Le Roy Winter Track &

Field Builds On The Tradition

FEB. 23, 2003 - The Le Roy Winter Track and Field team had one major goal for their second season in the Rochester Winter Track League: "add to the tradition started last year." Right from day one, Coach Jay Laitenberger set a challenge to the team to break as many of last yearís inaugural school records as possible. Laitenberger said, "As I see it, every record that we break shows our improvement over last year."

The team was full of young runners, in striking contrast to last yearís senior dominated team. This yearís team featured only 5 seniors: Megan Waterman, Megan Gugino, Tim Judge, Casey Moran and exchange student Diego Marmolejo. Of the remaining 29 members of the team, only 5 of them are juniors, leaving Coach Laitenberger with a team heavy with young athletes.
At the Section Five Championships on Saturday, February 14 at Hobart and William Smith College, many individuals peaked at the perfect time.

In the 1500 meter race walk, Megan Waterman out raced her own school record by 13 seconds to finish 5th overall.

In the 600, Janessa Shearer also beat the school record as she raced to a 5th place finish and a 3rd place in the 55 meter sprint.

The boys team got its first points of the night when Casey Moran finished 4th in the 600 also beating the school record and later finished 5th in the 55 hurdles.

Tim Judgeís 55 meter sprint was the highlight of a night filled with excellent performances. Tim led the race right from the starting blocks and had a convincing lead as he crossed the finish line to win the Class D race. In doing so, he became the first Le Roy athlete to earn a Sectional Championship in Winter Track and Field.

In the 4 x 800 relay, Jim Schwab, Andy Judge, Jake Sullivan and Josh Nilsen finished 6th.

Andyís race was by far his best of the season as he dropped his personal best time by 8 seconds.

In the 4 x 400 the boys team was seeded 6th, but the team knew they were capable of much better. Casey Moran, Dave Dreyer, Mark Bennett and Tim Judge out ran Oakfield-Alabama to finish in 3rd place and crushed last year's school record by 6 seconds. The final track event of the night was the 4 x 200, which expected to beat their 6th place seed. The young relay team of Mike Taillie, Mark Bennett, Mike Frank and Dave Dreyer started less than a half hour after Mark and Dave finished their previous relay. The team also came in 3rd place in dramatic fashion and almost beat the most prized school record set last year by the 24th fastest team in the state out of all classes.

In the field events, Dave Dreyer led the pole vaulters with his 3rd place vault of 9'6" breaking his pervious school record. Mike Taillie finished 4th with his best performance of the season. Mike Frank broke the school record in long jump.

The boys' team finished 4th overall in Class D as they scored four times as many points as last years talented senior team. The girls' team managed 10 points and finished 13th with only 2 girls scoring. Several athletes are expected to qualify for the Meet of Champions held on February 28th back at Hobart and William Smith College.