Smith entered the competition at 13 feet and cleared on his first attempt to win the competition of 2 competitors. He elected to pass 13' 6", then cleared on his second attempt at both 14'0" and 14'6" (a new school record by two inches!). Smith then dramatically cleared 14'9" on his third attempt (another school record, by ANOTHER three inches!). Smith then put two solid looks at 15 feet on the heels of nine vaults and numerous warmup popups before an exhausted final attempt at 15 feet, which now looks quite a bit closer than before.
Fellow senior Buck Mikey DeMarco also faired well in the pole vault on Saturday, clearing 12 feet to finish 7th overall.
Freshman Adam Anastasiadis stole the show in the freshman shotput, heaving a 36 foot, three inch best throw to win the competition by an impressive four feet!
Nico Metzler got out fast then hung tough in a gutsy performance to fight Holy Ghost Prep's talented Christian Kardish for silver in the 1500 meter run. Metzler prevailed by a 0.34 seconds with a PR of 4:08.70.
Junior Austin Kline and senior Ben Smith tag-teamed an exciting late charge to claim 3rd and 4th in the 400 meter dash amongst a field of 36 competitors. Kline (51.70) and Smith (51.77) were just shy of Bensalem's sophomore superstar Kerron Holley (51.65).
West's freshman standout sprinters Ryan Devlin, Orlando Villaraga, Evan Henrich, and Jason Douple also turned heads as they bettered their previous best in the freshman 4x100 relay to place 4th overall with a fully-automatic time of 49.20. The medalists excitedly anticipate the Penn Relay Trials on Thursday, April 12th.
Douple also impressed as leadoff of West's freshman 4x800 meter relay along with Baylor Griffin, Joe Brill, and Ian Davies that placed 11th in the varsity 4x800. The foursome ran an astounding 8:59.87, showing that the future is bright for distance dominance at West.
Jackson Butkuss launched a 144 foot, 10 inch rocket in the javelin competition to place 4th out of 29
competitors. The rookie thrower's performance was 12 foot PR!
Junior distance stud Chris Berry and senior leader Alex Predhome ran near-PR performances to collect 5th and 6th place bling in the 3000 meter run.
The Bucks finished the day with a solid season best of 3:28.20 in the mile relay. Future phamaceutical partners Zoleski-Smith-Kline all doubled strongly back with 51 second quarters in the business trip around the track.
The Bucks (3-0) travel to the North Penn Knights (2-1) on Tuesday or a meet that promises to produce many district-qualifying performances and PRs.