Girls Varsity Track & Field: NMH 97, DA 48
All of the athletes on the girls’ track and field team were excited to come out and enjoy the home-field advantage this past Saturday. We had our hurdle crew ready as we hosted NMH on the Big Green track. Many parents were able to cheer on our team for the first time and you could feel the excitement in the crowd.
It was an extremely exciting day as not one but two Deerfield records were broken. Senior Jaxon Palmer cleared a monstrous Javelin throw at 118 feet. Then, a new athlete on the track named Kaelin Creagh broke our 200-meter record crossing the finish line with a lightning time of 26.149 seconds and almost breaking our 100-meter record with a time of 12.713 seconds. These two athletes are also members of the 4×100 meter team who almost broke yet another Deerfield record along with fellow athletes Simi Lawal and Ismay Anderson. Janie Doyle and Jazz Baker took second and third in the shot put, while Kate Kelly took first place in the high jump and second place in her relatively new event, the triple jump. Josephine Louis was not far behind in the field events by earning second in the long jump and third in the pole vault. Finally, the distance runners were out with Ali Thomas and Georgia Barnes earning second and third place in the 1500 meter race followed by Aerin Lo and Jean Jin earning those same spots in the 3000-meter race.
As always, the list of impressive athletes goes on and on. Although we lost to NMH, we had a great first home meet of the season. Every athlete put everything into their events and we look forward to seeing them do it again next week against Cushing. It will be our last meet of this short season, so it promises to be a great one.
Boys Varsity Track & Field: DA 98, NMH 42
Deerfield Track & Field hosted Northfield Mount Hermon on Saturday, May 8, on a mild, overcast afternoon. Without sun or significant wind to contend with, athletes from both teams were gifted ideal meet conditions to achieve personal and school best marks – and they delivered!
Once again, the Deerfield squad was dominant on the track and steady in the field, taking individual first place in 8 track events and 3 field events. Chandler Dicks ’23 and Max Kainamura ’22 won uncontested hurdles events, Elic Ayomanor ’22 and Donnie Gray ’21 took 1st and 2nd place in the 100 and 200 meter races, and Deerfield’s two relay teams won their events. Perhaps most impressively, Deerfield swept Top 3 honors in the 1500 meters (Quinn Hampson ’22, Chase Whitney ’22 and Thomas Lyons ’21) and the 800 meters (Hampson, Chip Coffin ’21 and Charlie Lewis ’21). Wins by Coffin in the triple jump, Tyler Simon ’22 in the shot put, and Bob Provost ’23 in the javelin added to the ledger. All told, the boys team compiled a 98-42 win against NMH that spoke of a team effort across the board.
Along the way, a school record fell in the 4×100 meter relay. With Coffin coming out of blocks on the lead leg for the first time, the team of Coffin/Gray/Christian Reavis ‘23/Ayomanor dropped a whopping .45 seconds from their previous best, and set a new Deerfield Track & Field all-time record of 43.455 seconds. That time put them as far ahead of the previous best (set in 2019 by a team including Gray) as that previous best is ahead of the 6th best time in school history. Congratulations to the team on their magnificent effort to kick-start the first home meet of the season!
Deerfield will host Cushing Academy on Saturday, May 15, in their final meet of the shortened 2021 season. We all look forward to another Saturday afternoon at the track!