Beacon girls win fourth straight Blades Invitational
The Beacon Middle School girls' track and field team took part in the 10th annual Jim Blades Invitational at Lake Forest High School April 15 against 13 middle school teams from the Henlopen Conference. The Beacon girls won the team championship for the fourth straight year, scoring 134 points and winning seven of the 13 events to highlight the night. It was the fifth title the team has won in the meet's 10-year history.
The Beacon girls did have some unfortunate things happen early in the meet, as Breanna Kusen falsed out of the hurdles and Sydney Hollinger and Mehkia Applewhite got tangled up in the 100-meter relay and both went down hard as the team recorded a DNF.
The second half of the meet went much better for Beacon, as they grabbed first and third in the 400 with the Daisey sisters, Aya and Amaya. Aya won the race in a season-best time of 1:07.5. Olivia Brozefsky added to her earlier 5:41 win in the 1,600 meters by taking the 800 meters in 2:45, while Meredith Lockwood was second in 2:46. Lindsey Guida was fourth for a big 22 points in the race. Beacon closed the meet by winning the 200-meter relay in a new record time of 1:55 with the team of Rose Minni, Amaya Daisey, Aya Daisey and Tamesha Cannon.
Sydney Hollinger won the hurdles in 9.4, while Amaya Daisey won the long jump on her final attempt with a leap of 13-feet-6-inches. Brozefsky came back to also win the triple jump in 30-feet-10-inches for her third victory of the day and 30 overall points, the meet's high scorer.
“The girls had to fight through a few events that did not go well for us tonight where we did not score like we thought we would,” said assistant coach Gilbert Maull. “Once they all settled down and we got focused again, things went pretty well and we finished the last four to five events scoring where we thought we would.”
On the boys' side for Beacon, it was all Geovanni Benefeldt. He scored 18 of the 20 team points by himself, finishing second in the hurdles in 8.46 and winning in the long jump at 17-feet-9-inches.
Beacon then traveled to Seaford April 20, when the girls won 90-11 and the Beacon boys won their first meet of the season 58-51 over the Blue Jays. Olivia Brozefsky was the meet's high scorer with 13 points, while Will Kelleher scored 13 for the boys.
Next Friday night, April 29, the Beacon team will host the annual Cape Relays at Legends Stadium beginning at 4 p.m.
Mariner boys third at Blades
The Mariner boys placed third of 13 teams at the Blades Invitational April 15, scoring 69 points to finish behind Smyrna and Milford. Seventh-grader Jordan Jefferson collected three medals on the day to lead the Vikings. He logged second-place finishes in both the 200 meters (25.6 seconds) and 400 meters (59.2) and led off the 200-meter relay, which crossed the line in third in 1:47.5. Eighth-grader Cesar Campos, a first-year runner, captured bronze with a 2:23 clocking over 800 meters and also blazed the 1,600 in 5:27, good for fourth place. Campos sliced nine seconds from his 800 and set a 14-second personal best in the 1,600.
Eighth-grader Albert Hewlett grabbed bronze in the 200, running a personal-best time of 25.8, and scorched the second leg of the 200 relay. Eighth-grader Jordan McNair-Baine placed fourth in both the triple jump (31-feet-2.75-inches) and 55-meter hurdles (8.7), while seventh-grader Isaiah Fillyau took sixth in the hurdles (9.1). McNair-Baine, Fillyau and Hewlett teamed with seventh-grader Dajour Bailey to finish fourth in the 100-meter relay (a season-best 51.1). Seventh-grader Jordan Clark placed sixth in the triple jump (30-feet-10-inches), adding nearly four feet to his personal best, while seventh-grader James Wells capped off the scoring with a seventh-place showing in the 800 (2:34).
The Mariner girls tied for 11th in the team standings with 10 points. Seventh-grader Fallon Moore secured the Vikings’ lone medal on the girls’ side, running a massive personal best of 6:14 to place third in the 1,600 meters. The 200-meter relay team of Teri Jones, Kyla Corbin, Ava Wilson and Nataleigh Hunter picked up four points with a fifth-place finish (2:03.5).
Upcoming races
• Saturday, April 23 - Inaugural Tommy 10-Miler and the Daffodil Dash 5K, Irish Eyes, Lewes, races2run.com
• Saturday, April 23 - 15th Scamper for Paws & Claws 5K Run & Walk, KPSP, Felton, seashorestriders.com
• Sunday, April 24 - Second Coastal Marathon, Half-Marathon, & 9K, Dewey Beach, codelrun.com.
