“Some things just go better together and probably always will.”
Like the lyrics from Luke Combs song “Better Together,” the Dock track and field performed far better together at the BAL Relays at Church Farm School on Thursday than they had in some earlier meets. The meet had no individual events, which gave throwers a day to rest ahead of Friday’s Jack Armstrong Invitational at Abington, but it was a chance to focus on fast times together.
That meant opportunities to run some rarely contested events like the distance medley relay, the sprint medley relay and the 4x200 as well as usuals like the 4x100 and 4x400.
The girls 4x100 relay of Liv Mozzone, Maddie Afanador, Ashley Brown and Olivia Valverde won their heat and hit the District I AA qualifying standard with a 55.34-second clocking. They were second overall. The time marked an improvement of better than two seconds over their previous top time this season.
The 4x400 relay of Ceara Barnes, Gretchen German, Brown and Valverde then closed the meet with a win in 4:31.74, an enormous nine-second improvement over their previous best.
The boys 4x400 relay of Xander Morsby, Myles Johnson, Trace Scavetti and Jayden Waters also hit a new season best of 3:57.74 to win their heat handily.
The girls distance medley opened the meet in strong fashion. Liv Moyer, Brown, German and Tessa Moyer blitzed the field in 13:52.94. The boys DMR of Aaron Sensenig, Waters, Josh Frederick and Michael Pustay went 12:27.24 for third place.
The girls sprint medley of Valverde, Sophia Mercure, Barnes and Sadie Bernd ran 4:59.74 for second place. The boys sprint medley of Johnson, Scavetti, Morsby and Roman Kurian ran 4:25.84 for second place as well.
The Pioneers entered a pair of teams in each of the 4x200 divisions. The team of Barnes, Liv Moyer, Bernd and German was second in 2:04.64. The team of Eliana Farmer, Logan Naidoo, Julia Kim an Toni Phillips ran 2:23.44. The boys foursome of Johnson, Morsby, Waters and Kurian finished fifth in 1:41.34. Pustay, Sensenig, Frederick and Seungkyu Cho ran 1:48.44.
After the girls 4x100 qualified for districts, the Pioneers put five teams on the track between the two divisions. The Dock girls fastest team won the race, while Mercure, Afanador, Mozzone and Farmer ran 5:07.34 and Bernd, Liv Moyer, Tessa Moyer and Kim ran 5:15.24. The boys’ top team won their heat and Pustay, Sensenig, Frederick and Kurian carried the baton around in 4:14.34.