On Saturday, May 8, the Big Green track and field team set three new school records during their third meet overall and first home meet of the 2021 season against NMH.
The boys team took individual first place finishes in eight track events and three field events. Chandler Dicks ’23 and Max Kainamura ’22 won uncontested hurdles events, Elic Ayomanor ’22 and Donnie Gray ’21 took first and second 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, compiling a 98-42 win against NMH.
The previous 4×100 meter school relay record fell during the meet. 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!
It was an extremely exciting day for the girls team 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 Kaelin Creagh ‘24 broke the school 200-meter record crossing the finish line with a lightning time of 26.149 seconds and followed that by nearly breaking the 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 ’23 and Ismay Anderson ‘22. Janie Doyle ’21 and Jazz Baker ’22 took second and third in the shot put, while Kate Kelly ’22 took first place in the high jump and second place in her relatively new event, the triple jump. Josephine Louis ’23 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 ’21 and Georgia Barnes ’21 earning second and third place in the 1500 meter race followed by Aerin Lo ’22 and Jean Jin ’22 earning those same spots in the 3000-meter race.
The list of impressive achievements for both teams goes on and on.
The Big Green will host Cushing Academy on Saturday, May 15 in their final meet of the 2021 season.
Congratulations to the teams on their achievements so far this season and we are looking forward to another great Saturday afternoon at the track tomorrow!