WEEK IN REVIEW

Week in Review: Meet of Champions

Wednesday was rained out. The last and final meet was run on Thursday, May 24, 2005. The 4x800 started the meet of right with Padua winning on the girls’ side, and Salesianum finishing their record-breaking season with the gold. Alexandra Coppadge doubled in the high jump as well as the 300 hurdles. Gary Sumpter defended his title in the 110-meter hurdles with the fastest time in the state. In the 100-meter dash, Sahara Parks held off Latrina Bailey and Ashley DiLiberto. Gerald Backus won the 100 over Ross Horsey, as well as the 200. The 800-meter relay brought great suspense! The Glasgow girls swept all the sprint relays! Mike Kowal won the 800-meter run. Howard snuck past Newark – winning by .005 seconds! Howard also took the 4x100-meter relay. Katie Kershner pulled another upset over Anna Brousell and Rebekah Ricksecker in the 1,600-meter run. Dom DellaPelle won on the boys’ side. KeAira Dickerson just missed the state record in the 800 by just under a second! Shawn Holland came up with a surprising win the quarter-mile, nearly breaking 49 seconds! Brieanna Kennedy claimed victory in the discus throw. Jernail Hayes tripled, winning the 200 meters, 100-meter hurdles, and helped to win the 4x400 relay! Austin Whittington won the 300 hurdles. Anna Brousell and Jessica Leitsch took 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run. Brian Sklodowski won on the boys’ side with the fastest time in the state. Salesianum saved their best for last winning the final event in a fast 3:19.99 seconds over Newark! In the field events, Krystina Muhammad won the long jump. Christen Dillard of Dover took the title in the triple jump. Kelly Strickland of Caravel and Matt Sanders of A.I. DuPont won the pole vault. Tom Methvin doubled in both throws. Ross Horsey earned his fame in the high jump over Michael Hopper. Keosha Gibbs won the shot put with an amazing toss of 44’ 7-1/2” – breaking the state record by 2’2” feet! Thus concludes a great track season. Congratulations to the All-Staters and all competitors who gave their all day in and day out.

By Kevin Muhammad, Newark


Week in Review: States

Due to the preparation of the upcoming State Championships, no meets were run during the week. Sadly for most, Friday was rained out, forcing the entire meet to postpone and cram all in one day.
Saturday featured the long-awaited DIAA State Championships at Polytech High School.
For the Division II: A hard-fought battle between Milford, Hodgson, Howard, and Mount Pleasant boys materialized. Tatnall and Cape Henlopen ruled the girls. Both boys and girls from Tatnall put themselves out for an early lead by taking the 4x800 relays. Alexandra Coppadge continued her dominance in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles as well as the high jump. Brent Gaines came out on top in the 110-meter hurdles over Antoine Pettyjohn after being seeded second going into the final. Gaines also boosted Mount Pleasant by winning the high jump and triple jump over Ross Horsey. Hodsgon boys managed to stay high in team scores, despite Marcus Horne’s disqualification in the 100-meter dash. He was later tempted into a violation which disqualified him from the meet. Ashley DiLiberto, an eighth grader from Ursuline won the 100 meters. Horsey grabbed the 100-meter title as well as the long jump, surpassing Stefone Dukes of Milford. Brieanna Kennedy won the discus with a throw of 127’10", and Keosha Gibbs took home the shot put. Both posted the best throws yet. Katie Kershner followed by the Castagno twins racked up amazing amounts of points in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs, keeping Tatnall highly ranked. Brian Sklodowski won both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs. Kelly Strickland of Caravel and Justin Savini of Delmarva Christian won the Division 2 pole vault competitions. Jay Brooks took the 400-meters. Milford boys and girls won the 4x200 relays by close margins. Erica Jackey broke sixty seconds in the quarter-mile. Howard boys and girls won the 4x100 relays. Milfords combination of sprint speed allowed them to separate themselves to win overall. The plentiful amount of athletes enabled Cape Henlopen’s victory.
As for Division I: Jernail Hayes led Glasgow girls’ domination, while the usual three-way war between Christiana, Newark and Salesianum resumed from the county meet. Led the meet winning the 4x800. Salesianum let the race in the 4x800 seem close, but still won, giving the Sals an early lead. Austin Whittington won the 300 hurdles. Hayes won the 100-meter hurdles and led sweeps in the 100, 200, and 400! Gerald Backus repeated again in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Osita Ofuani won a toss-up race in the 110 hurdles. Newark boys took the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Anna Brousell doubled in the 1,600 and 3,200 races. Daryl Shelton won the 400 with a blazing sub-49 second time! Newark boys accumulated over 50 points with only field events, putting them ahead early! Glasgow girls won both the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. Dom DellaPelle was followed closely by Joseph Donnelly and Alex Gambogi in the 1,600-meter run to give the Sals up closer to Newark. Kimphus Daniels, Kevin Muhammad, and Jameel Jackson infested the long and triple jumps; with Daniels winning long jump and Muhammad winning triple jump. Mike Kowal took the 800. Lasaha Stewart of Dover won the 300 hurdles overcoming Nikita Williams by .17 seconds! Glasgow girls dictated the state meet from start to finish – summoning points from nearly all of the sprinting events. For the boys, Salesianum prevailed with two crucial points in the pole vault. A most exciting and invigorating series of events, and still one meet to go.....
 

