Sussex Academy track & field ready to launch spring season
Sussex Academy recently approved plans to break ground on a track facility in 2025. The team, however, is not delaying its ambitions for a successful spring season.
“Our team goal is to try to win the Henlopen South championship,” said coach Jay Diaz.
Diaz thinks there are athletes on both boys’ and girls’ teams who have a shot at individual titles. Charlie Pollard, who coached at Lake Forest, Cape and Milford, joined the coaching staff and is expected to boost the sprinters and jumpers. Competition will be at a premium.
“The fourth spot is going to be a battle on that 4-by-800, which is going to help them do well,” Diaz said. “They were third place in the Meet of Champions – Division I and II together.”
Ryan Moody and Justin Friscia, half of the 2023 state championship 4-by-800 relay team, will join Sussex Central transfer Duncan Winger and an undetermined fourth in an attempt to defend the title in 2024.
“I had expectations [last year], but what we did really blew me away with the team we had,” Friscia said. “I feel like we’re going to be a lot better than we were last year because we always push each other every day to get better.”
Speed, however, might not be the only thing in the Seahawks' favor.
Fresh off of a first-team all-conference winter track season, Max Rial provides strength in the field events. The senior won the Henlopen Conference shot put during the winter season and placed third in the state. Rial said he started lifting during COVID lockdowns and happened to show up for practice his freshman year by chance.
“It’s been amazing,” Rial said. “It’s therapeutic for me. When I throw, everything in my head just goes away.”
Rial noted he’ll face stiff competition at conferences from Sussex Central and Milford. He added that Laurel is a team he’s looking forward to facing in the Henlopen South.
Senior Lily Bowe is coming off an undefeated cross country regular season in the fall, and she is just as optimistic as her coach about the girls’ prospects.
“We have a lot of young underclassmen who are trying out for the new team,” Bowe said. “I think we’re going to have a really good team with new people, new friends and new records.”
Bowe said the team was close to clinching the Henlopen South last year. She thinks they have done enough to claim the title this year.
“We have a lot of cross country people who have just built this momentum from the fall, but we also have a lot of new sprinters,” Bowe said.
Diaz will rely on Bowe, sophomore Katya Geyer, two-sport athlete Leah Hill, Bri Sordi and Peyton Stanislav on the girls' side.
Sussex Academy will line up against Sussex Central at 3:30 p.m., Monday, March 18, for their first meet of the year.
