By Tommy Dickman

It was a soggy morning on Saturday, March 25, when the BHS athletes stumbled off the bus for the Wilmington Field Relays.

While many were relaxing in exotic lands like Cancún, Baja, the Caribbean islands, or the Central Floridian frontier during Spring Break, Track and Field competitors filtered out to their respective competition areas. The shot put pit was flooded out to the 20 ft mark. High winds blew across the high jump pit. And despite the dismal weather, Bellbrook had a great performance.

In the high jump, BHS athletes made the starting height for the first time that season. Junior Mikuya Ford, freshman Josiah Wolverton, and senior Isaac Kwast cleared the 5’ bar for the first time. Freshman Noah Barrios and sophomore Riley Hodges jumped the highest of Bellbrook’s team, clearing 5’4”.

The women’s team brought in first place for the high jump with Lorelai Wolverton clearing 5’. 

The men’s throwers placed second in both the discus and shot put relays. The women’s team did not place in the top 3.

The Bellbrook Track and Field team has a tradition called “The Block Wall.” The wall consists of cinder blocks painted with different important team-building aspects of the season. For example, the 4x400m is the last event and generally, most of the team leaves before the event is run. But when the whole team stays, it builds camaraderie and gets the “4×4 support” block on the wall.

The team placed first and second in two different events, Girl’s High Jump and Men’s throwing, so the “1st and 2nd in a meet” block was added to the wall.

Another block that got added was the “Thrower Points” block. “The tradition of the Block Wall inspires me to get better,” junior Ben Roach said.

Little Miami Invitational, March 28, was the premiere of the running season. Sophomore Makai Smith finished in the 100m with a time of 11.65 seconds coming in 5th place and in the 400m with a time of 57.31 in 4th place.

Junior Mikuya Ford finished 3rd in the 1600m with a time of 4:56.91 as well as finishing 4th in the 300m hurdles with a time of 49.62 seconds, and freshman Kurtis Lefeld who ran a 19.14 second 110m hurdle race getting 4th place and placing 3rd in the 300m hurdles with a time of 49.21.

Junior Lincoln Warren placed second for discus with a throw of 111’4”. Coming in at 1st for the shot put was junior Ben Roach with a throw of 39’4”, beating second place by a whole foot.

The women’s team also did well in the 200m where freshman Katie Pryor ran it in 30.00 seconds. Senior Madison Bretland and freshman Cate Eberly placed 3rd and 4th place in the 400m. Bretland also ran a little over 2:50 in the 800m run.

Freshman Allison Hollis got 3rd place in the girl’s 100m Hurdles. Juniors Lorelai Wolverton and Sophie Dagnall jumped to 3rd and 5th place respectively in the high jump.