Week in Review: May 9 - 15, 2005

An outstanding week with dozens of great performances! On Monday, Newark boys concluded their regular and conference season with a perfect record in a dual against Glasgow. Austin Whittington posted one of his first 400-meter races in their win against A.I. DuPont. Christiana dominated in a dual against Middletown, allowing them to win only the discus and the 3,200-meter run. Christi Cox of A.I. DuPont helped the girls pull away from William Penn with her wins in the 100, 200, 400, and the 4x400 relay. With the absence of Jernail Hayes, Newark girls narrowly defeated Glasgow. Stefone Dukes helped Milford emerge as the victor of both Dover and Polytech on Tuesday. Lake Forest did the same to Seaford and Sussex Central. Caravel boys and girls won as a team on their on track in the Diamond State Conference Meet. Alfonso Hoggard and Charnele Bacon were both pronounced high scorers. Archmere placed second and St. Thomas More was third. Milford girls came through with a big win against Polytech, but lost to Dover, led by Christen Dillard. At Baynard Stadium, Charter defeated Middletown on Wednesday. Blare Wallace won both the 110-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles, while Tom Methvin and William Merritt took the shot put and discus, respectively. Jeana Fletcher and Brianna Lowery doubled in the individual events. 
    The first day of the New Castle County Championships at Caravel was held on Friday. Although most of the running events were qualifying rounds, there were some that were finals. Salesianum pulled off a hard-fought race against themselves in the 4x800 relay, that ultimately ended in a state record! Tatnall started the race off rather well with Jeff Strojny’s sub-2 minute first leg, giving the Sals someone to run after for a short while. Tom Methvin won the discus, launching a 154-foot throw! Kevin Muhammad and Kimphus Daniels took 1-2 in the triple jump. Alexandra Coppadge jumped 17’ 6-1/2 in the long jump, winning her first of four wins! Saturday brought the second and last day of the New Castle County Championships. Osita Ofuani won the 110-meter hurdles in a wind-aided 14.96 over Brent Gaines’ 14.98. The Tatnall freshman, Katie Kershner pulled off an electrifying win over Anna Brousell in the mile – edging her by a little more than a second! Gerald Backus won the 100 meters and the 200 meters in 10.78 and 21.60 (both wind-aided), respectively. Sahara Parks doubled the 100 and 200 meters. Daryl Shelton, also of Brandywine, pulled an upset in the quarter-mile with a fast time of 49.07 – from lane 8! Anna Brousell and Jessica Leitsch took 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run. Brian Sklodowski of Tatnall won the mile with a 4:19. Newark placed first in the 400-meter relay with 43.74, putting them at the top of the honor roll list. Glasgow girls won the 4x200 and 4x400-meter relays, and placed second in the 4x100 under Howard. Kimphus Daniels surpassed 22 feet, leading a 1-2 sweep in the long jump over Kevin Muhammad. Dawnese Hucks topped Brianna Kennedy in the discus. KeAira Dickerson beat Sarah Casscells in an extremely close 800-meter race. Delcastle’s Mike Hopper leaped 6’4 to take the high jump title. A crucial 1,600-meter relay race decided the county champions with Christiana coming out on top!
    The Henlopen County Championships were held in Lake Forest at the same time. Milford boys came away with the team title on account of many excellent performances. Christen Dillard swept the horizontal jumps. Antoine Pettyjohn upset Gary Sumpter in the 110 hurdles. Rebekah Ricksecker won both the 800 and the mile. Ross Horsey tripled, winning the 100, high jump, and the triple jump. Shawn Holland doubled in the 200 and 400. Darrell Davis came away with the win in the 300 hurdles. Milford turned in a sub-1:30 time in the 4x200 relay. Keosha Gibbs of Seaford won the shot put with the best throw of the year so far, and Lasasha Stewart took both hurdle races. Lots of outstanding achievements and lots of upsets, and the season isn’t over yet!

