The Dock girls track and field team holds a slim lead over Delaware County Christian after the first of two days of the Bicentennial Athletic League.
The Pioneers are hosting again this year, and honored their seniors following the first day of competition. This year’s seniors are: Ceara Barnes, Maddy Churches, Eliana Farmer, Sophia Mercure, Olivia Moyer, Toni Phillips, Jenayah Vanegas, Claudia Zhang, the lone boy senior is Seungkyu Cho.
The girls could celebrate on their home turf Thursday if they can hold off a strong Delco team that is defending champion. Dock held a 68-65 lead with a majority of track events still to be run Thursday. The Pioneer boys picked up nine points on the first day to sit in ninth place.
Wednesday opened with the girls 4x800 relay of Barnes, Sadie Bernd, Gretchen German and Ashley Brown cruising to a win in 10:46.54.
The boys placed fourth in their 4x800 with Michael Pustay, Aaron Sensenig, Josh Frederick and Roman Kurian running 9:27.08.
The only other track event that was a final on the first day was the 3,200 meters. In the girls 3,200, Moyer ran 12:37.74 for second place and Tessa Moyer ran 13:07.78 for third place to give the Pioneers 14 points in the event. In the boys race, Sensenig posted a personal-record 11:07.26 for seventh place. Pustay also lowered his personal best to 12:23.11.
There were four field events contested Wednesday. Olivia Mozzone won the girls pole vault when she cleared 6-feet-6 to score 10 points.
The Dock girls also scored huge points in the javelin. Yebeen Lee threw a personal-record 89-feet-11 for second place, only one inch away from the automatic District 1 AA qualifying mark. German was third with a PR of 76-9, and Sophia Mercure moved up two spots from her rankings to place sixth with a personal best of 68-10. Mercure is now ranked ninth in the district, one spot from possible inclusion. Bernd threw 54-7. Barnes threw 42-5.
Lee was the only Pioneer thrower to place in the girls discus. The junior threw 82-7 for fifth place. Sophia Veltre was ninth with a throw of 73-11. Logan Naidoo hit a best of 53-4.
Veltre placed second in the girls triple jump with a season-best 31-10. Olivia Valverde also hit a PR. The sophomore was fourth with a 30-2.75 effort.
In the boys shot put, Luke Smeland threw a personal best for the second straight meet. The junior improved to 30-feet-1. George Gaugler also threw a PR of 24-9.25.
In the boys triple jump, Myles Johnson got a new personal best of 36-feet-7.5 for seventh place.
The rest of Wednesday’s first day included preliminary races to qualify for Thursday finals and non-scoring races that gave athletes who had not qualified in the varsity event another opportunity to compete.
Eliana Farmer ran a personal-record 15.04 seconds in the girls 100-meter preliminaries. Logan Naidoo also had a personal best, running 15.28. Toni Phillips hit a season best 16.18 seconds.
Myles Johnson ran a personal-record 12.48 in the boys 100-meter preliminaries. Roman Kurian ran 12.72.
Brown ran a personal-record 27.28 seconds to win her heat of the girls 200-meter preliminaries. The freshman qualifies for Thursday’s final. She also moved up one spot in the district to fourth place.
Xander Morsby ran 24.17 seconds in the boys 200-meter preliminaries. Trace Scavetti hit a personal best of 26.25 seconds.
In the novice girls 400 meters, Phillips ran a personal best of 1:22.03. Zhang ran 1:24.41 in her first 400 meters.
Churches was the top finisher for Dock in the novice girls 800 meters. The senior, in her first meet back after a serious knee injury, ran 3:16.12 for second place in the race. Julia Kim was third in a personal best of 3:20.28. Zhang ran 3:42.60 and Phillips ran 3:59.56.
Frederick placed fifth in the novice boys 1,600 meters. The sophomore ran 5:40.09.
Thursday’s final day of the BAL begins at 4:30 p.m. at the Dock track and field complex.