Track & Field sets 27 records in Armstrong Invitational 

Led by the record marks of a quintet of seniors, the Dock track and field team had a strong showing to start a stretch of major invitationals that will lead into the postseason.
They met the challenge of strong competition from athletes from larger schools at the Jack Armstrong Invitational at Abington High on Friday and it resulted in 27 records for Pioneer athletes.
Bobby-Jo Dodds took the top spot in the District 1 AA rankings in all three events she entered. Dodds took nearly a full second off her personal record when she ran 17.14 seconds in the preliminary round of the girls 100-meter hurdles. She showed it was no fluke with a 17.71 clocking that still bettered her old PR as she came in sixth.
Dodds finished even higher in the 300 hurdles. She came within three-tenths of a second of the state qualifying mark as she took second place in 47.96 seconds. In her lone field event of the day, Dodds was third in the girls triple jump with a 31-feet-7 effort.
Ainsley Moyer earned the silver medal in the girls discus when she improved her own season best to 91-feet-9, within four feet of her all-time best. She also picked up a bronze medal with an 84-9 throw in girls javelin.
Micah Mast lowered his personal best in the boys 300 hurdles to 42.00 seconds while finishing in sixth place. He also dropped a new personal best in the 110-meter hurdles of 17.59 seconds, good for 12th in an ultra-competitive field. Mast ranks second in the district in both hurdles events. Mast cleared 11-feet-6 in the boys pole vault Friday, a new season best and tying his personal best. The top six finishers all cleared 11-6 and Mast was sixth based on total misses.
Drew Bauman was two places behind Mast in the boys 100 hurdles. He lowered his personal best in the event to 18.12 seconds.
Daniel Ringenberg was also in the boys pole vault competition and placed 10th with a new personal record clearance of 9-6. Ringenberg dropped almost eight seconds off his personal best in the boys 800 to finish 12th in 2:12.97, a top-six time in the district, and that came after he’d already run 4:58.25 for 11th in the boys 1,600 meters.
Outside of the record-setting seniors were also a plethora of other bests with newer athletes showing significant improvements across the board. Luke Smeland, a sophomore, set three personal bests.
The girls 4x800 of Ceara Barnes (2:44), Liv Moyer (2:45), Gretchen German (2:44) and Sadie Bernd (2:45) ran a season best 11:01.09 for a third-place medal to exceed their seeding.
Maddie Afanador lowered her 300 hurdles best to 1:00.29. Olivia Mozzone ran 1:03.64. Bauman ran 47.62 in the boys 300 hurdles and Matthew Mast hit 52.71 seconds.
All four boys ran bests in the 100-meter dash. Luke Smeland dropped his PR to 12.43 seconds, Jayden Water was a tick behind in 12.44, Roman Kurian ran 12.71, and Alex Koestler finished in 12.77 seconds.
Liv Moyer lowered her season-best in the girls 1,600 to 5:49.36, which ranks second in the district. Michael Pustay got out quicker and it paid off with a 5:26.47 finish in the novice boys 1,600.
The boys 4x100 of Smeland, Waters, Bauman and Koestler ran 48.57 for 12th place.
Ceara Barnes ran her first official open 400 of the season in 1:08.88. Myles Johnson lowered his 400 best to 1:03.87 in the boys race. Josh Frederick ran 1:05.24.
Mozzone took almost a full second off her best in the girls 100 hurdles with a 21.82 clocking. Afanador ran 21.93 seconds. Matthew Mast ran 21.20 seconds in the boys 110-meter hurdles for his first official mark of the year.
Josh Ohm took more than three seconds off his top time in the boys 800 meters to finish in 2:24.49. Pustay returned from the 1,600 earlier to run more than 13 seconds faster than his previous best and establish a mark of 2:24.76. Gretchen German ran 2:45.69 in the girls 800.
Three more bests fell in the boys 200 meters. Smeland picked up a PR of 25.60 seconds, Kurian pushed himself to a 25.96, and Johnson hit 27.89 seconds. Seungkyu Cho debuted in the boys 200 with a 27.79 finish.
In the final event on the track for the Pioneers, Moyer ran 12:43.59 for fifth in the girls 3,200 meters. Sadie Bernd ran the event for the first time this season and her 12:54.66 was good for seventh and fourth in District 1 AA.
Personal records were also aplenty in the field events. Waters took ninth in the boys long jump when he leapt 17-feet-10. Koestler debuted with 16-11½ for a solid start. Waters was 12th in the boys triple jump when he bested his top mark by more than two feet with a 33-6¾ effort. Johnson also improved to 31-2.
German placed 10th in the girls javelin with a throw of 63-6. Smeland picked up his third best of the day with a 102-9 throw in the boys javelin. Bauman was just behind with a 99-8 throw. Frederick threw 74-9.
The Pioneers have a week between meets. They will try to better their marks at the Unionville Invitational on Saturday, April 29.