Week in Review: May 2 - May 8

A tough dual meet between Howard and Hodgson on Monday, dawned a new week of competition. Canaan Baise lead Howard against Hodgson doubling in both 100 and 200 meters, but Hodgson won the meet sweeping most of the field events, including Durrell Smith's 152'10-1/2" foot throw, which broke Hodgson's school record! Chantal Pierre of Hodgson tripled despite their loss to the Howard girls. Ursuline girls were defeated by William Penn. Tuesday featured lots of dual and tri-meets. Sussex Tech dominated in a tri-meet between Lake Forest and Polytech. Ross Horsey manages to pull off another 20-point meet although Woodbridge lost to Caesar Rodney and Seaford. Milford boys won by large margins against Sussex Central and Laurel. Caesar Rodney girls won against Woodbridge easily. Tiandra Felix of Woodbridge scored 15 of their 22 points, but lost against Seaford. Matt Sanders vaulted 13' 7" feet to break his own school record once again depite losing to Glasgow on Wednesday. Jameel Jackson led Newark to victory in an epic dual meet against Christiana, running 14.4 in the 110 hurdles (escaping a convincing loss). Christiana won eight events, including the 4x800 and 4x200 relays. Brandywine girls beat Hodgson with freshman Michelle Baker taking the 100, 200, and helping to win the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Mount Pleasant ran over Friends and St. Marks. Alexandra Coppadge scored 15 of Friends' 22 points, winning the 100, and both hurdles. Padua defeated Archmere considering doubles from Padua's Burns and Watunya. Saturday saw records fall at the 25th annual Twilight Relays at Brandywine High School. Padua boasted, setting records in the distance medley relay with a 12:43-second race over the previous mark of 12:44 set by Concord twenty-two years ago! Padua also set a high jump record. Amanda Cole and Jeana Fletcher broke the meet record in the shot put relay to help Charter win Group II. Mount Pleasant standouts/brothers Bryce and Brent Gaines helped win Group II - breaking the high jump record, winning the triple jump, and placing second in the long jump relays. Chris Burke of Archmere set a record of his own in the 3,200 meter run. Christiana won the 4x100, 4x400 and the discus relays to win the Group I title.
 

Week in Review: April 24 - May 1

Another exciting week gone by with lots of spectacular marks and times! Monday brought the A.I. DuPont Track & Field Invitational, where the Smyrna boys took the title over Salesianum and Brandywine. The key result was Tatnall's Jeff Strojny breaking two minutes in the half mile. On the girls side, Brandywine proved victorious in the team scoring over Tatnall and A.I. DuPont. Brandywine won most of the distance events while placing highly in the sprints as well. Delcastle's Michael Hopper managed to score 16 1/4 points in a dual meet against Charter despite their loss. Tom Methvin threw the shot put in 50' 7-1/2, putting him second on the honor roll under Marcus Horne. Also, the Catholic Conference Track & Field Championships were held on Monday. Padua took the title with a broad lead over St. Marks, Archmere, Ursuline, and St. Elizabeth. Erica Jackey won the open 400 in 1:00.38 and took second in the 800, while Kellyn Burns doubled in the jumps. Lots of dual meets were held on Tuesday - starting with a tri-meet with Caesar Rodney, Dover, and Lake Forest. Caesar Rodney beat Lake Forest with the help of double wins by both Socrates Joachim and Justin Smith. Dover won over Caesar Rodney with a double win from Gary Sumpter. Howard girls defeated Caravel in a brief meet with Brienna Kennedy doubling in both throws. Wednesday only had two dual meets - the result of upcoming Penn Relays. Hodgson crushed Dickinson and Caravel beat Polytech on both sides. Thursday brought the first day of the 111th Annual Penn Relay Carnival. Brieanna Kennedy started the weekend off with a fourth-place medal earned for launching the javelin 129 feet, 10 inches! Glasgow girls 4x400 team ran a 3:58.62 in the Northern Delaware heat to automatically qualify for the "Philadelphia Area" race run the next day. Glasgow girls also qualified in the 4x100 with a time of 49.59. Padua ran their best time in the 4x800 relay. Alexandra Coppadge tied for seventh in the high jump. Salesianum's 4x800 team qualified for the Championship of America running their first round race in a blazing 7:51. 07 missing the state record by a little more than a full second on Friday morning. Glasgow girls placed third in the "Small Schools" championship with a 48.52. Howard had the best 4x100 time out of the Delaware squads with a 44.31. Hodgson boys managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat on Saturday when they placed first in the "Northern Delaware" heat, after coming from a great deficit earlier in the race! Where's Brandywine and Newark? Hodgson advanced to the "Philadelphia Area" race and placed eleventh. Austin Whittington placed seventh in the 400 hurdles with a 56.73. Salesianum did very well in the 4x800, ranking fifth overall in the Championship of America heat emerging as one of the top 4x800 teams in the country! Congrats to all medalists and participants!

