Le Roy Track & Field

The Le Roy Winter Track and Field Team has started the season right where they left off last year. At the opening meet on Saturday, December 11th at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, eleven Le Roy athletes qualified for Sectionals. The following week, ten more athletes met times, heights, or distances required to compete in the Sectional Championships in February. Coach Jay Laitenberger, in his third year of coaching the team, has over 50 boys and girls on the team.

In the first meet, girls' team Captain Amanda Carmichael set a new girls school record in the shot put and qualified for Sectionals along with Brittany Lang. Boys' Captain Bob Morehead and Sam Hilburger also qualified for Sectionals in boys shot put.

Senior Captain Dave Dreyer started his winter season pole vaulting 11í0" and breaking his school record by one and a half feet. A week later he would surpass his best height by two more feet when he vaulted 13í0" to be one of the top vaulters in Section Five out of all classes.

In the jumping events, Mike Frank came close to beating his own school record in Long Jump when he qualified for Sectionals. Joining Mike at the jumping pits were Tyler Hall and Pat OíHalloran in triple jump, both of which have qualified for sectionals following a series of jumps that progressively broke each others school records. Dan Washburn set a new winter track record in the High Jump when he passed 5í2" to qualify for Sectionals.

On the track, Tyler Murray and Jake Sullivan had solid races in the 2 mile and mile ending with both qualifying for sectionals. Sullivan set a new school record in the 2 mile and Murray set one in the mile. Jim Schwab, coming off a great cross country season, qualified in the 1000 and 600 meters with two of the fastest times in Class D. Mike Taillie and Mark Bennett both ran outstanding sprints in the 55 meters to be among the top runners in Class D.

The 4 x 800 relay team of Jake Sullivan, Jim Schwab, Tyler Murray and Pat OíHalloran also broke the school record by running a 9:16 ñ the fastest time in Class D boys through the first two weeks of the season. Their performance was 40 seconds faster than the Le Roy 6th Place Boys' Team was last year in Sectionals. Sophomore Jake Sullivan said, "The four of us have been waiting for this relay since mid-way through the cross country season when we noticed just how good we could be. We have a long way to go and Iím really excited about this team."

The Boys' 4 x 200 Team of Dave Dreyer, Mike Taillie, Mike Frank and Mark Bennett ran the exact same time as Sectionals last year when the same 4 boys finished 3rd. Coach Laitenberger said, "Itís exciting to see them start off right where they finished last year."

Both teams have high expectations for the season, and have started the season off chasing after many of their goals. With 21 athletes already qualified for Sectionals and many athletes listed in top places on the leader board, Le Roy should fare well in February.