Special to The Dorchester Banner/Dave Ryan
The Cambridge-South Dorchester High School boys’ and girls’ track and field teams celebrated their placing in the 16th Annual Charles Nesbitt/Gloristeen Pinkett Relays on Friday at Queen Anne’s County High School. C-SD girls placed second, while the boys tied for second with Colonel Richardson High School.[/caption] CAMBRIDGE — It was a different sort of meet, and the first of its kind for the Cambridge-South Dorchester High School boys’ and girls’ track and field teams, but they say change is good, and so was this. The Vikings traveled to Queen Anne’s County High School for the 16th Annual Charles Nesbitt/Gloristeen Pinkett Relays on Friday. Viking boys tied for second with Colonel Richardson High School, as the girls also took second. Kent Island High School won both events. North Dorchester High School also competed in the meet. Mr. Nesbitt and Ms. Pinkett were dedicated physical education teachers in Queen Anne’s County for more than 30 years. The event was named to honor their achievements over their long careers. Both still come out to support Queen Anne’s County track and field. This type of track and field event features standard relay events, such as the 4x100 meters, 4x200, 4x400 and the 4x800 meters. It also offers some different ones, including the distance medley, in which one athlete runs 800 meters, or twice around the track, followed by a teammate who goes 400, then another who runs 1,200 meters, and then finally by a runner who completes four laps, for 1,600 meters, which is about a mile. Sprint medleys with varying distances are included in the program, as is a coed shuttle hurdle race, which has the runners clearing hurdles and doubling back in the opposite direction. In the field events, pairs of athletes are paired in the shot put and discus throws, as well as the jumps — long, triple, high and pole vault. In these, the combined score of the two is how places are determined. The effect of the relays is to produce a team-oriented approach, as the athletes are often put into new events, or race the relays in a different order than they are used to. Team captain Noah Perry was joined by fellow senior James Madox in the discus event. The young men figured it would take throws of 100 feet to win. Madox led off with a pretty toss of 105 feet, and when Perry threw for nearly 90, things looked promising for the Vikes. But after the second round of throws, the Kent Island boys were ahead by a couple feet. What it would take to win would be personal-record throws from Madox and Perry on their final throws — and that’s what they did. James hit 112 feet, and Noah nailed one for 93 feet, scoring 205 feet to beat their Kent Island rivals by two feet.