Quailes gets four medals, girls place sixth overall

Janee' Quailes

BEAR, Del. – Well, they’re called Vikings for a reason.

They’re not afraid to set sail – ok, ride a bus – to seek out challenges. And they tend to come home with some valuable hardware.

Just ask Janee’ Quailes.

The junior girl ran and jumped her way to four medals at the Caravel Invitational in Northern Delaware on Saturday, as she led the Lady Vikings to a sixth-place finish in a field of 19 teams. Padua won with 124 points, as the C-SD athletes earned 31.

Polytech placed first among the boys’ 18 teams, with 96 points. The C-SD boys ended up 13th, with 12.

The only other Maryland school present was 1A North Bohemia Manor, whose girls landed in 16th with 10 points, while the Bo Manor boys also scored 10 points, good for 16th.

Though a small state, Delaware is big in track and field, with some high schools having such advanced programs that they recruit athletes from around the nation. And the annual meet at Caravel Academy in Bear, just south of Newark, is known as a highly competitive event.

That’s exactly why the Vikes’ coaches took their show on the road.

“We take them to big meets so they will get used to big competition and feel comfortable and confident when they compete at the state level,” Head Coach Lois Narr said. “It was a competition where talent combined with hard work can really shine, as evidenced by the performances of Janee’ Quailes, our sprint relays and Hunter Brown in discus.”

By the end of the day, teammates knew where Janee’ was, by the clinking of four medals hanging around her neck. With second places in the 400-meter dash (1:02.3), and the 4x200 relay (1:51.31), and thirds in triple jump 32’ 11”, and the 4x100 52.85, the junior girl is picking up speed for a successful year.

Senior Hunter Brown had a career day, as the school’s leading strength athlete blew past two personal records as he grabbed fifth place in discus.

Brown came into the meet with a best throw of 105’ 5”. His first toss was a bit over 100, then his second came up short.

Like the seasoned veteran he is, Hunter deliberately tapped his foot outside the throwing circle, fouling so that the attempt wouldn’t be measured – no need for that, he was looking for much better.

His third attempt looked promising, ending a few feet over the chalk line marking 100 feet. Teammates held their breath as the tape was stretched and the official read out 107’ 7”.

Hunter bounded over to high-five his buddies, who knew well how hard a thrower trains and how few attempts he or she gets at a meet. But Brown still had one more.

On his fourth throw, all the speed, strength, technique and plain old ornery explosiveness came together. Hunter spun around the circle, arms wide, chest out, and unleashed a heave that took off at just the right angle, spinning hard to cut through a strong headwind.

It hit closer to the 125-foot mark than the 100-foot line, and the celebration started even before the distance of 116’ 3” - within reach of Jalen Cornish’s school record of 123’ 2” - was called out.

“I’ve really trained hard for this,” Hunter said as his mates continued to slap his back and shake his hand. “We came up here to play hard and show what C-SD is about.”

Saturday’s trip to Delaware wrapped up a busy week for the Vikings, after Tuesday’s meet at Kent County (1A).

Queen Anne’s County (2A) girls scored 94 for the win, while C-SD earned 72 and Kent County scored 1 point. Viking boys won with 103.5, QAC grabbed 46.5 and Kent County scored 10.

Wednesday, the Vikings traveled to Salisbury for a meet at Parkside.