Dock teams second, third at BAL Championships

After the first day of the Bicentennial Athletic League Championships, the Dock track and field program honored its six seniors on Senior Night.

The three girls and three boys missed out on a spring season as freshmen due to the pandemic, were part of title-winning teams as sophomores (girls and boys) and juniors (boys), and in their final meet at the Dock track, they were among the top performers in the entire meet while leading their young teams to podium finishes in the BAL meet that wrapped up after a second day of competition Thursday.

A league-wide roar of approval went up when Bobby-Jo Dodds was named the girls meet Most Valuable Track Athlete after contributing a meet-high 32 points with three individual gold medals and a relay silver medal. Ainsley Moyer posted the second highest points total of any girls athlete in the field events with 24 points, including a gold in girls javelin. Hurt all year, Celeste Derstine anchored the winning 4x800 relay, was part of the second-place 4x400 relay and fought to win a scoring place in the 800 meters by one-hundredth of a second.

The girls finished second behind Delaware County Christian. The Dock girls scored 151 points, 41 behind Delco, and 71 better than third-place Phil-Mont Christian.

Micah Mast was tied for the most points won on the boys side overall with 26 after winning gold in the pole vault and silver in two hurdles events. Daniel Ringenberg tied for third overall among all boys in the meet by contributing 24 points with a silver, bronze and two fourth-place individual finishes while taking on the three longest distance running events. Drew Bauman was the third highest points contributor for the Dock boys after battling through a heel injury to place in both hurdles events and the javelin.

The three seniors accounted for 75 percent of the boys scoring as the team finished third behind champion Church Farm School and runner-up Delco. The Pioneer boys scored 78 points. CFS won with 181 and Delco’s boys had 106. Fourth-place Calvary Christian scored 59 points.

Wednesday had more field events contested than track events.

Mast and Ringenberg went 1-2 in the boys pole vault. Mast cleared 12-feet while Ringenberg got over 9-feet. Olivia Mozzone won the girls pole vault when she cleared 6-feet.

Dodds earned her first gold of the meet when she won the girls triple jump by eight inches. She jumped 32-feet-½, a season’s best.

Moyer was just four inches off her season’s best when she threw 91-feet-5 for second in the girls discus. She threw more than a foot better than her second best in the girls shot put to place third with a 26-1¾ mark.

In the boys javelin, Luke Smeland continued his climb with a new personal-record 106-11 for seventh place. Bauman threw 103-4 to pick up eighth place, the final scoring spot.

Jayden Waters had a monster PR to place sixth in the boys triple jump. The freshman came into the meet with a best of 33-6¾ and demolished that distance with a 37-3 new best. It highlighted a good day in the event for Dock freshmen with Myles Johnson recording a new best of 33-feet-9 for 10th place and Matthew Mast hitting 32-9½ for 11th place.

The track events Wednesday began with a win in the girls 4x800 relay. Ceara Barnes (2:39), Gretchen German (2:39), Sadie Bernd (2:38) and Derstine (2:41) took gold in 10:38.37. The boys had four first-year runners place fourth with Josh Ohm (2:23), Michael Pustay (2:27), Josh Frederick (2:31) and Seungkyu Cho (2:40) running 10:03.46.

The only other varsity track final that was run Wednesday was the 3,200 meters. Olivia Moyer set the pace early and won the girls race in a new personal best of 12:10.03. Ringenberg finished his first day by taking fourth place in a well-run boys race. He was one second off his personal record with a 10:31.63 finish.

In trials, Smeland ran 12.67 seconds for the 100 meters and Johnson set a new best of 12.94 seconds.

Dodds opened the second day of the BAL competition by taking the girls 300 hurdles in 48.15 seconds, just off her season’s best. Maddie Afanador ran a personal best of 59.32 seconds for seventh and Mozzone scored in eighth with a 1:00.93 clocking.

Micah Mast ran 43.08 seconds for second place in the boys 300 hurdles. Bauman placed seventh in 47.47 seconds. Matthew Mast posted a new personal best of 50.14 seconds for ninth.

Bernd took second place in the girls 1,600 meters in a season’s best 5:49.11, an automatic qualifier for District 1 AA. Olivia Moyer was just behind in third in 5:49.36. Ringenberg ran 4:58.16 for third place in the boys 1,600. Pustay lowered his PR to 5:16.86.

The girls 4x100 of Mozzone, Afanador, Ainsley Moyer and Toni Phillips took home bronze with a 1:01.38 time. The boys 4x100 of Smeland, Roman Kurian, Johnson and Waters ran 48.66 seconds for fourth place. Waters turned around to run 58.69 seconds for 10th in the boys 400.

Dodds won the 100 hurdles by almost two seconds in the next event. Her 16.85 time was a personal record for her final individual win of the meet. Afanador ran 20.89 seconds for fifth and Mozzone clocked 20.92 as they also recorded personal records.

Micah Mast placed second in the boys 110 hurdles in a personal-best 17.43 seconds. Bauman was third in 18.13 seconds. Matthew Mast ran 20.98 seconds for 10th place.

In the girls 800 meters, German hit a new personal record and was just off the district automatic qualifier with a 2:35.91 time. Barnes ran a personal best of 2:37.43 for fifth place. Bernd ran 2:40.13 for seventh place and Derstine ran 2:40.74.

Ringenberg put together another strong effort for fourth in the boys 800. He ran 2:13.90 as the lone entrant for the Dock boys.

The girls 4x400 of Barnes (1:07.9), Olivia Moyer (1:09.6), Derstine (1:09.6) and Dodds (1:01.8 ) took the silver medal in a season’s best 4:28.98 seconds. The boys 4x400 of Waters (59.3), Frederick (1:05.9), Kurian (59.5) and Ohm (57.8 ) posted a 4:02.52 finish time.

Ainsley Moyer led the field events results on the second day with a win in the girls javelin. She threw a season-best 90-8 for the gold. German was fourth at 67-11, and Bernd threw a personal best of 62-6 for fifth place.

Sophia Veltre placed second in the girls long jump. The freshman had a new best of 15-4¼.

Toni Phillips ran 1:23.12 for sixth in the JV girls 400. Ohm ran a personal-best 58.76 for sixth in the boys JV 400. Roman Kurian lowered his PR to 59.06 in the boys JV 400. Cho ran 1:02.41.

Frederick posted a 2:35.36 in the boys JV 800. Smeland dropped his personal best in the boys JV 200 to 25.45 seconds. Johnson (27.48) and Cho (27.59) also set new bests in the event.

Qualified athletes and accepted Top 8 entries will compete in the District 1 AA Championships next Friday and Saturday for the chance to earn a spot in the state championships.