Cape track teams capture conference championships 

Cape track's traditional plug-and-play favorite race has always been the two-mile relay, later changed to the 4-by-800 meters. 

At the Henlopen Conference Championships May 9 at Lake Forest, the girls’ team of Logan Crotty, Maile Godwin, Isabel Mastrangelo and Claudia Stazzone set the tone by upsetting Polytech to win the gold in 10:10:44, earning 10 team points.

The boys’ race followed with a Cape team of Cardin Benjamin, Jason Baker, Jamar Beasley and Andrew Radka running 7:59.5 to break the school record of 7:59.6 that had stood since 1982. Caesar Rodney pushed Cape the entire race, running 8:00.09.

The Cape boys went on to win the team championship with 144 points. They were followed by Caesar Rodney with 133.5, Dover with 101, Smyrna with 68 and Laurel with 56.

Cape’s girls also won the team championship with 125.33 points. They were followed by Polytech with 122, Caesar Rodney with 90.5, Smyrna with 73 and Sussex Academy with 46.  

The Cape girls’ team’s throwers were the difference, as Elena Booth tossed the discus 98-feet-5-inches and Mallory Kauffman threw it 95-10 to go 1-2 in the event. Ashley Rinner took sixth place for 21 total team points. 

Mallory Kauffman won the shot put with a heave of 36-6 for 10 team points. 

Addison Bowman of Cape was conference champ in the pole vault at 9-0.

Maile Godwin, a sophomore, captured the gold in the open 800 meters in 2:27.34. 

Cape’s tradition of middle distance runners and jumpers propelled the boys’ team to the title. The Vikings racked up 24.5 points in the pole vault, as Will DiPaolo and Weston Bohl went 1-2, each clearing 12-6, and freshman Nathan Ryu Licuanan taking fourth in 11-6 and Douglas Simpson finishing seventh with an 11-0 clearing.

Stephen Hart won the high jump at 6-4, while Jameson Tingle placed sixth in 5-10.

Cape’ depth of distance runners racked up 61 points over four events. The Vikings took four of the top five places in the 3,200 meters. Jason Baker won the race in 9:34.19. Finishing third through fifth were Riley Stazzone, Nick Petito and Brayden Redd. 

Baker, Stazzone and Radka finished second, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 1,600 meters. 

Sussex Academy junior Ryan Moody had a stellar meet, placing second in the 3,200 meters in 9:40.41, winning the 1,600 meters in 4:20.97, and running on the third-place 4-by-800 relay team.

Katya Geyer of Sussex Academy won the high jump, 5-0, beating Cape’s Harper Mamele, who also cleared 5-0, but Geyer did it on fewer misses. 

The DIAA State Championships are Friday and Saturday, May 16-17 at Dover High School.

Unified team competes

The Cape unified team also had a strong showing at the conference meet. No team results were listed.

Zane Richardson took second in the 200-meter dash in 27.63, third in the mixed 100-meter dash in 13.60 and third in the mixed shot put with a distance of 31-0.

Ronnie LeRoy took fourth in the mixed shot put with a toss of 28-6, fifth in the mixed 100-meter dash in 13.87 and fifth in the mixed long jump with a leap of 10-1.5. 

Jaxon Benton finished third in the mixed long jump with a distance of 12-8.75 and third in the mixed 400-meter dash in 1:02.81. 

Austin Hastings earned a fifth-place finish in the mixed shot put with a throw of 27-2.

Cape also won the mixed 4-by-200 relay in 1:44.04 and the mixed 4-by-100 relay in 50.81.

A complete listing of results for all track championships can be found at demilesplit.com.