Atlee, Hanover claim indoor track region titles

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

It seems at every meet, someone with the Atlee Raiders or Hanover Hawks indoor track teams are about to do something special.

Through a season of personal bests, first place trophies and rising standouts following in the paths of the great track and field athletes before them, the season managed to get even better with the finish line in sight to wrap up the 2022-23 season as the Hanover Hawks girls team and the Atlee Raiders boys team took home the gold with region titles in the VHSL Class 4, Region B Championships.

The two-day meet on Feb. 14 and 16 was hosted at Highland Springs High School, where the weather was bright and sunny with a strong wind on the final day that saw the Hawks and Raiders come out on top hoisting their trophies.

Atlee also nearly took the first place title away from Hanover in the girls competition, finishing in second with 124.33 team points, but the Hawks were able to do what they do best in the running events, and held off their Capital District colleague with 140 points.

On the boys side, Atlee was far and away the best team, finishing with 139 points compared to second place Courtland’s 102, while Hanover finished with a respective third place finish with 91 points. Mechanicsville and Patrick rounded out the top-5 with the Mustangs finishing in fourth.

The Atlee boys team flexed their unmatched depth with wins in three distance competitions, all of which included Patrick Allen. Allen proved too fast with too much endurance for the competition to keep up, and the star Raider cruised to victories in the 1600 meter run (4:23.07) and 3200 meter run (9:31.24) while also helping win the 4x800 alongside Travis Albon, Carson Echard and Andre Chavez (8:03.34).

Albon also finished in second behind Allen in the 1600 (4:28.99) to give Atlee one of three second place finishes. The other two performances to generate a silver medal finish were R.K. Gathje’s 12-foot pole vault leap and Carson Echard’s finish in the 100-meter run (2:37.50).

Their girls team also had two additional top performers in Zoe Curtis and Mackenzie Brittle, with Curtis claiming first place in the high jump with an excellent

4-10 leap with her teammate Kelsey Lee finishing in second at 4-8.

Brittle, competing in shot put, was one of two athletes to top over 30 feet, with Eastern View’s Summer Gee being the only other thrower to manage the feat. Brittle beat Gee by nearly an entire foot on her best throw, which measured in at 31-06.25.

Senior Courtney Mudd will be joining her teammates at states as well, setting a new personal record in the 1000-meter run at 3:06.87 while placing third in the process.

The Hawks’ girls team looked unbeatable in nearly every track event, with the team seeing five events end with first place wins. Two of those came from Alli Crytser, with the decorated senior closing her high school running career making things look easy just as she always had. She claimed top spots in the 1000 meter run (2:57.85) and the 1600 meter run (5:07.23) on her own, while Hanover’s 4x800 relay team won with a time of 9:41.10.

In the 300-meter dash, sophomore Jaelynn Joiner sped through the event with a blazing 40.50-second time to win another event for her Hawks. She also finished second in the 500-meter dash (1:18.39).

Sophomore Ellie Agustin added the fifth first-place win for the Hawks, winning the 3200 in a landslide with a 11:11.79 time that gave her a 10-second difference between her and second place. Like her sophomore teammate Joiner, Agustin also added another second place result to her championshipwinning day, placing second behind Cryster in the 1600 with a time of 5:08.70.

Hanover athlete Deonte Harris also showed out for the boys team, winning first place in the triple jump (449.5), 55-meter hurdles (7.80) and placing second in the long jump (21-9). His teammate Todd Benhase also won in the pole vault (13-3) and Robbie Seifert placed first in the high jump (5-10).

The Mustangs also had a positive performance in the regional championship, with a handful of winners in the boys competitions and some states-bound athletes who finished within the top-3. Their best performances came in the 500 and 1000-meter dashes, with Blake Moody taking a region title in the 500 with a time of 1:04.57 and Carter Smith winning the 1000 with a time of 2:35.43. Moody also finished second in the 300

(34.79) while Smith placed third in the 1600 (4:30.28).

For Patrick Henry, three individual runners as well as the 4x200 relay team will continue their season at states, with the relay team capturing a first place finish with a time of 1:32.38. A second place finish from runner Andrew Senfield in the 3200 (9:35.63) and third place finishes from Shamar Williams in the 55-meter dash (6.51) and Jayden Brown in the 55-meter hurdles (8.36) were good enough to advance those Patriots to states and continue on with their seasons.

Those states-bound runners will have a quick turnaround as they prepare for the Class 4 State Championship on Feb. 27-28, which will once again be held at Liberty University.