Above: Running strong, Malin Anderson (10) holds off some competitors as she heads down the straightaway. Left: Maya McHugh ran a fast 800-meter leg (2:40) in the girls’ 4×800 relay to help the Vikings take seventh place in that event.
The CCHS track team competed in the Matt Kero Memorial Track Meet on Friday, May 12. The weather was beautiful, 60s and sunny. The competition was tough, 17 teams, including five large AA schools. In this type of meet, our goal is to improve on our performances this year and for our top runners, get into the top eight scoring positions. With most individual events having 30 competitors, and the relays having 15 or more, we would have our work cut out.
As usual, the first event was the 4×800 relay. With our strong distance running tradition, we usually score well, and this time was no different. Our boys’ team of Will Surbaugh, Leif Anderson, Andy Kern, and Harvey Parker placed fifth in a time of 9:53.8, led by Leif ’s 2:18 leg. The girls’ team of Maya McHugh, Marin Hay, Bryn Sorland, and Cece Chmelik also scored with an 11:38, seventh-place finish, led by Maya’s 2:40 split. Good to be on the scoreboard right away.
Points got a lot harder to score after that, but we did get a lot of season’s best performances. Maya was our big scorer, placing fourth in the girls’ open 800. The huge field of 40 was split into two heats. Maya did an excellent job of getting into the lead pack of about 10 runners, then slowly picking off people on the second lap. Her time of 2:34.6 was an improvement of three seconds over her previous best, and strengthens her ranking coming into the Polar League and Section 7 meets. In the slower heat, Malin Anderson ran a big personal best of 2:55.6, placing 21st overall and second in that heat.
Will Surbaugh was our best scorer on the boys’ side, finishing seventh with a time of 5:00.3 in the mile. Like Maya, he ran a great tactical race and set a personal best by over 12 seconds. That .3 seconds left him a little disheartened, since he really wanted to get under five minutes, but as a freshman he will undoubtedly smash that barrier soon. Zoe Nonnemacher also posted a seventh place finish in the girls’ 400-meter dash, with a time of 66.5. It was a painful run for Zoe, as she went out a little too hard, but hung on gamely over the last 100 yards.
Our last scoring event was the boys’ 4×200 relay. The team of Leif, David Blackburn, Vaughn Swindlehurst, and Henry DeArruda-Weaver placed eighth in a time of 1:47.5. That was a bit of a bonus, as we don’t usually place real high in the sprint relays.
Other personal and season bests abounded. Lucy Callender threw the discus 72’ 3”, while Hailey Smith put the shot 20’ 10”. Linnea Henrikson ran the 300 hurdles in 64.1. Cece had a big breakthrough in the mile, running 6:42. Harvey and Henry ran 63.3 and 66.6 respectively in the boys’ 400. Doran Acero put up an excellent 2:41 half mile. Jron Tamanaha and Andy pushed each other to personal bests of 12:08.3 and 12:08.5 respectively in the two mile. Vaughn ran 52.2 in the boys’ 300 hurdles.
Both of our 4×400 relays ran well and just missed earning team points. The boys’ team of Leif, Will, Vaughn and David ran 4:01.8, placing ninth, while the girls’ team of Anna Hay, Bryn, Malin and Marin ran 5:09.6. Wrapping up the relay action, Zoe, Anna, Malin and Maya ran a team best this season of 2:05.9 in the 4×200. The boys’ 4×100 team of Sam Meyer, Jron, Vaughn and Henry placed 12th, led by Sam’s 13.5.
Next up for the Vikings is the Polar League championships at the Barnum track.
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