The points may not have been high, but the effort level was, and for Perry boys track coach Ben Coy, that was good enough.
The Bluejays hosted the Perry Coed Relays at Kaufman Track Thursday, and while scoring only 75 points, Coy said he was proud of the attitude and energy level of his team.
“We would like place higher than fifth, but I thought the guys competed well and the effort was there,” he related. “It was a really tough meet and that is good for us to go out and compete with great competition like we saw tonight. The 4×400 and 4×800 both set season-best times and we had personal record times from Adan Medina in the 400 and Reece Dunlap in the 200. Juma Bushiri had his best times in the 800 and 1600 and Brandon Kenyon set a personal mark in the 400 hurdles and Shammond Ivory had a new best in the long jump.”
Carroll slipped past Boone for the top team spot, 121-115, with Grinnell a close third at 107. Norwalk (94) was fourth, Perry (75) fifth and Kuemper Catholic (38) a distant sixth.
“There were a lot of good relay splits as well,” Coy said. “I thought we competed well, we just saw some very good competition, and our goal as a program is to get to the point where we can be even more competitive with teams like Boone and Carroll.”
Dunlap was third in both the 100 and 200, in 16.49 seconds and 23.64 ticks, with Eli Saemisch placing sixth in the 200 at 24.43. Medina’s 53.6 was swift enough for second in the 400, with Bushiri fifth in the 800 in 2 minutes, 13.48 seconds and third in the 1600 in 4:53.07.
Perry scored double points in the 400 low hurdles, with Alexis Garrido crossing in 1:00.42 and Kenyon in 1:00.94.
The Bluejays won two relays, claiming the 4×400 in 3:36.8 and the 1600 medley in 4:00.06. Medina, Garrido, Rashon Ivory and Jacob Thompson ran the former, in which Thompson nipped the Carroll anchor by .02 to end the meet on a high note for the hosts. The medley foursome consisted of Rashon Ivory, Nic Fellom, Kaleb Olejniczak and Zach Thompson, with Olejniczak, Alex Long and both Thompson’s running the 4×800, with placed second in 8:48.04.
The 4×200 unit of Jose Castellanos, Gage Welch, Donald Chavez and Fellom were fifth in 1:37.73, with Garrido, Kenyon, Malachi Meri and Beau Briles finishing fifth in the shuttle hurdle in 1:10.08.
“We need to improve on hand-offs, both open and closed,” Coy stated. “Even though the 4×400 set a season-best, I thought we had some sloppy hand-offs that we need to work on, and, obviously, the 4×100 dropped the baton.”
Shammond Ivory gave Perry their only field event points when he leapt 18 feet, 8-3/4 inches in the long jump, good enough for second place.
Both Perry teams will return to action Monday when they compete in the Greene County Coed Relays in Jefferson.
