Beginning of the Season

The Vianney Track and Field team has had a great beginning to its season.  Week
one saw some great competition in the MCC Relays, the first competition of the
season.  The competition began in earnest the first week of April.  The always competitive Webster Invitational was April 6 and it again brought some of the
great athletes of the area.  Tony Burton, who recently signed a national letter of intent to Quincy University, took 2nd in the 1600m to lead the placers for the Griffs.  Other top performances were turned by Brennan Baringer in the 300mIH, Mike Makhamreh in the shot put, and Rob Bieg in the pole vault.

On Thursday, Vianney hosted the annual Marianist meet and came out on top on both the Varsity and JV team competitions.  The event champions on Varsity were Brennan Baringer in 110m HH and 300m IH, Mike Fields in the 100m, Tony Burton in 1600m, Zak Krekeler in the 400m, and Brian Bach in the shot put.  For JV, champions were the 4×800 team of Drake Cantu, Connor Peth, Bryan O’Leary, and Jimmy Broyles, who also won the 1600m, the 4×100 team of James Cocroft, Max Oldani, Kyle Williams, Shay Garner, James Cocroft in 300mLH, Kyle Williams in the 200m, Kevin Tiemann in the 3200m, Corey Andrews in the shot put, Chris Dougherty, and James Cocroft in the high jump.  It was a total team effort on both levels though that made the victories
happen.

Week three was very busy with four meets on various levels.  Tuesday, April 12, was the Priory JV Invitational.  Eddie Albarran, 3200m, Corey Andrews, shot put, and James Cocroft, high jump, were event champions.  Other medalists were the 4×800 and 4×400 relay teams. 

Wednesday was the JV extravaganza at SLUH.  Scoring was a little
difficult to follow, but several season best performances were turned in on a
good day to compete. 

The Bob Brunette Invitational at Affton was highlight of the season.  The Griffins scored in just about every event en route to winning the meet.  Event champions were Tony Burton, 1600m, Eddie Albarran, 3200m, Mike Fields, long jump, Patrick Barden, triple jump, and Brian Bach in both throws.  It was a great day to be a Griffin as we won our first invitational in several seasons.

 Saturday was cold and rainy all day at the All Catholic meet at Chaminade.  In a contrast to Thursday, the Griffs didn’t muster a medal on the day but had several high placers.  It made
for a good start to the season over a busy couple weeks.