It’s been a pretty impressive start to the 2018 girls and boys track seasons for Bridgeport High School. The Indians’ showing at the annual Doddridge Host Harrison meet was the latest in the early strong showings.

 

The Tribe went into West Union last Friday and swept the field to win both the boys and girls portion of the meet. The girls won the event with 243 points in the six-team field, while the boys posted 178 points on their way to the victory – also against six teams.

 

For the girls, Coach Emilee Yurish’s preseason comment about depth being key paid off. At least it’s paid off in the early meets, including the season-opening meet win in the Connect-Bridgeport Invitational. It paid off with 14 event wins last Friday.

 

“Even though this meet is fairly small, it does show our depth across the board.  I expect the girls to do their best all the time and give their maximum effort and they are doing just that,” said Yurish. “It's good to see how hard they work in practice and I look forward to seeing their results each week in the meets.”

 

Bridgeport got two wins in the distance events. Julia Muller (5 minutes, 37.67 seconds) won the 1600 meter run, while Jenna Soltesz (12 minutes, 30 seconds) won the 3200 meter event.

 

“Julia and Jenna are both doing an outstanding job. They both feel good with their workouts and are doing a nice job performing at meets.  It's good to have their leadership in the distance events,” said Yurish.

 

BHS also picked up a win in the 400 meter dash. Isabella Bowen won the event and posted a meet record with a time of 59.29 seconds. Bowen, the Tribe’s top sprinter, did not compete in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.

 

“Isabella did a nice job on Friday.  We are simply monitoring her and what events she runs as precaution for what's ahead in our season,” said Yurish on holding Bowen out. “She (and others) will not run every single event every week. We don't want to overwork them early in the season if it's not necessary.”

 

BHS also swept the two individual hurdle events. Emily Meade was the winner in the 100 meter event (16.95 seconds), while Ashton Miller took home the win in the 300 (51.99 seconds).

 

“Ashton and Emily are another duo in our hurdle events that are doing quite well,” the coach said. “It's nice to have strong performances from each of them in our shuttle relay and the two open hurdle events.”

 

The shuttle hurdle event was just one of the relay events the Indians won. Actually, the Tribe piled up the points in the relays by winning every single event.

 

“Our relays do well practicing handoffs with Coach (Jeff) Weimer. We make sure the girls understand that they could be called upon to run any leg of a relay at any given time, so they must be prepared to do so,” said Yurish. “The girls practice their exchanges nearly every day in practice and it shows.”

 

In the 4x100, the team of Meade, Bowen, Juliet Hart and Kristen Crowder were the winners (55.08 seconds). The 4x200 saw the group of Kirstin George, Catie Wilson, Hart and Crowder get the win (1:50.63 seconds), while the 4x400 team of Anaiya Jackson, George, Wilson and Muller were the first across the line (4 minutes, 20.84 seconds).

 

BHS’s 4x800 team consisting of Soltesz, Darian Spencer, Olivia Arbogast and Michaela Perri captured the top prize as well (11:04.93 seconds). And in the shuttles, Hallie Davis, Miller, Maria Defino and Sarah Kinney got the victory.

 

Not only were the relays solid, but they were historically solid in the meet. The 4x200 and 4x400 both set meet records.

 

Bridgeport’s dominance carried over into the field events. Alyssa Mabrey won the high jump (5 feet, 2 inches and topped teammate Crowder with the same mark via jumps), Love was the winner in the pole vault (8 feet, 6 inches and topped teammate Claire Lohmann also on jumps), while Madyia McCullough won the shot put with a throw of 32 feet.

 

“Our field events had a good showing between Madyia, Alyssa and Jenna. We also had solid performances by Kristen Crowder and Claire Lohmann, which both took second in high jump and pole vault respectively,” said Yurish. “Combined, they all scored a lot of points in those three events.”  

 

The boys didn’t have as many overall victories, but had no trouble piling up points. And leading the way was senior Mark Duez.

 

Duez won the 800 meter run (2 minutes, 9.41 seconds), the 1600 meter run (4 minutes, 48.87 seconds) and came back to win the 3200 meter run (10 minutes, 32.20 seconds).

 

“Mark ran very well at Doddridge.  As a senior, Mark has learned how to run races intelligently.  Pressing only when he needs to, in order to conserve his energy,” said Coach Jon Griffith. “Dana Philips from RCB and the two young runners from Doddridge County are all excellent athletes along with BHS runner Jackson Jacobs.  It was a good group for Mark to run with and work on racing strategy.”

 

Bridgeport also piled up points in the relay events. The Indians won four of the five relay competitions on the day.

 

The team of Trenton Shaw, Maverick Eddy, Chase Binegar and Kyle McCarthy (45.74 seconds) won the 4x100. In the 4x200, the team of Eddy, Shaw, Binegar and McCarthy won again – this time their time of 1 minute, 34.81 seconds was good enough for a meet record.

 

Bridgeport’s next win was in the 4x800 relay. The group of Coleton Marsh, Cade Robinson, Logan Carr, and Jackson Jacobs were the winners (8 minutes, 59.34 seconds). The final win was in the 4x110 shuttles event where Shaw, Hayden Hess, Josh Osborn and Binegar were the first to cross the line (1 minute, 1.34 seconds).

 

“We have a very strong group of seniors – Maverick Eddy, Tristan Shaw, Trenton Shaw, Josh Osborn, Chase Binegar, Coleton Marsh and Benson Bassell combined with some talented younger athletes like Hayden Hess, Kyle McCarthy, Jackson Jacobs, Cade Robinson, Tyler Norman and Logan Carr,” said Griffith. “Most of the seniors have been on these relays for three years.  Their handoffs and hurdling have been excellent and they just keep getting stronger and faster each year, which is what our program is designed to do. 

 

“The younger athletes are sprinkled in the relays and are learning from the experience of running with these great seniors,” Griffith continued. “Hopefully it is a recipe that will keep the program strong in the relays for years to come.”

 

Tristan Shaw picked up a solo win in the high jump. He cleared 5 feet, 10 inches.

 

“Tristan was working through some physical issues, so he only competed in two events, high jump and shuttles, out of his normal four.  Still he managed to run the shuttles well and pick up the win in the high jump,” said Griffith. “He kept telling me it wasn't too bad, but I wanted to be cautious.  He is a pretty tough kid, but I think he was right considering how well he ran and jumped.”

 

BHS added two wins in the field events. Christopher Trent won the shot put (50 feet, 7.5 inches) and the discus (135 feet, 3 inches).

 

“Chris is starting out this year almost where he left off last year.  Over 50 feet in the shot and over 130 feet in the discus in both of the first two meets.  That's a very good sign,” said Griffith. “As the weather improves we get more practice time in, I think that Chris will see some steady improvement based on his performance trend data from the past two seasons.” 

 

Bridgeport is back in action Saturday. The team will take part in the Morgantown Invitational at 10:30 a.m. at Clay-Battelle High School.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Julia Muller, while Emily Meade is shown in the second photo. Catie Wilson is pictured in one her winning relay events in the third photo. Fourth photo shows three event winner Mark Duez leading the pack, while Coleton Marsh takes part in one of the BHS boys winning relay events.