Led by multiple individual winners and four first-place relays, the performance was good enough to result in a two-way championship day for the Bishop O’Connell Knights track and field teams at the Draper Invitational in Alexandria.
Both the girls and boys high-school squads won the team titles, the girls with 741/2 points and the boys with 951/2, at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School.
One of the top performers for the O’Connell girls was Chayse Raymond. She won the 100-meter dash in 12.39 and anchored the winning 4x100 (49.97, school record) and 4x200 (1:46.4) relays. Carolina Rosson, Natalie Anderson and Samantha Rough also ran on those relays.
The 4x400 relay of Anderson, Rough, Kathryn Sarrge and Megan Heuschel was third.
O’Connell’s Molly Weithman won the girls 3,200 in 11:24.98 and was second in the 1,600.
Rosson was fifth in the triple jump and seventh in the long jump, Heuschel was seventh in the 300 hurdles and Mary Boniface was eighth in the shot put and discus.
Top meet standouts for the O’Connell boys were Cameron Lee and Anthony Lenzini.
Lee won the 400 in 51.06, was third in the 200 and ran on the winning 4x100 (43.19) and 4x200 (1:31.19) relays, along with Luke Brayman, Max Davies and Connor Redfield.
Redfield finished second in the 400 and third in the 100.
Lenzini won the boys 3,200 in 9:44.87 and finished third in the 1,600.
O’Connell’s Samson Ogunade won the boys shot put (44-61/2) and was seventh in the discus. Austin Coleman was fourth for the Knights in the discus.
Also for the boys, Kori Langsman was fifth in the triple jump, Mateo Gruendel was eighth in the high jump, Nick O’Donnell was eighth in the 800 and Anthony Alvarado Rojas was eighth in the 300 hurdles.
The boys 4x800 relay was eighth and included O’Donnell as the anchor, and the 4x400 was seventh.
The O’Connell teams next hosted the O’Connell May Classic with Weithman winning the girls 1,600 (5:11.15), the girls 4x100 relay (51.35) was first and Boniface won the discus (81-6).
For the O’Connell boys, Redfield won the 400 (50.6), the 4x400 relay won (3:28.24)and Langshaw won the triple jump (39-11/2).
The meets only included some of the regular running events for the girls and boys teams, in addition to a few field events.
Check a future GazetteLeader issue to find out how the O’Connell teams performed in the State Catholic Meet Championships.
During the fall, Lenzini and Weithman each won the state Catholic meet cross country individual titles, when the competition was held in Northern Virginia for the first time in many years.
NOTES: The winning times in the relays at the Draper meet were fast enough for the O’Connell girls and boys 4x200 teams and the boys 4x100 to qualify for upcoming national meets in coming weeks . . . The O’Connell teams also will participate in the upcoming Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championships, held later this month at Good Counsel High School in Maryland.
