In what is believed to be SJA's first ever track and field district championship, the Jaguars prevailed over the rest of the Lakewood district with a total team effort. The winning Jaguars earned the win with a score of 163 points - 8.5 points ahead of rival Magnificat. The district title is not only the first for the track and field team, but it is just the second sport to win a district title at the school period.
The statistics of the win are staggering. Out of a possible 17 events, the Jags will be sending athletes to the regional competition in 16. To qualify to the regional (held next week at Amherst High School) the individual/relay had to finish in the top 4 place. More staggering was that out of all the individuals (each team could enter 2 individuals per event and 1 relay per relay event) only 3 did not score points.
The Jags success came from depth winning only 3 events (Veronica Colborn in the pole vault, MaryKate Caja in the 300 meter hurdles and the 4 x 200 meter relay team of Caja, Caitlin Nagy, Rebecca Sedlak, and Brenna McGrath), but they scored 2nd in 9 different events.
Nearly every athlete earned a personal best in her event, but 3 more school records were broken and junior Brenna McGrath had a hand in all 3. Her day began with a 16' 10" long jump, breaking Angel Lett's longstanding record by 6 inches. Next came the 4 x 200m relay in which the quartet broke their own school record by over a full second running 1:44.90. To end her record setting day Brenna finished 2nd in the 200 meter dash with a time of 25.75, breaking her own school record set in Wednesday's prelims.
Junior teammate MaryKate Caja also had a big day finishing 2nd in the 100m dash in a personal best 12.67 seconds to go with her relay and hurdle titles. Sophomore Rebecca Sedlak exploded in the 400 to finish 4th and nearly beat the school record with a time of 59.55. She came back later in the 4 x 400 meter relay to split under 60 seconds again and moved the team from 3rd to 1st during her leg. Also scoring multiple times were junior Sarah Schwind (2nd in pole vault, 3rd in 100 hurdles, and 4th in 300 hurdles), Caitlin Nagy (2nd in 4 x 800, 2nd in 800, 2nd in 4 x 400, and 1st in 4 x 200), sophomore Gab Leon (2nd in 4 x 100, 5th in 100m dash), senior Mary Kate Chambers (5th in 1600, 3rd in 3200), senior Maggey Urban (7th shot put, 6th discus), sophomore Rachel McGuire (2nd 4 x 800, 3rd 1600, 2nd 4 x 400), and Maddie Zimmerman (2nd 4 x 800, 6th 400m dash).
There is not enough room to highlight every individual, but here is a link to the Plain Dealer article from Saturday's paper.
http://highschoolsports.cleveland.com/news/article/5403328776145676960/st-joseph-girls-ignatius-boys-triumph-in-division-i-district-track/
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