‘Tis the Season – 12/28/16 VITA Vacational
12/28/2016 – Burlington, VT
Boys Top 5 Teams –
- South Burlington         87.5
- Essex                    83
- Burlington               53
- Mt. Mansfield             48.33
- Champlain Valley Union  25
Girls Top 5 Teams –
- Essex                    100.5
- South Burlington         97.5
- Rice Memorial            83
- Mt. Abraham             26
- Montpelier               22
As the snow continues to fall and the temperatures drop, things are just heating up on the track.  According to The Telegraph, Santa Claus travels at an average speed of 1,800 miles per second. Although no one was able to achieve that velocity, there were some impressive performances on Wednesday. Speed doesn’t take vacations; that was clear to see during the VITA Vacational meet. We saw multiple state records broken and we expect those marks to fall again before the end of the season.
The meet schedule contained a few unfamiliar races. Vermont Indoor Track is introducing the medley relays to some regular season meets. The distance medley relay (1200, 400, 800, 1600) was the first event on the track. The day ended with the sprint medley relay (200, 200, 400, 800). Both races are contested around the country and at the New Balance National Championship, so adding this event to the indoor lineup gives teams an opportunity to qualify athletes in a new race.
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Following the DMR, the meet transitioned to speed with the hurdles and dash. Sprinticity Athlete of the Meet, Sonia John (Rice Memorial), provided the crowd with a scintillating trio of performances. In the 55m, she won with a time of 7.52s, setting a new state record! Then she showed off her range by taking home victories in the 300m and 600m, beating the fields in each race by over 2 seconds. Sonia – “I was feeling anxious because I didn’t get to practice last week. I was feeling sick until today. I’m happy with the times, but I want to keep improving. My goal is to have success at Nationals this year, and I know I need to work on the start of my race to achieve that goal. For now, I’m just happy with a new PR.”
On the boys side, we saw two familiar names at the top of the lists for the sprint races. Jalen Carter (U-32), a standout during the outdoor season, ran his first indoor race of the season and won the 55m. Ismail Liban (Burlington) took control of the 300m by surging to the front at 120m and running away from the field. Ismail – “I didn’t start as well as I had wanted. It was a difficult week away from the track and I had a lot on my mind. After I got going though, I just relaxed and ran my race.”
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The male performance of the meet came in the 1000m run. Jeremy Hoyne-Grosvenor (Montpelier) took a commanding lead by setting a relentless pace and he didn’t yield. The result was an impressive 2:33.49, a new state record. Jeremy will certainly have his eyes set on Nationals and we’re excited to see his performances continue to improve throughout the season.
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Newcomer Davis Lavoie (Rice Memorial), wearing Rice Football shorts and a Burton T-shirt, cleared a height of 5’10” to win the high jump. At the first meet of the season, he achieved a height of 5’2″. An 8 inch improvement in less than 2 weeks surprised a lot of people, even Davis. It was great seeing him roll off the mat with a smile and look back at the bar as if to say, “Did I just do that?”. Welcome to the sport, Davis! 6’00” is calling your name.
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​Fantastic job by our meet officials and volunteers. We put out a public service announcement after the first week and many people stepped up to make a difference, so now we’re following up with a public thank you! It’s fantastic to see the interest in track growing here in the Green Mountain State. Keep up the good work, and the kids will keep turning in great performances.
Next week, the state will be split up between another UVM meet, and the Dartmouth Relays. It was great to see some state records set before the end of the year. We’re excited to see what 2017 brings. If you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas for track & field stories, please write to us below.
Stay fast,
Kevin