On Saturday, December 8, the indoor track and field team participated in the Terry Baker Invitational at Hagerstown Community College. The boys placed 11th out of 18 participating teams, despite not sending all of their varsity athletes. The girls placed 8th out of 16 participating teams.

Boys Results

The boys scored a total of 17 points.

Carson Buck placed second in the 3200-meter run, with a time of 10:15.34 minutes. Will Cioffi also placed second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:35.32 minutes. 

The sprinters had an experiemental night with many runners in events they don’t normally run.

Carter Holsinger, a two-time state champion pole vaulter, ran the 300-meter dash for the first time and cracked the top 15 with an 11th place finish.  Adam Liston ran his first 500-meter dash and performed well, considering that there are shoes to fill in the absence of graduated star runners Clay Buckman and Lars Eklund.

Adam Liston, a member of the Class of 2021, said, “I feel we performed pretty well for never running races like that before, especially since it was also the first meet of the year.”

Michael Belmaggio was still in recovery from the Nike regionals and did not run at the meet.  Overall, there are holes to fill for the team to repeat as state champions.

One addition, wide receiver Joey Felton, will run in the 55 and 300 or 4 x 200 relays.  He has no track experience but lots of natural speed.

Girls Results

The girls placed 8th out of 16 participating teams. They were led by seniors Morgan Mathews and Khelsa Connolly. Mathews excelled in both the 300-meter run and the shot put, running a time of 45.10 seconds and throwing a distance of 31’10.25 feet. Connolly placed third in the 1600-meter run, with a time of 5:37.07 minutes.

Despite middle-of-the-pack results from the reigning 2018 indoor track and field champions, coach Bill Eckard isn’t worried. He said,  “Many athletes didn’t participate in this meet because they were transitioning into their events, such as Carter Holsinger, Allejah Seraton, and Xander McClure. We won’t know how good we will be for another month, but we have the potential to be really good this year.”

Next week, the Linganore Track and Field team will attend the Winterfest Invitational. This meet will be one of their biggest of the year on the East Coast with 91 participating teams. The meet will be on Saturday, December 15th at PG Sportsplex in Landover, Maryland.