The Trenton Bulldog track squads traveled to Chillicothe Friday afternoon for the annual Joe Shy Relays. The boys again took home first place as they finished with 93 points, tops in the 12-team meet. The girls scored 14 points, placing them 11th in a very strong meet.
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Bulldogs
The Trenton Bulldogs put on an impressive display during the relays, placing in all but one of the 18 events.
Field events were again the Bulldogs’ strong suit, as four of the team’s five first-place finishes came in the field.
De’Andre Vandevender had a huge day, capturing first in all four of his events. The Trenton senior was first in the high jump (6-4), triple jump (44-11.5), and long jump (22-0). Vandevender was also a member of the 4×100 team that took first with a time of 45.28. The four first-place finishes by Vandevender accounted for 40 points and earned him the Bob Carter Golden Shoe Award, given to the athlete who scores the most points in the relays. Vandevender also won the award a year ago.
“It was huge,” Coach Wes Croy said. “Last year he won it with 30 points and this year he was in four events and ended up winning it by half a point over Brandon Tunks of Cameron because our 4×100 relay team was first and Cameron’s was second. We only beat them by a hundredth of a second, so it was that close. It’s a great accomplishment and a real honor for Andie to win that award.”
Trenton also saw a milestone record fall when Kyle Hoyt won the discus competition with a new school record throw of 169-1. The old record, held by Eric Hauck, of 164-5 was set in 1974.
“Hoyt was close last year and it is something he really wanted to do before he moved on to college,” Croy said. “He wanted to get his name in the record books in the shot and the discus and for him to get the discus this early in the season is really big for him. What’s special about it is when he was a sophomore, he was really struggling and Eric Hauck, who held the record, came out and volunteered his time and really worked with him and got him straightened out. Without Eric’s help at that time, it’s doubtful Kyle even has the opportunity to break his record.”
Hoyt also collected a second-place finish in the shot, where he threw 56-8. The Bulldogs also got second-place finishes from the 4×800-meter relay team, which finished with a time of 8:42.13, and Dylan Robinson in the 800-meter run, who finished with a time of 2:05.35.
Other placewinners for the Bulldogs were Calvin Cooksey, who was fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.87; Scott Stevens, who was fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.47; Marshall Foster, who was fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.81; Jeremiah Udovich, who was fifth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:58.81; the 4×400 team, which was fifth with a time of 3:39.11; Adam Hanes, who was fifth in the pole vault with a height of 11-0; the 4×200 team, which finished sixth with a time of 1:37.77; Scott Mayfield, who was sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.19; and Colton McGinness, who was sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 46.11.
The Bulldogs’ 93 points gave them the win over Chillicothe, which was second with 80 points. Lawson rounded out the top three with 70 points.
“It was a lot more difficult to win this year than it was last year,” Croy said. “We were fighting a lot of things. We had four or five kids who were fighting the flu and couldn’t run or couldn’t run as well as they usually do. We were really piecing things together toward the end of the meet. For us to win a meet of this caliber under the conditions that we won it really says a lot about our kids. There will be other tough meets down the road, but this is definitely something we can learn from and be thrilled that we were able to win.”
Lady Bulldogs
The Trenton girls brought home eight medals from the Joe Shy Relays, placing in a total of seven events. The Lady Bulldogs saw several personal bests set on the day as well.
JaNea Whitney was the Lady Bulldogs’ highest finisher, taking fourth in the pole vault by clearing 7-6.
Emily Anderson took a pair of fifth-place finishes in the long jump (15-2) and triple jump (30-9.5) The Lady Bulldogs’ 4×800 team also finished fifth, coming in with a time of 10:58.05.
Other placewinners for Trenton included the 4×400 relay team, which finished sixth with a time of 4:29.64; Brittaney Oxford, who was sixth in the long jump with a leap of 15-1.25; Amber Fischbach, who was sixth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:02.95; and the 4×100 relay team, which finished sixth with a time of 55.27.
“Overall I felt our girls did a lot better at this meet,” Coach Chris Parks said. “We improved on our times, we got better on our jumps and I felt our girls competed strong in a tough meet. We had a lot of personal bests at this meet. For example, Fischbach had her personal best in the two mile and mile. She didn’t place in the two mile, but taking 30 seconds off of her time in both of those events is a big improvement.”
Coach Parks was also very pleased with the performance of his 4×100 team.
“My 4×100 team of Brittaney Oxford, Tasha Ewing, Liz Hoffman and Crystal Pash took two seconds off of their personal best time,” Parks said. “That’s probably one of our best relays in the past several years.”
The girls track meet was won by Maryville, which finished with 110 team points. Hamilton was second with 106 points and Chillicothe rounded out the top three with 104 team points.
The Trenton track squads will be back in action on Thursday as the host school in the Trenton Relays. Action from C.F. Russell Stadium is set to get under way at 4 p.m.