NEWARK – The Norwich Purple Tornado girls and boys Track and Field team, along with the teams of Greene and Oxford, traveled on April 2, to the annual Red, White, Blue and Gold Track Invitational held at Newark valley high school.
The Norwich boys would ultimately come away with a second place finish as a team, out of 24 teams. The boys earned a total of 61-points, edging Dryden who sat at 59 on the day to secure the second place finish, while only being outscored on the day by invitational winners, Maine-Endwell who scored an impressive 85-points.
Norwich saw seven different entries into events garner a third place or better finish, something that helped carry them past Dryden.
The Purple Tornado saw seniors David Bernstein and Thomas Reilly exchange first and second place finishes in the Shot-Put and Discus competition.
It was Bernstein who placed first in the Discus at the invitational with a throw of 144'07.00", while Reilly trailed slightly earning him a second place finish with a throw of 137'01.00".
While in the Shot-Put, it was Reilly who would walk away as the top thrower after he launched a throw of 45'10.00", followed by Bernstein this time in second place with a throw of 44'07.25".
On the Track, it was Ben Ericksen in the Steeplechase who broke his own record, set last season at 10:56, when he battled through the elements of the day to claim the top spot, as he ran a new Norwich school-record time of 10:33.60.
The Norwich sprinters had another nice outing in the 4x100 relay when they scratched out a third place finish with a time of 48.68.
While jumper Jordan Vinal headed up a nice finish in the Triple Jump where he landed with a second place finish of 39'04.50".
Vinal also placed in the top ten of Long Jump and High Jump where he place seventh in both jumping 17'09.50, and 5'04.00" respectively.
Other notable times and finishes for the Norwich boys came in the 400 meter dash with Gabe Gawronski running a 55.33 and placing ninth; while Noah Buffalini ran the 800 meter dash at a time of 2:12.61 and earned a sixth place spot.
The Norwich girls did not enjoy the same successes as a team as the boys, however, found the silver lining with a very impressive outing for individual performances.
The girls as team finished twelfth out of 23 teams, as they tied Vestal at 15-points and managed to nudge out Chenango Forks and Owego Free Academy who each scored 14-points on the day.
Katelyn Shaver headlined the girls squad with her impressive throws, earning her a second and a third place finish on the day.
Shaver threw 31'05.25 in the Shot Put to get her to second place in the event, only losing slightly to Jaden Finch of Maine-Endwell who threw 32'00.00".
Shaver nearly hit the 100 feet mark in Discus with her throw of 92'02.00", coming up short to Hailey Newell of Sidney with her throw at second place of 95'11.00".
Savana Williams had a nice outing for the girls as she also managed to place in two events, the High Jump and the Triple Jump, jumping 4'08.00", and 28'01.00" respectively earning a sixth and ninth place finish in those events.
