Middle School Track #1 at Davis Academy
3/8/23: The Cottage School Middle School Cougar track team travelled to Davis Academy to take part in their first meet of the 2023 season. There were seven schools competing with over 130 kids. The weather was beautiful, in the high 60’s but as the sun dropped it got a little chilly in the final two events.
The field events began just after 4:30 PM with the pole vault, shot putt, discus, long jump, and high jump. TCS participated in all but the pole vault and high jump. In the shot, Caroline McCants putted the iron ball 15.2 feet for 3rd place. Mary Addison Burch heaved her ball 14.1 feet, and Leah Nasr pushed hers 12.6. The first place shove went 22.10 to a girl named Parsons from TCS (same acronym, but I did not catch what the school name is). For the boys shot the 1st place heave went 29.11 from a boy named Stoil from Atlanta Jewish Academy. Brendan Bullard pushed his iron ball 27.7 feet for 3rd place. Other Cougars took part and the following feet the ball dropped. Ethan Halpert pushed his 13.7, Lucas Akers heaved a 12.2, and Luka Wurzer’s high was a 10.3.
In the discus, Cottage had two girls participate. Caroline McCants threw her discus 19.4 feet and Mary Addison Burch tossed her rubber frisbee 38.2 feet which was good for 4th place. The girls high was 50.7 feet from a girl named Cummings. On the boys side, their were six Cougars to compete. Brendan Bullard once again led the way with an 80.6 foot throw, which was good enough for 3rd place. The high was 92.8 feet by Stoil from AJA. The following five Cougars tossed their disc in the following order. Ethan Halpert threw his 47.9 feet, Conner Armistead heaved a 45.7 footer, Lucas Akers threw his 34 feet even, Brody Heinzmann tossed his 32.9 feet, and Luka Wurzer’s furthest throw was 19.4 feet.
To the sandpit we go…Mary Addison Burch leaped 9.7 feet which tied for 6th place and Leah Nasr jumped 5.3 feet. The furthest jump of the day went to a girl named Ava Lopez with an 11.9 foot leap. The boys saw over 30 jumpers compete. The high was 15 feet from Elijah from TMS. Brendan Bullard jumped 12.8 feet which was good enough for a 7th place tie. The following Cougars leaped 11.6 from James Paley, 9.3 feet from Conner Armistead, 8.6 feet from Wil Moore, 8.5 feet from Neel Shanta, 8.3 feet from Ethan Halpert, 8.1 feet from Ishan Reddy, and 6.1 from Lucas Akers.
Next up were the 60m hurdles to kickstart the running events. Wil Moore leaped over his set of hurdles while sprinting 11.9 seconds, good for 4th place overall. I did not get a chance to get the fastest times but we had a Cougar in each heat and only three others ran it faster than Wil! Austin Conduah finished in 13.8 seconds, Jonah Lorman had a 14.4 second time, Ethan Halpert ran his in 15.6 seconds, and Brody Heinzmann had a 20.5 run. We did not have a Cottage girl in this event but do plan to next week.
The 60m dash was next and of course nobody ran it as fast as Tyreek Hill did this weekend but there were some fast girls and boys to compete. Mary Addison Burch ran a 9.7 which was good enough for 4th place. I did not get the 1st place time, but my guess is it was in the high 8’s. The girl who won was way in front of everyone else. Mary was right behind 2nd and 3rd place. Caroline McCants sprinted a 11.9 dash. On the boys side, there were at least 10 heats so not sure what the first place time was either. I believe it was around high seven seconds. Brendan Bullard led the Cougar sprints with an 8.6 dash, good enough for 3rd or 4th place. Wil Moore was not far behind with an 8.9 sprint. The following Cougars times are as follows. Austin Conduah=9.4, James Paley=9.7, Keven Magid=9.8, Conner Armistead=10.5, Ethan Halpert=11.2, Lucas Akers=11.8, Madden Cimino=11.9, and Brody Heinzmann=12.7.
They ran all the 800 meter kids at once but we had a ton and the coach for Davis thought we were lining up for relay race that was next. He started the race and realized he messed up. He let all our kids run the 800 meter run together in heat 2. Don’t have official times of any of the kids from the other schools but for our Cougars we had Conner Armistead defeat his teammates with just under a 3 minute run. Jonah Lorman came in second versus his teammates with a 3:32 and Mary Addison Burch came in third with a 3:42 time. I did not get all the other times but James Paley came in after Mary followed by Ethan Melton, Austin Conduah, Skylar Glazer, Kevin Magid, Jackson Martin, Connor McCabe, and Hayden Travis.
The relays were fun to watch but did not get any times or placements. We had a few get tired out so did not participate so instead of our planned four full teams of four boys we only had three teams. The other schools finished before we did, but our kiddos had fun.
The 400m ended the track meet for the night. Mary Addison Burch led all Cougars with a 1:26 run. Conner Armistead followed with a 1:30 followed by Austin Conduah=1:36, James Paley=1:37, Jonah Lorman=1:38, Ethan Halpert=1:39, Kevin Magid=2:06, Ishan Reddy=2:07, Connor McCabe=2:08, Ethan Melton=2:09, Hayden Travis=2:10, Skyler Glazer=2:20, Jackson Martin=2:25, Neel Shanta=2:35, and Leah Nasr=2:70.
Coach Shari and I enjoyed watching our Cougars compete in their first meet of 2023 and look forward to improving each week. The biggest thing at meets is the kids paying attention to when and where their events are going on. We had a few miss some of their events, but it was the first meet and they learned why. Now that our team knows exactly how a Davis meet is executed, we should do better next Thursday.
Coach Shari and Coach Richie
