Vikings to compete in East Coast Invitational in Virginia

The Cape Henlopen boys’ and girls’ indoor track & field teams will head south to the brand-new Virginia Beach Sports Center Friday, Feb. 4, for the 59th East Coast Invitational. The meet will be the most competitive contest the Vikings have seen, with several of the top male and female teams in the country competing.

Teams like IMG Elite, Bishop McNamara, Dunbar, Montverde Academy and Bullis School, to name a few, are scheduled to take part, with athletes seeded at 4:15 in the mile, 9:01 in the two-mile, 48-second quarter-milers and 57-foot shot putters on the boys’ side.

On the girls’ side, we will see sub-five-minute milers, 11 girls under the 60-second mark in the 400, and the nation’s leading 4-by-200 relay team, to name a few of the top contenders.

From Delaware, Cape Henlopen will be joined by Sussex Central, Smyrna, Sussex Academy, Sussex Tech, Sallies and Padua. The top seed for Cape Henlopen is Ryan Baker in the mile and two-mile events, where he will have plenty of company to run a season-best performance. The meet will be shown live on MileSplit. The Vikings will sharpen their conference meet lineup by giving the athletes one more chance to compete on one of the fastest 200-meter banked ovals in the United States.  

Cape track & field clinics

The Cape Henlopen girls’ track & field team will host its second annual Cape Track & Field Clinics Sundays, March 27, April 3 and April 10, at Cape Henlopen High School. Young elementary and middle school athletes interested in the sport of track & field can work and learn from some of the best female track & field athletes in the Henlopen Conference along with the Cape Henlopen coaching staff. Registration will open Tuesday, Feb. 15, and interested athletes can contact coach Tim Bamforth at timothy.bamforth@cape.k12.de.us for a camp application. 

Henlopen Conference Championships

The Henlopen Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 9 and 10, at University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Md. The meet will hold four of the five field events Wednesday afternoon, while the running events and the triple jump will be held Thursday afternoon. The meet will begin at 2:30 p.m. both days with the no spectators rule in effect. The nine teams that will be competing are: Caesar Rodney, Cape Henlopen, Dover, Milford, Polytech, Smyrna, Sussex Academy, Sussex Central and Sussex Tech.

Snowshoe 1K at state park

The Seashore Snowshoe 1K was held at Cape Henlopen State Park – not really! However, four Seashore Striders – my wife Monique, Roxy Castillo, Joey Kwit and myself – gave the sport of snowshoeing a try off the trails of Herring Point. Webster’s defines a snowshoe as “a flat device resembling a racket used for walking on the snow.” It was my first try at the sport, so it took a few minutes to figure out how not to fall. Within the first 100 yards, Roxy was already planning a Snowshoe 5K and asking me to hold a date. It was a fun afternoon at a sport you don’t often see in Delaware, where snow is normally very limited or nonexistent during the winter months.

TK 10 miler is back

The popular 17th annual Tim Kennard River Run 10-Miler & 5K is returning to Salisbury, Md., this spring after a two-year absence. The event will move just outside the Salisbury University campus and take place at the Salisbury Bible Fellowship facility beginning at 8:30 a.m., Sunday, March 20. If you registered in 2020, you are deferred to this year’s event with a free entry. All you have to do is email me at tim@seashorestrider.com and I will send out a link and code for you to register. The TK 10 is a nice buildup for the local Seashore Half Marathon to be held on Mother’s Day weekend in Lewes at Irish Eyes. Welcome back, TK 10!