Beacon girls’ track wins D.C. Relays
The Beacon Middle School girls traveled west to Landover, Md., May 7, for the D.C. Relays, held on the eight-lane red 400-meter oval at the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex.
A total of 14 teams from D.C. and Maryland made up the field of middle school track athletes, which included 19 girls from the beach running, jumping and throwing their best performances of the season.
“We had no idea what to expect going into an area we are not familiar with,” said coach Gilbert Maull. “What we did know is that we spread out over all the events better than any team we have seen this year, and our girls are performing at the top of their game and are tough competitors.”
Three hours later, the meet director and coach of the large D.C. prep team came over before the final event, the mile relay, and shook the Beacon coaches’ hands and said, “the trophy is yours. We can’t catch you even if we win this last event.”
The Beacon mile relay team of Morgan Mahoney (1:09), Ariyanna Dabney (1:11), Lainey Shockro (1:10) and Tia Jarvis (1:05) easily won the final event and put the trophy in the van for the ride back to Lewes. Beacon scored 118 points in the meet, winning 11 of the 13 events, while D.C. Prep scored 85 points for second.
Beacon eighth-grader Noelle Sabbagh scored 32 points by herself, as she won the rarely run 80-meter hurdles, the 200-meter hurdles (33.5), and the triple jump, and teamed with Jaden Williams, Sloane Buckaloo and Mehkiah Applewhite to finish second in the 4-by-100-meter relay.
Other event winners were Lainey Shockro in the 800 meters, Liz Melson in the 1,600 meters, Tanya Curry in the high jump, Hailey Archambault in the discus and Applewhite in the shot put. Jarvis led off the 4-by-100 relay and anchored the 4-by-400 relay, and was second in both the long jump and triple jump events. The Beacon girls finish the season at 9-0 with four major invitational wins in the Jim Blades, Cape Relays, Cape Classic and D.C. Relays.
Jump Street
Cape Henlopen has always been known as a place where jumpers seem to appear year after year, and this year is no exception. Mariner eighth-grader Reagan Ciabattoni triple jumped more than 34 feet in her final jump of the season May 5, which is the longest middle school triple since the days of Alia Marshall at Beacon, who jumped more than 35 feet in her eighth-grade year. Reagan has jumped farther than any Cape Henlopen High School jumper this season. In the long jump, Reagan was beaten for the first time this season by Beacon’s Tia Jarvis, who jumped 16-feet-8-inches,her personal best and also farther than any Cape High jumper this season. Cape sophomore Timesha Cannon, in her first year at the triple jump, has been at 34 feet, while Amaya Daisey in her sophomore year has been more than 16 feet in the long jump. On the boys’ side, sixth-grader Jeremiah Jackson leaped 17-feet-10 this season, and he is just pure track talent for years to come.
The great news about Ciabattoni and Jarvis is that hopefully next winter they will be jumping as teammates in Cape uniforms.
Seashore Half Marathon
This Saturday morning, May 12, an expected field of 350 runners will take off from Irish Eyes in Lewes for the Seashore Half Marathon, relay and 5K run at 8 a.m. The 5K will go north on Cedar Street and turn around at the Lewes Yacht Club, while the half marathon will go south to Cape Henlopen State Park, going through Fort Miles, Herring Point and turning around at Gordons Pond.
Packet pickup will be Friday night at Irish Eyes from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday morning from 6:30 to 7:45 a.m., with the race going off at 8 a.m.
The event will be run in memory of the late James Kiernan, who recently passed away. The James J. Kiernan Memorial Scholarship Fund is being set up in his memory, and this year’s event will kick off the first donation.
For more information or to get registered, go to seashorestriders.com.
