BY MIKE MALTAIS
From the crack of the first starter’s pistol to the click of the final stopwatch the host Liberty Bell High School varsity track and field team threw down 10 first-place performances to take the overall team title at the Liberty Bell Invitational last Friday (May 3)
The Mountain Lions welcomed 13 schools to their home field and still protected their house from Billygoats, Hornets, Tigers, Eagles, Cougars, Mustangs and other assorted varmints en route to 228.5 combined team points, 69 more than the runner-up.
“Virtually every one of our athletes had personal bests in at least one of their events,” said coach Rocky Kulsrud.
Junior Austin Watson kept a firm grip on his standing as the fastest 100-meter 2B sprinter in the state with an official time of 11.24 seconds, just three-hundredths behind his all-time best clocking set at Cashmere last month. Watson also took the 200 meters in 23.34 seconds, anchored the winning 4×100-meter relay team, and leaped 19 feet, 9.25 inches for second in the long jump.
Liam Daily again cleaned up in both the 800- and 1,600-meter distances in respective times of 2:04.25 and 4:40.55.
Jaymis Hanson’s winning high jump of 5 feet, 6 inches and triple jump of 37 feet, 1 inch also helped boost the team point total.
Sophomore Sarina Williams, who seems poised to shatter the Liberty Bell girls javelin record of 120 feet, 4 inches set by Ashley Perrow in 2007, took that event with a distance of 115 feet, 9 inches, the only one of 19 competitors to break 100 feet at the invitational.
Williams also won the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 4 inches.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay squad comprised of Cesar Dominguez, Hanson, Daily and Watson clocked the third-fastest time in school history with a time of 45.43 seconds. Dominguez and Daily then teamed up with Justin McMillan and Kelsey Jensen to set a new school record in of 3:37.61 the 4×400-meter relay.
Freshman Ben Klemmeck was impressive with second-place finishes in both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs in times of 4:53.75 and 10:44.88, respectively.
At the Bridgeport Invitational Tuesday, April 30, multiple winners were Watson (100 meters, long jump) Ben Klemmeck (1,600 meters, 3,200 meters), Williams (100 meters, javelin, long jump) and the boys’ 4×100-meter relay team, Kulsrud noted. “Liam Daily finished second in the 400 meters but set a new school record in this event,” the coach said.
“Our athletes are continuing to improve and appear to be ready for the post season, which starts with the sub-district meet, basically our league meet, at Oroville on Thursday (May 9),” Kulsrud said. “The top four finishers in each event move on to districts.”
“I would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped at our home track meet, making our meet one of the best officiated, and efficient meets of the season. That sentiment was expressed by many of the coaches who were at the meet,” Kulsrud said.
