Cape teams head up to Lake Forest for pair of invitationals
Rain postponed the tri-meet versus Sussex Tech and Milford scheduled for April 12, then the sun was out at 5 p.m. Go figure, Mother Nature! The meet will be rescheduled for May. The Vikings were then scheduled to face Indian River and Polytech in a post-deadline meet April 14.
Most Henlopen Conference teams will be in action Saturday, April 16, as the Keith S. Burgess Invitational will take place at Lake Forest High School. It will be a preview of next month's Henlopen Conference Championships. The 3,200-meter run will kick off the meet. It is unique to run the longest race first. This gives distance runners a chance to run the 3,200 meters fresh when usually it is a distance runner's third or fourth race. The 3,200 meters will feature Sussex Tech’s No. 1 Ben Bamforth and Cape’s No. 1 Sam Nye to name a few of the top runners.
The meet is in memory of the late Keith Burgess, founder of Henlopen Conference cross country and an icon in the Lake Forest cross country/ track family.
The Beacon track and field girls raised their record to 8-0 on the season and extended their win streak to 61 with wins over Selbyville and Milford. Eighth-grade distance runner Olivia Brozefsky was the meet's high-scorer for the third week in a row with 12 points. Olivia won the 1,600 in 6:00, the 800 in 2:45, and was third in the triple jump in 29-feet even. Double-winner for Beacon, Sydney Hollinger, captured the hurdles in 9.3 and her new event the long jump in 15-feet-3-inches. Tamesha Cannon anchored both winning relays to victory in 53.5 and 1:58.0, while she also won the 100 meters in 13.2. Geovanni Bendefelt for the boys won the hurdles in 9.3 and the long jump with a personal best leap of 18-feet-1-inch.
Beacon will travel to the Blades Invitational Friday, April 15, also at Lake Forest High School, to compete with 13 teams from around the conference and state. The Blades meet is in memory of the late Jim Blades. Jim was a great guy and a great coach and I should forget that he disqualified Marty Shue and myself in the same race in 1985, the 3,200 meters, after we both won in 10:10 and 11:45. The claim was “three” consecutive steps on the inside white line. What?
Looking at the Blades meet records on the boys' side, Dane Palmer holds the record in the 400 meters in 55.46 and the triple jump in 37-feet-7-inches. The boys won the meet in 2015 with 87 points.
On the girls' Blades meet record list, Beacon holds seven of the 13 records, with the oldest being those of thrower Paige Morris, who holds the shot record of 38-feet-11-inches and the discus record of 90-feet-7-inches. Zoe Scott has a share of the high jump record at 5-feet-2-inches and Alia Marshall holds the triple jump mark of 35-feet-4-inches and the 400-meter record of 1:02.02. Logan Shuttleworth holds the 1,600-meter record of 5:38.0. Beacon also holds the 200-meter relay record with the team of Rose Minni, Marcella Sabbagh, La’Keyisha Saintervil and Timesha Cannon at 1:56.05.
The Beacon girls have won the meet in 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The meet will start at 4 p.m.
The Mariner boys and girls will also compete. Look for the Mariner boys to rack up some points in the big meet scoring. If the Mariner boys keep it together, they could be the surprise team of the meet, with several top individual athletes. I can't wait to watch them in the 200-meter relay.
Upcoming races
• Sunday, April 17 - Seventh Seashore Classic Half-Marathon & 5K, 8 a.m., Irish Eyes, Lewes, seashorestriders.com
• 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, Killens Pond State Park, Felton, seashorestriders.com.
