The Dock track and field team seemed to enjoy the change of venue for the Unionville Invitational on Saturday.
Instead of their high school hosting the meet, West Chester University served as the backdrop for the Pioneers, and they responded with 20 personal bests to continue to build toward postseason success. Placing even in the top 20 with most of the 51 attending schools being larger proved tough, but the marks were encouraging.
Sophia Veltre was 17th in the girls triple jump at 31-feet-1, a distance that qualifies the sophomore for the District 1 AA championships.
Jayden Waters also hit a district qualifier. The sophomore ran 45.11 seconds in his first race in the boys 300-meter hurdles. Waters 18.41 seconds for the 110-meter hurdles.
Roman Kurian, Myles Johnson, Xander Morsby and Waters placed 12th in the boys 4x100 relay in a season-best 46.60 seconds, an improvement of nearly a second and a half. The time moved them to fourth in the district rankings.
Morsby had an incredible drop in the boys 400 to win his heat in 56.94, a new personal best by almost three seconds. Morsby ran a personal-record 24.50 seconds for the boys 200 meters.
The boys 4x400 of Johnson, Morsby, Waters and Kurian ran 4:01.34 for 17th place.
The girls 4x800 relay of Ceara Barnes, Ashley Brown, Sadie Bernd and Tessa Moyer ran a season best of 10:50.57 for 17th place.
The girls 4x400 was just off their season best with Brown, Gretchen German, Olivia Valverde and Barnes clocking 4:32.19 for 12th place.
Seungkyu Cho set a new personal record with a throw of 124-feet-1 in the boys javelin, good for fifth in the district currently. The senior threw 102-5 in the boys discus.
Maddie Afanador’s 20.06 time for the girls 100-meter hurdles was a new personal best. She is ranked fifth in the district. Olivia Mozzone was just off her best in 20.89 seconds.
Afanador came back to record another PR of 57.24 seconds in the 300 hurdles. Sophia Mercure made it around in 58.00 in her first time in the event. Afanador ranks seventh and Mercure now eighth in the district.
Gretchen German set a new personal best of 5:51.93 for the girls 1,600 meters. The sophomore is seventh in the district. Liv Moyer ran a season-best 5:59.22. She is 10th in the district. Moyer earlier lowered her season-best in the girls 3,200 to 12:44.71, fourth best in the district. German also recorded a new personal best of 74-feet-8 in the girls javelin that ranks third in District 1 AA.
Michael Pustay lowered his 1,600 PR by more than 11 seconds to place second in his heat in 5:05.52. He is 12th in the district. Josh Frederick ran 5:19.64 for the 1,600, an improvement of more than 20 seconds on his best.
Frederick recorded a new personal best of 2:25.39 for the boys 800 meters. Kurian established a baseline time of 2:29.03 in his first time in the open 800.
In the girls 800, Tessa Moyer ran a personal best of 2:37.06. The freshman ranks seventh in the district.
Johnson set a new personal best of 35-2.5 in the boys triple jump. narrowly missed his own best in the 200 with a 26.73 clocking. Johnson sits eighth in the district in triple jump.
Veltre posted a girls long jump distance of 14-feet-1.75. Mercure jumped a personal-best 13-6 to move into a ninth-place tie in the district.
In the girls discus, Veltre threw 70-10. She threw 26-9.5 in the girls shot put.
Luke Smeland threw 115-5 in the boys javelin.
Brown ran 14.16 seconds in the girls 100 meters. Eliana Farmer finished in 15.63 seconds.
Valverde went 30.24 in the girls 200 meters. Logan Naidoo posted a PR of 34.44 seconds. Valverde jumped 28-8.5 in the girls triple jump.
Barnes ran 1:08.32 for the girls 400 meters.
The girls 4x100 of Mercure, Afanador, Mozzone and Valverde ran 57.94.
The Pioneers have a busy week before they will turn their attention to their league meet. Dock competes at the Helman Invitational at Pennridge on Thursday, sends select athletes to Henderson Invitational on Friday, and finishes the week at the Neshaminy Co-Ed Invitational on Saturday.