Freshmen and sophomores compete for bragging rights

May 8, 2008

By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff

DUXBURY – Vermont's freshmen-sophomore track and field meets are meant in part to give the youngest high school athletes some of the spotlight and in part to experiment within events.

Chris Keller, a Montpelier student who runs as an independent, did both in Wednesday's freshmen-sophomore meet at Harwood. Keller, a distance specialist, has already become well-known in his freshman season and competed in the 800-meter run along with his usual 1,500 and 3,000, winning all three.

"He had a great day," U-32 coach Mark Chaplin said. "He had three firsts, and not only that, he won by large margins and they were quality times."

Keller was named the Outstanding Performer for his efforts and tallied 18 points – two more than the entire Peoples Academy boys team accrued.

"Tim Shepard did an excellent job in the 1,500 and in the 3,000, he took second behind a very strong Chris Keller," Harwood coach Taggert Haslam said. "Zack Munroe is really coming along; he had a great race today in the 800. He had a great finish around the fourth corner and caught up to the guy (Keller), but right here down the stretch he hit the wall, but for a ninth-grader to do something like that, it's great to see."

Harwood won the meet for the third straight year, topping second-place Spaulding by 52 points. The Highlander girls put up 76 points and the boys 90.5 for 166.5 total points. Spaulding finished with 114.5 (girls: 50.5, boys: 64), U-32 was third with 103 (girls: 52, boys: 51) points, followed by Peoples Academy with 66 (girls: 50, boys: 16) and Keller with 18.

"The guys and girls did a good job today; we had a lot of good performances by the young kids," Haslam said. "A good portion of our team is freshmen and sophomores. These meets are good because it allows the younger ones to be in the spotlight and get those places and get the acknowledgment. Sometimes they do get overshadowed by the juniors and seniors. And to have it as a co-ed thing, you really do feel like a team because the boys and girls are working together."

Harwood won five of the six throwing events with Thomas Fuller winning two events by almost 40 feet combined.

"In the throws, Tom Fuller won the discus, won the javelin and took a second in the shot," Haslam said. "Seth Naikus, he won the shot put, he actually tied with Fuller. Kayla Dillon won the shot put and did a nice job there and took third in the discus. Amanda (Haslam), she won the javelin pretty handily."

Mackenzie Ferguson of U-32 won the girls discus by over 8 feet over teammate Katie Fleury.

U-32 and Spaulding dominated the jumps, with U-32's Kelsey Bowers winning the girls high jump, Spaulding's Catie White winning the girls long jump, Spaulding's Brandon Ducey winning the boys long jump and teammate Tim Ix winning the boys triple jump. U-32's Esther Nemethy won the girls triple jump and Harwood's Bob Stauss winning the boys high jump.

Peoples Academy's Olivia Quad, the Outstanding Performer on the girls' side, came away with three firsts – the 400-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles.

White outleaned Peoples Academy's Chelsea Hostetter in the 100, and U-32's Chelsea Evans won the 800. Harwood's Jillian Mendes and Kelsey Bush tied in the 1,500 and Mendes took the 3,000.

"This is a good core for our team," Haslam said, "and it shows what our future is. And our future looks pretty good."

Spaulding won both 4x100-meter relays in addition to the boys 4x800. The Harwood girls and the U-32 boys took the 4x400.

"The important thing about this meet is getting kids to try new things and getting kids to feel good about how they're doing in their events because they're competing against kids their own age," Haslam said. "It really served that purpose. We discovered triple jumpers, we had kids throwing the javelin who hadn't before, kids ran in events that they hadn't run before. It's a really good thing for the young kids. In most other sports, there's a JV level, but here there isn't. In track and field, you're thrown into the fire as a freshman."

U-32 will host Harwood and a handful of other teams in a meet on Friday and the Raiders will also face both Harwood and Spaulding again at the Monster Meet next Wednesday, also at U-32.