For what is officially supposed to be an indoor sport, the Washington-Liberty Generals improvised quite well and won a Liberty District boys track and field championship as a result.
The Generals finished first with 128 points, with the Yorktown Patriots second with 88.
Winter high-school track and field is an indoor sport. But often, portions of some big meets are held outdoors when indoor facilities aren’t available or accessible. That was the case with this season’s district competition. Some events were held outside at the Wakefield High School track area and many others at W-L’s track, where the Generals eventually were crowned champions.
“The great thing about our win is we had so many contribute to scoring points,” Washington-Liberty coach John Bacon said. “They worked so hard for this. Having the meet outside worked out great. Everyone made the adjustments. It wasn’t that cold and we got to be on our own track a lot, and were awarded the trophy there. We joke and call them polar-bear meets.”
The Washington-Liberty boys won five events and had strong performances in the jumps, where Zemeron Bein won the high jump (5-feet, 11-inches) and the triple jump (39-10) and was second in the long jump. Jackson Broadwell won the long jump (19-51/2), was second in the triple jump and third in the 55 hurdles race.
Kian Thomasbeer was third in the long jump and David Rosman fourth in the pole vault.
In the shot put, Jonah Friedman won (44-0).
In the running events, Ian Naff won the 500-meter race in 1:09.76 and Nanda Min-Fink was first in the 55 hurdles (8.56).
Also, Ryan Malatesta was second in the 3,200, John Townsend was fourth in the 500, Erik Bird took fourth in the 1,000, Jonathan Goeke fourth in the 55 dash, James Short fifth in the 1,600, Thomasbeer fifth in the 55 dash, the 4×200 relay was third, with the 4×800 eighth.
Leading the Yorktown boys were winners Owen McArdle in the 1,600 (4:27.51), Jackson Birdseye in the 55 dash (6.68), Jack Levine in the 3,200 (10:07.4) and the 4×200 (1:38.24) and 4×800 (8:11.57) relays.
Second for Yorktown were Peter Oliveira in the high jump, Bennett Lamb in the 1,600 and Jack Blocher in the 1,000. Third were Keith Lucas in the 1,600 and Matthew Pedicano in the 3,200. Birdseye was seventh in the 300.
For the fifth-place Wakefield boys, Justin Delgado won the pole vault (11-6) and was second in the 55 hurdles, Nadim Abdu won the 1,000 (2:38.24), William Madden was second in the shot put, Justin Diller fifth in the high jump, Liam Keish fifth in the 500 and the 4×800 relay was third.
In the Liberty District girls meet, Washington-Liberty finished third. The Generals were led by winner Alena Topchy in the long jump (14-31/2), Scarlett Smith’s seconds in the long and triple jumps and thirds by Morgan Brown (300) and Karenna Keane (3,200).
For the Yorktown girls, de Alma Evuna Eki won the 55 dash (7.48).
Wakefield’s Kathryn Coggins was second in the high jump and Stephani Spranger third in the long jump.