Cape thrower Ce’yra Middleton wins shot put in NYC

Seven members of the Cape girls’ track & field team competed Jan. 20 at the mecca of track & field, the New Balance Armory on 168th Street in New York City. The meet was the New Balance Games, a two-day carnival of high school track & field, attracting more than 100 teams to the 200-meter banked oval, a track that has produced some of the fastest performances in the United States and the site of the historic Millrose Games in February. The event is broken up by age, with freshmen and sophomores competing Friday evening, and junior and senior invited athletes competing Saturday.

The highlight of the evening was an individual championship won by sophomore thrower Ce’yra Middleton in the shot put with a toss of 33-feet-8.25-inches on her final throw. Also a highlight was the performance of freshman Timesha Cannon in the short sprints. Cannon competed in the long jump, the 55 meters and the 200 meters and went back and forth with little rest among all three events in a 90-minute span. Cannon, a product of Beacon Middle track & field, won her heat in the 55 meters in 7.81 seconds, making her the fifth qualifier of the eight to advance to the final. Cannon then finished third in her heat of the 200-meter dash in 28.66, which landed her seventh overall in the field of 83 athletes. Fifteen minutes following the 200-meter trials, she returned to the eight-lane center, where the meet announcer introduced the finalists of the freshman 55-meter dash. Cannon, running from lane two, had a great start and finished third in the final, running 7.79 seconds. A total of 39 athletes competed in the 55 meters in the meet. Mackenzie Parker, just a sophomore, finished second in the shot put, throwing 30-feet-2.5-inches. Freshman Meredith Lockwood ran 3:19.98 in the 1,000 meters to finish seventh in the field of 58 girls, while freshman teammate Olivia Brozefsky finished 10th in 3:23.45.  

Sophomore Jackie Cannon finished 11th overall of 39 girls in a time of 3:31.75, winning her heat and spending a lot of time on the center jumbotron. Freshman Rose Minni finished 10th and won her heat in the 55 meters, running a season-best time of 8.21 seconds.

The girls and coaches traveled to the Armory in the morning, riding the subway to Times Square and eating lunch at the popular Carmine’s Italian Restaurant before taking in visits to Hershey Chocolate World, M&M World, “Good Morning America,” and my least favorite, Forever 21.

“This was a huge boost to our program to be able to compete at the Armory against some real good competition,” said coach Gilbert Maull. “A few of the girls had not been out of Delaware, and it was an experience they will remember, which we hope will help them in their training and racing back in Delaware.”

Henlopen Championships

The Vikings competed Thursday, Jan. 26, in the Henlopen Conference Championships, which was after deadline for this edition. The Vikings were among seven teams, with Dover, Caesar Rodney, Seaford, Sussex Tech, Smyrna and Lake Forest. The meet was held at the Worcester County Recreation Center on the small 160-meter track in Snow Hill, Md.

Top rankings for the Cape girls are the 800-meter relay team of Meredith Lockwood, Jackie Cannon or Zoe Callard, Olivia Brozefsky and Darby Klopp. Ce’yra Middleton is ranked third in the shot put, and Brozefsky is ranked third in the 1,600 meters. For the boys, Ryan Head is ranked second in the pole vault, while Jacob Osborne is fourth in the shot and Greg Boyce is fourth in the 1,600 meters. Results will appear in next week’s column.

Over and out!