On the day after a day that saw weather so bad that many track meets were postponed or outright cancelled, the Bay Rocket Invitational was held April 13 on a breezy, sunny day that saw temperatures climb into the low 50s — much to the relief of those involved.
The Lakewood girls showed they are going to be a team to contend with in the Great Lakes Conference meet and perhaps beyond, winning seven of the 17 events and rolling to a relatively unchallenged victory with 137 points. St. Joseph Academy was second with 103, followed by Bay with 99½ and Chardon with 95. Westlake was next with 68, followed by Avon (48), Normandy (34), Padua (32½), Magnificat (28), Lutheran West (10) and North Olmsted (8).
The boys meet was a tighter affair, with the host Rockets leading for much of the day only to see Chardon take control in the final few events. The Hilltoppers scored 42 points in the last three events to be scored, finishing with a total of 148. Bay was next with 130½, followed by Westlake (71), Avon and Lakewood (63 each), Padua (50), North Olmsted (41), Lutheran West (40), Normandy (39½) and St. Edward (16).
Perhaps the most significant performance of the day came in the girls 1,600-meter run, which saw Westlake senior Sarah Peer race on the track for the first time since last June. It was Peer’s first race of any kind since the regional cross country meet in late October, after which she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her left tibia, forcing her to miss the state meet.
Headed to the University of Virginia next year, Peer won the 1,600 with a time of 5 minutes, 6.57 seconds, breaking the meet record by more than six seconds. She took the lead from the very first step and won by more than 18 seconds over Chardon’s Rae Kawalec, the previous record holder.
“I didn’t really have any expectations for the race, because I had no idea where I would be,” said Peer. “But I’ve got to start somewhere, so I kind of went out and tried to maintain an even pace. I went out a little harder than I would have liked, but I haven’t raced a quicker event in a really long time. Most of it was adrenaline. Then, I just tried to hold on. I’m not really disappointed, I’m not really excited. It’s a start, and the only direction I can go from here is forward.”
Also making a debut of sorts was Bay junior Tessa Knapp, a two-time All-American soccer player who has committed to continue her career at the University of Notre Dame. This wasn’t Knapp’s first meet of the season, but it’s her first season of running track since middle school, something she chose to do for both social and physical reasons.
“All my friends are doing it, and when I was in middle school I really loved doing it,” said Knapp when asked why she decided to add track to her resume. “It’s just something I like doing and wanted to try again.”
Knapp had a busy and successful day, winning the 400 with a time of 59.97 seconds. She also was second in the 200 with a time of 27.48 and she anchored the 4×200 relay squad of Annie Willmitch, Jaiden Latimer-Smith, and Brooke Anderson to second place in the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:53.37.
“I think it’s been a great first season so far,” Knapp said. “I’m still trying to adjust to running track. But it’s going well. It’s a fun sport and it should help me get faster for soccer.”
The Rockets crossed the finish line first in two other events, as junior Erin Belveal won the 3,200 run with an 11:54.71 clocking and the squad of Latimer-Smith, McKenna Adkins, Peyton Krafchek and Willmitch combined to win the 4×100 relay with a time of 52.51. Krafchek also was second in the high hurdles, and Willmitch was second in the 100 dash.
Bay’s boys built up a lead of 96-74 after the 300 hurdles. The big lead came on the strength of two firsts and a second coming in three consecutive events. First, the team of Jack Krueger, Charles Rice, Jace Knapp and Colin McAlea took second in 1:33.87. Michael Hanselman then combined with Kieran Ripley to go 1-3 in the 1,600, followed by Rice, Krueger, Knapp and Liam O’Leary winning the 4×100 relay in 44.19.
Hanselman took an early lead in the 1,600, with Jeremy Snyder of Westlake hot on his heels for the first two laps. The Bay junior broke away to a lead of 25 meters in the third lap and then held on to win by about 10 meters with a time of 4:32.03.
“I feel like I definitely was supposed to win this race, so I kind of figured I would go out and take the lead and make them hang with me and hopefully they would drop,” Hanselman said. “I know that last lap was very slow, but we had a hard week of training, and my legs were very tired after that.”
Bay’s hopes of winning its own invitational for the second year in a row took a major hit when Jayden Perrine tweaked his left Achilles tendon while warming up for the long jump. The sophom*ore had already placed third in the 100 and he was the third-fastest qualifier in the 200 preliminaries. He also had the top seed performance in the long jump entering the meet.
However, he was pulled from his last three events for what Coach George Curran called precautionary reasons, adding the belief is that the injury isn’t too severe but only time will tell.
“Hopefully, one of these meets we can put a full squad out there,” Curran said. “Between injuries, tests and everything else, I don’t know. But the boys ran well. All in all, I’m happy with what we did. Obviously, we wanted to win but it wasn’t in the cards today.”
In the absence of Perrine, senior sprinter Jack Krueger had a breakout performance, placing fourth in both the 100 and 200 dashes, taking Perrine’s spot on the victorious 4×100 relay and anchoring the 4×200 relay to a second-place finish by just 0.01 of a second.
There were four other events in the meet that were won by athletes from area schools. Among the boys, North Olmsted won two events, as Brendan Bonham won the discus with a toss of 140 feet, 3 inches, and Brendon Ho cleared 12-0 to take the pole vault.
Avon had the other two area winners, as Jack Hricovec won the shot put with a 48-3½ effort, and Molly Drenik won the same event for the girls with a throw of 38-0.
