Dover senior Odun Balogun clears the first hurdle on his way to winning the 300-meter hurdles event Monday in the state track and field meet. The Senators placed second in the Division I boys' standings.
Staff photo by Jason Minto
Cape wins title; Dover, Del. nipped in state track meet
Dover senior Odun Balogun clears the first hurdle on his way to winning the 300-meter hurdles event Monday in the state track and field meet. The Senators placed second in the Division I boys' standings. Staff photo by Jason Minto |
By Mike Lewis, Staff writer
FELTON - Long after the Division I 1600-meter relay concluded, Dover High's Odun Balogun lingered on the track with his baton still gripped in his right hand and a disbelieving expression spread across his face.
Once again, Salesianum had crushed the Senators' dream of a track team title.
The first time had come in February at the state indoor meet. The latest installment came Monday at Lake Forest High as the Sals nipped Dover by five points to grab the Div. I team title at the Delaware High School Track and Field Championships.
Sallies concluded the two-day meet with 101 points, while the Senators collected 96.
"We should have won," Balogun said. "I don't care what the points say. I believe things happen for a rea-son but I'm still waiting for a reason for this."
For a fan following the Division I team standings, the final day of competition provided consistent high drama.
At different points, the Sals and the Senators were separated by 20 points, then two points, then 19 points, then 14 points and then finally one point through 16 events.
Dover held the lead at all those points, but fell behind by eight after the pole vault results were an-nounced and eventually lost, despite beating Sallies in the 1600 relay.
"We had to do our best today and that didn't happen," said Senators coach Jim Solomon. "In order to beat Sallies, everyone had to be one and we just weren't able to do that. We just didn't have our best."
Also in Division I, James Handley of Caesar Rodney set a Div. I state meet record in the pole vault with a leap of 14 feet, 2 inches.
"I'm thrilled with the mark," Handley said. "I had been able to get to 14 feet before but I needed to get higher than that to be happy. It came down to the third jump so it was pretty tense."
Henlopen athletes dominated the boys' 110-meter hurdle events, with Balogun (14.58) defending his state title in Div. I. Balogun later edged out teammate Gary Sumpter to defend his title in the Div. I 300-meter hurdles.
Sussex Tech added a crown after winning its first state relay title by taking the boys Div. I 800-meter event. Tech tied with Newark for third in the Div. I team standings with 65 points.
The Cape Henlopen girls team was the only Henlopen conference team to capture a state team title, win-ning their second straight Division II crown with 77 points.
"This was a much different team than last year," Vikings coach George Pepper said. "Last year's team was more balanced, but this year we have strong and weak events.
"We were a little down after Saturday but the team came back today and scored well."
Katharine DeVilbiss from Cape defended her Div. II state title in the 300-meter hurdles, covering the dis-tance in 46.52.
"It's a nice win," DeVilbiss said. "I wasn't running to break a particular time today. I just wanted to win."
The Woodbridge Div. II 800-meter relay squad of Rayna Horsey, April Cannon, Connie Pleasanton and Keyana Hill defended its state title, defeating Polytech's relay team by just over one second.
Later in the meet, the Blue Raiders won two individual titles when Hill captured the Div. II 400 meters in 59.92, while Horsey won in the Div. II 200 meters (26.18), nipping DeVilbiss by two-hundredths of a sec-ond.
Polytech's Paula Green won the school's first girls' individual title by capturing the Div. II 100-meter dash with a time of 12.93.
"I just tried to keep pushing myself throughout the meet," said Green, a junior. "You have to work through the aches and keep focused to win."
The closest team race occurred in the Division II boys division, where Howard, with 62 points, edged Cape Henlopen, which totaled 61.5.
It is Howard's first Div. II title since 1980.
"That was real close," said first-year head coach Charlie Pollard. "It came down to hundredths of a sec-ond and that made the difference for us. What can you do? The score is what it is."
The Vikings captured the Div. II 1600-meter relay while Nick Lemmon won the Div. II pole vault at 12 feet, 6 inches.
Lake Forest finished fourth in Div. II with 55 points, led by Harry Barrett who won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.71 and Matt Yost who won the Div. II discus title with a state-high toss of 155-2.
Padua dominated the Division I girls field with 121 points, to win its seventh state title, but first since 1990. Caesar Rodney and William Penn tied for third with 54 points, while Dover finished sixth with 44.
Other state champions from the Henlopen Conference included Christen Dillard (Dover), who captured the Div. I high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 2 inches and Kim Rowley (Polytech) who won the Div. II shot put with a throw of 40-6.
The climate of the final day (sunny skies and 70 degrees) was a marked difference from Saturday's gray-ness and raw 50-degree weather. The tournament was forced to delay when Friday's activities were rained out.