Track & Field Team Sprints to Good Start in Arkansas Meet

January 24, 2012

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Last weekend, January 13-15, 2012, the Jesuit Rangers track and field team traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the University of Arkansas High School Indoor Meet. The team performed phenomenally in most every event.

Senior Jeff Bartlett won gold in the shot put, putting up a personal record throw of 50’ ¼”. Bartlett said, “[Breaking the PR and winning gold] felt great, and I hope to take what I did wrong and improve from there.” Speaking about the team, Jeff added that “after the meet, Coach [Bob Molyet] told us he was more than pleased with the outcome and said we showed a lot of hard work, but we got a lot more to give, so we have to keep getting better.”

Pole-Vaulter John Kaplan ’12 finished 5^th overall out of 46 clearing 14’ 6” on his attempt.

Junior Ryan Mehl, a hurdle runner, finished in 4^th and was five hundredths of a second away from the Jesuit record for 60 meter hurdles. Mehl feels confident that he can break the record by the end of the year.

Ben Brownlee ’12 performed almost seamlessly in the meet, leading the team very efficiently. Brownlee started out by running a 50.83 in the opening 400 dash, three tenths of a second away from the school record. Also, Brownlee led the 4×800 group of Andrew Pott ’12, Dillon Smith ’12, and Josh Segal ’13, to a new school record of 8:21. Finally, Brownlee helped the team of Paul Arden ’13, Andrew Pott ’12, and Ryan Grant ’12, to 4^th in the 4×400 by running a 50.8 split as the anchor leg.

Sophomore standout Orion Salters had a 60 meter dash time of 6.31 seconds, just 0.07 away from the school record. Also, Salters led the 4×200 team of Devin Brown ’13, Porter Huntley ’13, and Paul Arden ’13, to an indoor record of 1:34.66.

In the 3000 meter run, Dillon Smith ’12 broke the record of 9:35.19. Other participants included Luke Kiser ’13 (9:44.95), Michael Boone ’13 (9:53.15), Andrew Rosatto ’12 (9:55.48), and Tyler Ward ’13 (10:01.88).

The track team, led by coaches Bob Molyet, Charles Hinton, Robert Williams, Bill Henly, Jonathan Segal, and Chris Hill, looks to have a tremendous season ahead. As junior hurdler Ben Carver said, “The team show[s] great promise for the coming season, competing and placing in a highly competitive, but entertaining meet.”

Stay tuned for more news about the Rangers Track and Field team.