The CHS Track and Field Team kicked it into high gear last week with their first dual meet and by participating in an invitational meet Saturday. Head Coach George Green checks in with this report. "Juniors Sarah Player and Danielle Eckert set the pace for the Girls’ squad in their 87-45 win over Crawford Wednesday. Player won the high jump, the 100 meter hurdles, the 300 meter hurdles and the 400 meter dash. Eckert took the 100 meter dash, the long jump, the triple jump and ran a leg on the winning 400 meter relay team along with Neisha Scales, Christen Grant and Megan Mushovic.

Mushovic won the discus throw and placed second in both the high and triple jumps. Scales was second in the 100 and won the 200 with Grant second in the latter event. Kelsey Fitzgerald and Allison Cabana took second and third in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs, with Turner Stanley placing third and second respectively.

Kasey Zapatka and Michael Davies went 1-2 in the 800. To save their legs for the Runge Classic on Saturday, we didn’t run them in any other events. Levi Lozano placed second in both the discus throw and the shot put, Drew Stacy won the 200, Kenny Twomey placed second in the 400 and Alton Smith placed third in the 110 hurdles.

Sarah Player had a busy day at the Runge Classic, held at Patrick Henry High School Saturday. The high jump started at 2 pm, but she was still in Coronado at 1:45 pm, having just finished her SAT tests. She arrived after the competition had begun, but our great high jump coach Kerry Elders talked to the meet officials, who agreed to let her jump-in when she got there.

The problem with being a multi-event athlete is sometimes your events happen at the same time. Shortly after Player arrived and took a few jumps at the lower heights, she had to report for the seeded heat (the fast heat) of the 100 meter hurdles. She placed fifth overall (it’s not her best event) and she returned to the high jump pad with spent legs. Sarah soon found herself in a jump-off with three other girls at the height of 5 feet, 2 inches. All three made that height, but not the next (5-4). Based on misses, Sarah placed third, but all three shared in a new meet record for the event.

Several hours later she lined up for the fast hear of the 300 meter hurdles. Trailing two runners coming into the last hurdle, she managed a surge which gave her the Runge championship with a time of 48.22.

Our pole vaulter Danielle Eckert had been trying to get on a new, longer and stiffer pole for two weeks. The process of "getting on" a newer model pole is that it requires getting past the point where the pole ejects you back on to the runway, rather than over the bar. At the Runge, she finally got on the pole and won the event with a school record vault of 10 feet, four inches.

Multi-talented athlete Mushovic picked up three individual medals, with a fourth place finish in the triple jump, an eighth place in the discus throw and a tenth place finish in the long jump.

In the Boys’ events, it looked like Davies would win the Frosh/Soph 1,600 meter run, but he was nipped at the finish line for second place in 4:52.12. Zapatka set a personal record in the open division of the 1,600 meters, placing ninth in 4:44.16. Lozano had a nice double, placing 12th in the discus and 19th in the shot put."