Hopewell Track and Field Goes 3-0 in Quad Meet Against South Side, OLSH and Aliquippa

The Hopewell boys and girls track and field teams picked up 3 victories a piece against South Side, Aliquippa, and OLSH in a 4-way meet held at South Side High School on Wednesday.

The girls beat Aliquippa 117-6, OLSH 83-56, and South Side 99-36. The boys defeated Aliquippa 109-27, OLSH 113-24, and South Side 90-51. In a quad meet like this, all four teams compete concurrently, but score individually against each other. The top 3 in each head-to-head event score points, with 5 going to the winner, 3 to second place, and 1 to third.

The Girls 4×800 relay opened the scoring with a victory over South Side. Then the hurdle crew of Kira Shakespeare, Avery Boyd, and Reese Murray swept the top 3 spots against OLSH, and took 1st and 2nd against South Side.

Emma Palmieri was tops overall in the 100m with a time of 13.01. Maya Richburg (13.53) and Nevaeh Persi-Jones (13.71) were third and fourth overall. Hopewell sprinters took 6 of the top 8 spots.

Vicki Dong ran a personal best time of 6:32.90 in the 1600m, scoring a 3rd place against South Side.

The 4x100m relay team of Richburg, Palmieri, Boyd, and Persi-Jones ran a season best time of 51.70 for a dominating victory. Palmieri immediately followed the relay victory with another dominant performance in the 400m, winning by over 6.5 seconds. Madi Inderelst and McKenna Ladson completed the event sweep against South Side and Aliquippa.

The Hopewell girls swept the 300m hurdles as well, with Reese Murray, Emily Bauknight, and Kira Shakespeare going 1-2-3.

Caylee Sundy opened up her spring season with a second-place finish against South Side in the 800m.

Palmieri scored her fourth victory of the day in the 200m with a lifetime and season best time of 26.64, outracing defending County champion Simaya Ausby of Aliquippa in a thrilling duel. Richburg and Persi-Jones beat the rest of the field, finishing 3rd and 4th overall.

The 4×400 team of Richburg, Ladson, Persi-Jones, and Ella Morelli lost to OLSH, but secured victories against South Side and Aliquippa.

In the field, Hopewell girls were tops in the long and triple jumps. Avery Boyd (14’0.75”) and Holly Biesenkamp were 1 and 2 overall in the long jump, and McKenna Ladson completed the sweep against OLSH. Kira Shakespeare bested all comers in the triple jump with a season and lifetime best 30’ 9.5”.

Mia Blakeslee cleared her first bar of the season, finishing 2nd overall in the high jump.

Savannah Myers and Emily Bauknight each cleared 8’0” in the pole vault, taking the top 2 spots, and Audrey Kriger scored a 3rd place with a 5’6” clearance.

Sarah Casey was topped the field in both the shot put and discus, winning with throws of 26’3” and 63’2”. Emma DiCicco and Emilee Cutter completed the shot-put sweep against OLSH and Aliquippa. Marlee Page and Christy Sundy were 2nd and 3rd overall in the javelin. Both had season best efforts with 80’5” and 70’8” efforts. Emilee Cutter contributed 3rd place points against South Side and Aliquippa.

On the Boys side, seniors Matthias Goth and Tyler Lewis were 1 and 2 in the 110m hurdles.

Zach Kovell was 2nd overall in the 100m behind just Tikey Hayes of Aliquippa. Naz Jeter and Josh Brunton completed event sweeps against South Side and OLSH.

Zach Landry and Jack McGrail led the Vikings milers in the 1600m, finishing 2nd and 4th overall in 5:07 and 5:14.

The boys 4×100 relay lost a tight battle with Aliquippa but did run their best time of the season in 44.33 seconds. They will battle again on Saturday at the Beaver County Championship meet.

Zach Kovell dominated the 400m, winning by 5 seconds in a personal best time of 51.39. He will be a top contender for the County title in the quarter mile on Saturday.

Matthias Goth and Zach Lucas were 1 and 2 overall in the 300m hurdles. Both ran personal best times in the race, with Goth going 44.47 and Lucas going 46.87.

Zach Landry was tops overall in the 800m.

Zach Kovell came back after the 400m and won the 200m as well in 23.46 seconds. Josh Brunton and Julian Baldwin completed the sweep against South Side.

Jack McGrail won the 3200m and was first overall.

The boys 4×400 relay lost a close race to South Side, but the team of Nico Flitcraft, Dan Easley, Greg Gigliotti, and Julian Baldwin won comfortably against OLSH.

In the field, the boys enjoyed a lot of season best performances. Nick Adams and Bryce Ray were 2 and 4 overall in the long jump with personal best jumps. Adams also won the triple jump. Dan Earley had his best high jump day of the season, taking second overall in the high jump with a 5’6” clearance.

Ethan Pletcher was second overall in the shot put with a season best throw of 38’2”. Dom Gaughan also scored with his best throw of the season. Gaughan was the Vikings’ top discus thrower, finishing 3rd overall behind 2 South Side boys, but ahead of everyone from OLSH and Aliquippa.

The javelin saw some monster PRs (personal records) from Pletcher and sophomore Vinny Boris. Pletcher was 2nd overall with 126’10”, and Boris added 37 feet to his previous best throw and hit 114’8”.

The last event to finish was the pole vault, and everyone gathered around the runway to watch Connor Progar take the victory by clearing his opening height of 11’6”. Due to poor weather and poor hosting at previous meets this season, Connor had not had the opportunity to attempt the heights that he’s capable of clearing, but his patience paid off on Wednesday. Robbie Gibson cleared a personal best of 9’6” and had some solid attempts at 10’ before going out.

The Hopewell Track and Field team returns to action on Saturday at Riverside High School for the Beaver County Championship meet. The girls are the defending team champions, and both teams won the combined points trophy last year. Tyler Lewis (110m hurdles), Emma Palmieri (400m), the girls 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams will defend the titles they won last year.

Hoping for good weather and great times!