Broughton boys’ track and field team knew this season was a marathon, not a sprint. Literally. The Wakefield girls’ team just wanted to prove the 2015 squad should be mentioned with the other great Wolverine teams.
Broughton boys brought home their fourth straight Cap 8 track and field title Saturday and the Wakefield girls were back on top, hoping to add to the legacy of great track teams at the school.
The Broughton boys came from behind to win, finishing with 139 points, nine ahead of Millbrook, which led for most of the afternoon. Wake Forest (97.50), Wakefield (96) and Sanderson (62), rounded out the top five.
The Wolverines won the girls’ title with 161 points, followed by Millbrook, Sanderson, Broughton and Wake Forest.
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Winning it all is nothing new to the Caps, but at the midway point of the meet, title No. 4 wasn’t a guarantee, but it was well within reach.
“In track there are so many events, you never know where you’re going to be,” Broughton senior Peter Millsaps said. “Going into that 3200 we knew it was close, so it was great to make a little gap. Everyone just came together today and put all they had out here. It was awesome.”
Millsaps was part of the 4x800 relay team (Andrew Brooks, Robert Simmons, Jeremy Brown), which finished first, and played a big part of closing the points gap in the 3200, basically securing the title for Broughton, which trailed Wake Forest most of the afternoon. Down, but never out, the Caps kept their eyes on the finish line.
Broughton was able to get points in the pole vault Thursday from Matt Dillon and Leslie Boney, who finished second and third, respectively. That got things started for the Caps, who knew there was still plenty of work to be done on Saturday.
“They got us started off on Thursday, so it was a marathon,” Broughton coach David Christin said. “It was a two-, three-day meet. They (Dillon and Boney) ended up scoring 14 points and we weren’t counting on that. There’s always instances of guys stepping up.”
Christin also pointed out his distance runners, who scored more than 20 points in each of their events.
“You do that and you’re hard to beat.”
For Wakefield, it was about putting up a conference banner, and hopefully added another state title banner at the end of the season. Wakefield won six consecutive state titles (outdoor and indoor) from 2011-2013. The Wolverines didn’t win last season, and coach Ann Graham said this squad has a goal to bring the state title back to Wakefield.
“We fall short just a few points,” Graham said. “They are still trying to grasp that. Everybody has to win, everyone has to give their best. It’s not going to just come to you. Everybody is fighting to get it.”
Graham got productivity in the field events, sprints and relays.
“We had a lot of girls who did personal best in the throws and the jumps,” Graham said. “That kind of helped to pull us through.”
Veronica Fraley won the discus throw and the shot put for Wakefield, and Tia Robinson set a personal high in the high jump, finishing fourth.
The relay squad won the 4x400 (Tayler Grier, Tia Robinson, Brittany Ollivierre, Je’May Ward), finished second in the 4x800 (Ollivierre, Angela Delfino, Michelle Fenstermaker, Gabrielle Morris) and third in the 4x200 (Zavia Dickerson, Jessica Dixon, Deja Wilkins, Aubrey Ebron).
“Girls who had been on the team in prior years came through like they were supposed to,” Graham said. “But we had to pull from other areas to get other girls to step up to pull out the win today. We have a strong group of girls and when we can piece them all together we can dominate.”
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