It wasn’t the Bridgeport girls’ track team rolling to a win at Friday’s Larry Conaway Memorial that was a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t McKenna Smith once again dominating the meet at Lewis County High School that came as a bit of a surprise.

 

What may have caught people off guard is that the Bridgeport boys’ track team was able to come out on top of what was considered one of the top meets of the season to date. Of course, when you’re the defending Class AA state champions with a talent cupboard far from bare it’s hard to call a win a complete surprise.

 

Yet when the smoke settled the Tribe girls were joined in the winner’s circle by the boys. The BHS girls had 111 points to get past North Marion with 82, while the Indian boys finished with 89 points to just edge past Buckhannon-Upshur. B-U finished with 87.

 

“It was a very competitive meet so I was very happy to get the win,” said veteran BHS boys coach Jon Griffith. “The fact that we didn’t have the best day in several areas made more than just a little surprised. I was actually a little bit shocked, but in a very good way.”

 

Bridgeport was able to get the win on the boys’ side despite managing to win just one event. Once again, the Tribe’s 4x800 meter relay team was victorious in a field that also included Class AA top-ranked Webster County.

 

The team of Jimmy Lacaria, Arryn Tennant, Timmy Kinney and Michael Duez were the winners in that event. The group posted a time of 8 minutes, 42.91 seconds.

 

“That event seems to be going pretty well for us at every meet,” said Griffith. “We’ve got five to six guys that can run that event and get good times and eventually we’ll figure out who the final four will be. It’s a result of having a really deep cross country team this year that had a lot of success.”

 

Griffith said the relay was big, but being able to place throughout the competition was also huge. He pointed to the 300 meter hurdles as one event where the Indians came up strong. Justin Massie (43.04 seconds) and Luke Southern (43.58 seconds) finished second and third, respectively to add to the point total.

 

Despite not having what Griffith called his best day, Troy Pallay’s effort in pole vault was also a point producer. He got second by clearing 10 feet, 6 inches. Bridgeport also got third place finishes in the 1600 from Jimmy Lacaria (4 minutes, 46.4 seconds) and Michael Duez (10 minutes, 21.01 seconds) in the 3200 meters.

 

“We also had some strong efforts to get us points in the other relay events,” said Griffith. “ … There were a lot of little things that helped us out, but at the same time there were some things that went bad for us.”

 

On the girls’ side, Smith’s huge day was more than enough to help Bridgeport get the win. She won the 100 (12.33 seconds), the 200 (26.02 seconds) and the 400 (1 minute, .16 seconds). Smith was also joined by Maleehah Saab, Ashton Miller and Lexie Sczerba to post a winning time of 1 minute, 50.75 seconds in the 4x200 meter relay.

 

Bridgeport also got a win in the 4x100 meter relays on the day. The team of Saab, Mateah Kittle, Sczerba and Kayla Haywood won with a time of 52.47 seconds. Haywood managed a trio of second place finishes in the 100, 200 and the long jump for the Tribe.

 

Bridgeport will be back in action as both teams compete Saturday at the Rush Invitational at Clay-Battelle High School. The 14-team meet begins at 10 a.m.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Luke Southern, left, and Justin Massie, middle competing in the 300 meter hurdles, while Dylan Tonkery, middle and Jonathan Murray are shown in the second photo battling in sprints. Hannah McCall is shown throwing the shot in the third photo, while the picture below shows Mateah Kittle in the hurdle events.