Week in Review: April 18-23, 2005

Monday started the week off, delivering four dual meets each on the boys and girls' side. Christiana defeat Charter, winning in almost every event except the throws and the 4x100 meter relay. William Penn was subsided by St. Marks, and Howard beat McKean. Delcastle lost against Glasgow, despite Michael Hopper's performance in the high jump - tying the school record. On the girls' side, William Penn beat St. Marks and Charter won against Christiana by nearly the same margin. On Tuesday, Tatnall beat Friends with Alexandra Coppadge's triple win, but lost to Westtown in a tri-meet. Ashley Cox helped Caesar Rodney romp Middletown. Wednesday featured lots of dual meets. Brent Gaines won four of his events (high, triple, long jump and 110 meter hurdles) to grab the Blue Hen Conference Flight B title. Brandywine remained victorious over Dickinson while Christiana left William Penn with only the 800 and the high jump to win. Hodgson beat Concord, leaving Marcus Horne with yet another high scorer title. A.I. DuPont defeated Delcastle with Matt Sanders breaking the school record in the pole vault (13'6). Mike Kowal ran 1:56.06 in the open 800 meters to help Salesianum win against Howard. Kimphus Daniels joined the honor roll list in the triple jump during a meet against Middletown. Charter triumph in a meet against Glasgow. Middletown defeated Newark with Sarah Riblett winning in the throws. Padua swept St. Marks with Kelly Burns jumping 17'3 and 35'5 in the long and triple jump respectively, and Simone Seal running the quarter-mile in 55.1?! (Actually 65.1) No dual meet action on Thursday or Friday. The Glasgow Invitational held on a rainy Saturday. Jameel Jackson defended his title the 110 meter hurdles in 14.97 beating Brent Gaines by .01 seconds! Brienna Kennedy and Micki Younger exchanged first and second places in the throws and Alexandra Coppadge won a come-from-behind victory in the 300 hurdles. Jernail Hayes had a commanding performance, winning in the 100 meters, setting meet records in both the 100 meter hurdles as well as the 4x200 relay, and won the 200 meters in a blazing 23.38 seconds - pending state record and national leader!

Week in Review April 11 - 17, 2005

Saturday had the Keith S. Burgess Invitational held at Lake Forest High School. The most significant accomplishments included: Anna Brousell's meet record in the 1,600 meter run and Ross Horsey's 38-point run (winning the high, long, triple jump, and placing second in the 100 meters). Austin Whittington also stunned a great deal of competitors with an unexpected 39-second 300 meter hurdle race. Monday delivered the first dual meets of the week with some good performances. Jernail Hayes, Adam Sanders, and Dave Thomas all put up high scoring numbers, staring the week off fairly well. Mike Williams' performance the day after in a dual meet - also running the 300 hurdles in under 40 seconds. On Wednesday, Mount Pleasant escaped with defeating Hodgson, with the help of Brent Gaines' 18 points. Though Newark lost against William Penn, Krystina Muhammad still managed to leap 17 feet in the long jump, while Brandywine's girls dominated McKean with combinations of both sprints and distance. Gerald Backus made a statement in a dual meet against Mount Pleasant on Friday - running the 100 meters in 10.6 seconds, and the 200 meters in 21.8 seconds. In the Cape Henlopen Co-Ed Relays, Glasgow took home the team victory, winning the shuttle hurdles, 4x100, 4x400 relays, and taking second in the 4x800, sprint medley, and the triple jump relays.
 

Week in Review - April 4 - 10, 2005

The second week of the 2005 spring track season has passed, with Monday featuring the 27th Annual Diamond State Relays held at A.I. DuPont. There, Salesianum took 2 out of 5 relays (4x800 meter relay & distance medley relay) just missing qualifications for Penn Relays. Glasgow put on a good show taking the 4x100, 4x400 meter relays and coming close to upsetting the West Catholic girls in the 4x200 meter relay. Brieanna Kennedy of Caravel doubled in the throws. Tuesday saw Ross Horsey and Tiandra Felix of Woodbridge triple in a tri-meet against Milford and St. Thomas More. Brent Gaines swept the jumps in a tri-meet against Concord and Dickinson. Marcus Horne of Hodgson was the first to surpass 50 feet in the shot put, and Gerald Backus was the first to break 50 in the 400 meters. In the A.I. DuPont Relays on Saturday, Hodgson boys had a good showing - taking the swedish medley, sprint medley, 4x200, long, triple, discus and shot put relays! On the girls' side, A.I. DuPont won the shuttle hurdles, swedish medley, sprint medley, 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, long and triple jump relays obviously winning the meet as a team. Good performances rather early in the season calls for even better as the season progresses.