Blue Devils continue ICC dominance
Gerwert wins pole vault with meet record
May 9, 2017
Coach Nick Lovrich and the Bellwood-Antis track team continued their dominance of the Inter-County Conference yesterday as they won their eighth ICC dual Championship meet in ten years, two weeks after clinching their ninth regular-season championships in ten season as regular-season ICC.
B-A won yesterday’s contest at Northern Bedford High School going away, scoring 123.67 points, even though they only won two events during the whole meet.
“This team isn’t that much different from teams we have had in past years. The common theme is depth. Having only won two events, but placing in 17 out of 18 events was key in the win, as no other team was able to match this in each event, which is what ultimately won us the meet,” said Coach Lovrich.
The Blue Devils’ Nate Friedenberger, Ethan McGee, Tanner Worthing, and Eric Morder combined to run the 400 relay in a time of 46.02 for the win in the event. Clay Engle’s 42-4 in the triple jump was fourteen inches better than second place Galvin Gilbert from Northern Bedford.
Those were the only individual events B-A won, but they had double place-winners in seven of 15 events, including three in the pole vault.
The Devils would like to see the success translate into top performances at Districts, which takes place for Class AA next Tuesday.
“If you’re going to do well at Districts, you’ve got to have your best day that day,” said Coach Lovrich. “You try not to do too much at practice and save your best for the meet.”
On the girls side the Lady Blue Devils finished fifth as a team but had one individual champion in junior Alexis Gerwert, who set another meet record this season by leaping 10-1 in the pole vault. It was the third meet record she’s set this season.
“It feels good to break meet records. I usually don’t know I’m close until someone tells me right before I do it,” said Gerwert. “I would like to be jumping higher by Districts, and I’ll try to do that by going to a different pole.”
Jenna Bartlett highlighted other girls place-winners by finishing second in the 3200, while Kamryn Mercer was third in the high jump.