Anna Bockius, daughter of longtime Rehoboth Beach Patrol guard Troy Bockius, threw down a 2:10.20 in the 800 meters in Boston to finish 14th overall running for Team Impulse TC. Bockius also anchored the 4-by-800 relay, running 2:09.06 to a time of 9:05.12 to finish third overall and record the fourth-best time in the United States this season. Leading off that relay was former Sussex Academy runner Paige Ballinger, who ran 2:15.22. Ballinger also led off the distance medley relay to a 17th-place finish in 12:15.20, recording a 3:35.73 for the 1,200-meter leg.
On the national level, it was clearly Jane Hedengren’s weekend out of Utah. Hedengren ran in the Nike meet in NYC and set two national records, running the 1,600 meters in 4:26.14 and the 5,000 meters in 15:13.26. Two incredible performances in the same meet.
NYC Half
America’s fastest half-marathon returns to New York Saturday, March 22, as the Project 13.1 will be held at Rockland Lake State Park. The course, renowned as one of the fastest in the country, is a USATF/IAAF-certified route designed for speed. Runners will head out for roughly three-quarters of a mile, make a 180-degree turn, pass the start line and then complete four clockwise loops around the lake. To ensure everyone follows the shortest possible path, someone will mark the tangents along the course, giving runners the most efficient line for every loop. My son Jake Bamforth is in town this week from Fort Collins, Colo., and will take a train up to NYC to take part in the race along with buddy Andrew Minni, who has made himself into an impressive runner with a few marathons under his belt. Good luck to the back-in-the-day skateboarding buddies.
NCAA Mile Relay
The most interesting item outside the track oval was a lively city that was hosting the NCAA Nationals for the first time. Virginia Beach hosted teams, coaches and families from all over the country, filling restaurants, hotels and parking spaces on the same weekend that Virginia Beach was also hosting the Shamrock Marathon with more than 15,000 runners taking part in the marathon, half-marathon and 8K races. Bringing both events to Virginia Beach at the same time had its challenges, according to folks I spoke with, and it possibly was not the best and most efficient idea.
The most interesting item inside the track oval was the closing event – the mile relay. The event was broken up into heats of four based on season-best performances, with the top four teams in the final heat. All results were based on time. The first heat of women saw more bumping than a demolition derby at the state fair, while heat two had a dropped baton. The final heat saw the South Carolina leadoff fall hard to the track as they made the cut to the inside for lane one.
The men’s final heat saw the Texas A&M leadoff runner move into lane one on the break and force the Arkansas runner off the track and into the infield. Arkansas protested, as they had a shot at the team title and wanted to run the race solo. Following an hour of USATF conversations, it was decided the meet was over and Arkansas was DQ-ed for stepping off the track. This gave USC, with former Sussex Tech standout Yougendy Mauricette and Seaford standout Jazonte Levan on the team, the team title. A very interesting last hour of the NCAA Division I Championships.
