Sophomores Zahir Mitchell and Nick Kelter had a day to remember Saturday at the annual Cape Ann League Freshman/Sophomore Meet at Ipswich High, placing top-3 in three events.
Mitchell won the long jump with a personal record 21-07 and also won the 100-dash (11.9). He placed third in the high jump (5-08).
“Zahir had a really good day. If there was an Athlete of the Meet award, he probably would have gotten it,” said coach Bill Wallace. “His long jump was only 3.5 inches off the oldest school record in the books, set in 1969. That’s even older than I am. He is having a really good season so far. I am looking forward to seeing how he does in the league and state meets. If you want to be considered a really good track athlete, these meets are where you want to shine.”
Kelter won the triple jump (41-05), placed second in the long jump (19-02) and third in the 200 (26.70).
“Nick is also, very quietly, having a very good season,” Wallace said. “Hopefully, he can keep it up.”
Dante Ford shattered his personal record in the pole vault by six inches (19-06) and placed first. Ben Gazit placed sixth in the discus (89-04).
Brendan Reilly (12.9), Mohammed Ayari (12.4), Ryan Giacobbi (12.9) and Kevin Keyes (11.5) finished third in the 4×100 relay and Jacob Book (60.2), Zach Fredette (72.0), Nate McQueen (75.0) and Kenneth Waldron-Price (63.3) secured fifth in the 4×400 relay (4:35.8).
The Pioneers tallied 73.5 points and finished fourth overall as a team.
“That’s important because it shows we have some really good young talent that will keep this program near the top of the league over the next few years,” Wallace said. “Good programs are always built from the bottom up.”
