Cape, Sussex Academy split in XC dual-meet action

A five-team cross country dual meet was held Sept. 14 at Sandhill Fields in Georgetown, as Cape Henlopen, Sussex Academy, Milford, Dover and Woodbridge all toed the line for 3.1 miles to kick off the Henlopen Conference season. When the dust settled on the sloppy course due to 2.5 inches of rain this week, it was Ryan Baker leading the Vikings to easy victories on the boys’ side. Baker broke the finish line in 16:25.8, followed by Milford’s Nathan Waydelis in second in 17:15.1. Joey DeGregory of Cape finished third in 17:23.7, while Cape’s Liam O’Donnell was fourth in 17:51.0. Ian Hayes of Woodbridge ran 17:59.8 to round out the top five finishers.  

The meet was scored as an invitational with the top five finishers from each team getting team points by their order of finish. The meet also scored the individual dual meets with 10 different combinations. Cape scored 23 points in the invitational scoring. The Vikings were followed by Milford with 67, Sussex Academy with 74, Dover with 93 and Woodbridge with 110 points.

Dual-meet scores had Cape over Sussex Academy 17-44, Cape over Dover 15-44, Cape over Milford 19-40, Cape over Woodbridge 19-46, Milford over Dover 25-34, Sussex Academy over Dover 27-32, Woodbridge over Dover 27-28, Sussex Academy over Milford 28-28 with the Seahawks winning on the sixth-runner tiebreaker, Milford over Woodbridge 19-39 and Sussex Academy over Woodbridge 20-43.

On the girls’ side, it was frontrunner Katie Kuhlman of Cape pulling away for the win in a time of 20:12, while talented young Katya Geyer of Sussex Academy was second in 20:57. Faith Mitchell of Milford was third in 21:09, while Sussex Academy’s Lily Bowe and Kasi Showers grabbed the fourth and fifth positions in 21:50 and 22:23, respectively, to secure the dual-meet win over the Vikings.  

Sussex Academy put three runners in the top five and all five scorers in the top 13, while the Vikings had five in the top 16, which made the difference in the meet.

Scored as an invitational, Sussex Academy had 34 points, while Cape was second with 39 points. Milford was third with 49 points. Dover and Woodbridge each finished with an incomplete team.  

Dual-meet scores had Cape over Dover 15-50, Cape over Milford 24-31, Cape over Woodbridge 15-50, Sussex Academy over Cape 26-30, Sussex Academy over Milford 23-33, Sussex Academy over Dover 15-50, Sussex Academy over Woodbridge 15-50, Milford over Woodbridge 15-50 and Milford over Dover 15-50.

Jake swims Horsetooth 10K IM

Last weekend, Jake Bamforth accomplished a feat no one had ever achieved in a popular swim event in Colorado. Jake swam each of the four strokes for 1.55 miles in the order of butterfly, back, breast and freestyle to complete the 10K in a time just under four hours.

“I'm glad to have completed the Horsetooth 10K,” said Jake. “This was physically and mentally exhausting. I didn't grow up competitively swimming and began to learn at age 20, so doing fly, back and breast still feels new. The water temp was 68 degrees and the air was in the 40s at the start. This made backstroke with my chest exposed very cold. Another challenging part was maintaining a breaststroke kick. I’ve never done continuous breaststroke for over an hour, and especially after two hours of fly and backstroke. My quads and hip flexors were cramping. This was a one-and-done challenge for me, but I'm stoked it happened.”

Most folks who are swimmers that I have talked to about this sum it up in one word – insane.