The track & field team emerged the overall meet winners at the coldest meet of the year so far on Wednesday, March 6, when they traveled to the Mt. Pisgah athletic complex to compete against five other schools.  With temperatures hovering around 40, breaking school records or personal bests was tough, but Connor McDaniel ('19) still set a new school record in the triple jump, with a mark at 39'6.75" - just shy of a 1 foot improvement over his previous PR, and 76 personal records (PRs) were set.

The afternoon kicked off with the field events, and Phillip-Michael Collins earned the first win of the day with a mark of 100'11" in the discus, a foot shy of a new personal best.   Christian Wong did have a personal record throw of 88'10" for third place, and the final scoring thrower for the discus was Julian Petty in 5th place with a mark of 72'2".   While the boys were at the discus, the lady bears were throwing the shot put.   The ladies walked away with 2nd through 5th place from a scoring perspective, and were led by senior Harmoni brown with a mark of 27'6".   Jaida Turner threw for a mark of 26'5", Angelina Cofrancesco had a personal best mark by over 2 ft of 25'9", and Annastacia Regnier earned a point toward the team score with her mark of 25'3".   

The pole vault and long jump ran concurrently as well.  The trio of Olivia Bollenbacher, Delaney Goodell, and Raleigh Matthews finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the pole vault, clearing 8', 7' and 5'6" respectively.   Katarina Leavens finished 2nd with a long jump of 13'10" in her first time competing in this event for CHS, and Kennedy Daniels, also competing in this event for the first time, finished 5th with a mark at 11'7.5".   For the boys, Noah Prevallet finished first in the pole vault with a personal best 7' clearance, and Connor McDaniel, William Stewart, and Miguel Rodriguez, in his first attempt at this event, finished in 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the long jump.

The final field events were the high jump, triple jump, girls' discus and boys' shot put.  The lone competitor in the high jump on Wednesday, was Olivia Bollenbacher with a third place finish, clearing 4'2".  In the triple jump, Connor McDaniel, as noted previously, jumped for a record mark of 39'6.75" to earn first place, and teammate Miguel Rodriguez jumped 35'0.5" for 2nd place.   The boys' shot put saw first time competitor Julian Petty earn second place with his mark at 32'2.5".  Phillip-Michael Collins earned fourth place with his mark at 31'1".   The lady bears had some repeat winners in the discus, earning 1st, 2nd and 4th for the team score.   Harmoni Brown threw for a mark of 81'10.5", Angelina Cofrancesco mark of 64'8" wasn't close, but enough for second place, and Annastacia Regnier's mark of 61'7" earned fourth place.

The first race of the day was the 300m hurdles.   Junior Raleigh Matthews ran a PR time of 57.2 seconds to earn 2nd place and 4 points for the girls', and Adithya Chimalakonda earned two points towards the boys' total with his 4th place finish in 55.12 seconds.  This was followed by the longest race at these meets, the 3200m.   Sarah Anderson ('20) and Kyra Gould ('22) earned 3rd and 5th place finishes, and Josh Gargan ('20) led for seven of the eight laps for the boys, but was passed at the end to earn 2nd place in 10:47.   He was followed in 3rd through 5th place by William Carrow ('20), running under 11 minutes for the first time, Boston Grant ('21), and Alex Tebeau ('22).

4x100 relays continued the racing, with the girls team finishing in 3rd place with a time of 56.75 and the boys' team earning 5 points with their first place finish in 46.17.   From a short race, to the nearly mile long 1600m, the Bears continued to dominate.   Clarissa Beck ('19) easily won first place, with Emily Meeker running the 1600m for the first time and coming in second at 6:02.   Camila Montes crossed the line in 5th place as the last point scorer for the girls'.  Similarly, senior Sasha Severtson dominated the boys' 1600, crossing the line in 4:57 for first place.  Deacon Law ('20) and Rishi Murudkar ('19) finished in 3rd and 4th, with personal best times of 5:06 and 5:07.

In the 400m dash, Kat Suplee ('21) and Grace Wolf ('20) were neck and neck to the finish, as Kat edged out Grace for first place with her time of 1:02.9 to Grace's 1:03.0.   Seniors Taya Jackson and Quiniche Peets earned 3rd and 5th place, with Quiniche missing her PR by 0.1 seconds, in a time of 1:07.0.   Hayden Gardella led the boys' team with his second place finish in a personal best time of 55.42, and Caelan Jones and Spencer Gray, who usually compete in the hurdle events, earned 3rd and 4th place with their times of 57.62 and 58.53 seconds.  Following the 400m, was the shortest race of the day, the 100m dash.   Katherine Moore ('19) and Kat Suplee ('21) were 2nd and 3rd, with Taylor Barnes in 5th as the final point scorer.  All three girls ran personal best times, finishing in 13.83, 13.91, and 1403 seconds.   Junior Jack McHale beat his personal best time to win his heat and finish in 2nd place overall with a time of 11.76.  CJ Thompson also PR-ed with a time of 12.02 for 4th place, and senior Evan Bell finished in 5th with a time of 12.05.  

In the 100m hurdles for the girls' team, all three runners earned points toward the final score.  Annastacia Regnier crossed the line in 2nd place with a personal record time of 21.48.   Sydney Todd finished in 3rd place with a time of 21.74, and her time of 22.02 earned Raleigh Matthews ('20) 5th place.   The boys run the 110m hurdles, a slightly longer distance, and the hurdles set several inches higher.  Michael Hudson and Spencer Gray cleared the hurdles in unison for most o fthe race, with Michael edging out Spencer for first place.  His time of 17.97, and Spencer's time fo 18.06 were both personal records.   Adithya Chimalakonda finished in 3rd place with a personal best time of 21.82.

The last distance race for the day was the 800m.  Ashley Sechrest ('20) crossed the finish line for first place in 2:28, and was followed in 2nd place by fellow junior Afton Hirschi in 2:39.  Senior Clarissa Beck crossed in third place, and freshmen Faith Hirshi finished in 5th in a personal best time of 2:46.   In his first 800m race for Cambridge, Lyle Donovan ('22) finished just ahead of Kaine Dudley ('21) for first and second place.   Jack Donovan ('19) crossed the line in 3rd with an almost 3 second PR at 2:09.8, Cooper Carrow ('20) finished in 2:10.2 for 4th, just 04 seconds ahead of Christopher Manna in 5th place. 

The final two events of the evening were the 200m dash and the 4x400 relay.   Grace Wolf ('20) came home with first place in the 200m in a PR time of 25.86, and senior Katherine Moore won her heat in a PR time of 29.09 for second place.  Freshman Olivia Bollenbacher also added to the team score with her 4th place time of 29.36, another personal record.   Jack McHale ('20) has his second first place finish of the night in the boys' 200m, setting a new personal record  by half a second of 23.61.   Evan Bell ('19) added another point to the boys' team total with his 24.56 second 5th place finish.  In the 4x400 relay, the girls' finished in 3rd place for their final 3 points of the night, and the boys' earned 5 points with a first place finish in 4:02.8.

The final scores had the Lady Bears with 113 points over 2nd place Mt. Pisgah with 66, and boys' had 123 points also over Mt. Pisgah's 42 points.  The track and field team had the weekend off, and then had a great meet at the North Fulton JV Invitational at Milton on March 13.   Check out that story and the results of the Roswell Relays on March 16 soon!