Cape indoor track teams head to Maryland for state championships

The Cape girls’ and boys’ track teams will head west to Landover, Md., and the beautiful Prince George’s Sports Complex this Saturday, Feb. 22, for the Delaware Indoor State Championships. Delaware may be the only state in the country that holds its state championships in another state. The only indoor track in Delaware currently is the small 10th of a mile oval at Tower Hill, site of the 1984 and 1985 state championships.

Prince George’s has a 200-meter flat oval that has produced fast performances year after year.

The Cape boys are sitting in a nice position to open some eyes and surprise some teams, as they have several big-meet performers ranked high to score some points. Leading the way and ranked No. 1 in the state is Penn State-bound senior Bryan Ciabattoni in the vault, with senior teammate Gio Bendfeldt close behind in second. Conference champion Ciabattoni has a personal best of 12-feet-9-inches, while Bendfeldt has jumped 12-6.

Also ranked No. 1 in the state is junior thrower Josiah Miller in the shot put, with a state-leading 48-8 ¼.

“That’s a big 28 points from three guys if they can compete well and get after it,” said assistant coach Matt Lindell. 

The 4-by-800 relay team is ranked third with a time of 8:35.58, while sophomore Ethan Edery has made the fast heat of both the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters with times of 4:37.94 and 10:12.09. Junior Karnell Wise has jumped 41-8 ½ in the triple and 21-7 ¼  in the long jump and could gather big points in those events for the Vikings. 

On the girls’ side for the Vikings, senior Sawyer Walker won the conference with a personal-best high jump of 5-2 and is ranked second in the event. Sophomore Tia Jarvis will compete in four events, anchoring both the 4-by-200 relay and the 4-by-400 relay, and compete individually in the long jump, where she holds the school record of 17-6, and the 400-meter dash, where she also holds a school record.

“I want to break my season best, and I think I can go under 59 seconds,” said Jarvis.

Reagan Ciabattoni will also compete in the long jump, where she has jumped 15-11 this season.

Senior Olivia Brozefsky is ranked second in the pole vault and has been over 9-6 in competition this season and 10-0 in practice.

“My personal best is 9-6, so I would like to go higher than that at states,” Brozefsky said.

Another exciting event for the Vikings will be the 4-by-800 relay, where Cape is ranked third behind Padua and Saint Mark’s with a season-best time of 10:08.14. Cape will run freshman Katie Kuhlman, junior Taylor Johnson, sophomore E-Beth Melson and Brozefsky.

Sophomore Ny’Ashja Brown will compete in the shot put, where she is ranked sixth with a season best of 32-6.

It should be an interesting meet on both the girls’ and boys’ side for Cape Henlopen, as the season has been a successful one with the Vikings in the top third of the state in multiple events.

Shamrock Shuffle 

The 14th annual Shamrock Shuffle 10-Miler and 5K will be held at 9 a.m., Sunday, March 15, leaving from the Gordons Pond Trailhead in Rehoboth Beach. This is a new course, moving from the Tanger Outlets on Route 1 due to the upcoming construction and closing of the trailhead parking lot.

The new course will travel north on the Gordons Pond Trail past Herring Point and behind the state park campground before passing the park office and ticket booth, and exiting the park on Cape Henlopen Drive using the new trail extension. The turnaround point will be on the trail just before the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal. The 10-mile course will follow the same way back to Gordons Pond and the finish. The 5K course will leave the starting line and go out 1.55 miles to the turnaround on the Gordons Pond Trail. Register for this event by going to seashorestriders.com.