Mike Vukovcan SHENANGO TOWNSHIP-Today, the Hopewell Track and Field team traveled to Shenango High School to compete in the MAC Championship meet with 30+ teams from Beaver, Lawrence, Butler and Allegheny counties.
Beautiful weather and great competition led to many personal and season best performances as the Vikings focus turns to qualifying for the WPIAL Championships.
Hopewell’s top finisher on the day was junior hurdler Luke McGrail in the 110m hurdles. He took a silver medal with his personal best time of 15.27. Luke has been dialing in his technique for the stretch run of the season and can contend for a medal in a highly competitive AAA field of hurdlers.
Sophomores Jack Biega and Harley Hample both took medals in the 400m dash. Jack stormed to a massive personal best 50.85, winning his heat handily, and beating several boys from the fastest heat to take 4th on the podium. Harley nearly matched her PB with 1:01.12 time and a 5th place medal. Harley later ran a huge PB of 26.35 in the 200m. She has now taken 2.5 seconds off of her 200m time from last year and continues to improve.
Both the boys and girls 4×100 relays ran season best times and earned 5th place medals. Luke McGrail, Tre Cameron, Nick Adams, and Josh Brunton combined to run 44.28 for the boys. Tessa Burgess, Harley Hample, Avery Boyd, and Maya Richburg got the stick around in 51.21. Maya also earned a 6th place medal for the 100m, running her best time of the season, 13.02.
Other notable performances that did not win medals incudes Skylar Elias and Antony Flitcraft achieving their personal bests in the 1600m with a 5:52.98 and 4:56.96, respectively. Tessa Burgess just missed the 100m hurdle final with her 16.68 in the prelims. Marqwone Nakoa had a huge PB in the 200m, breaking 25 seconds for the first time with 24.87. Joel Olshanski ran a PB in the 800m with 2:15.
The Vikings return to action Saturday at the South Fayette Invitational.
