By Andy Walter

DOVER — Freddie Johnson had been bugging Jalen Morris for a couple years to run track.

The youngster already played football for him and Johnson thought the tall, athletic Morris would be a natural in the sport.

“I told him, ‘Man, if you just try, you’re going to be a superstar,’” said Johnson, Lake Forest High’s veteran coach.

The coach was right.

In his first state track meet, Morris won both the 110- and 300-meter hurdle titles, which helped carry the Spartans to their first DIAA Division II boys’ team state title since 2015.

Lake Forest (114 points), which beat out second-place Tatnall (100), was the only Henlopen Conference program to leave Dover High with a team championship trophy after the two-day event concluded on a hot, sunny day.

Henlopen champion Smyrna did earn a pair of runner-up trophies after finishing second to Padua (girls) and Salesianum (boys) in the two Division I team standings. With St. Mark’s winning the girls’ Division II crown, Catholic schools won three of the four team titles.

Individually, Lake Forest sprinter Cierra Young had an especially big day, winning three individual titles and running on a winning relay in the girls’ Division II meet.

Lake Forest’s boys’ team members enjoyed their victory lap with the first-place trophy after winning the program’s sixth team state championship.

“I’ve seen it in previous years,” senior Michael Brown said about the victory-lap tradition. “It does feel great to do it, being part of that.

“This is my first championship. I’m a senior so it feels good to win as a team.”

Johnson, who has coached the Spartans to a pair of state titles, thought Lake Forest had a good shot at the team championship going into the meet. But there’s no way to know for sure until the results start rolling in.

“That’s pretty cool getting to watch these guys celebrate a championship,” he said. “They worked really hard. After the first couple meets, I thought we had the talent to put a good team on the track.

“I’ve been watching the teams that had the potential to win Division II all year. You know, you add up the score 100 different ways. I knew it would be close. I just told our kids, you do what you’re capable of doing, we should be OK. We’re not asking you to do anything out of the ordinary, just do what you’ve been doing all year and you’ll be fine.”

Individually, Brown (long jump) and Earle Dunning (high jump) got the Spartans off to a good start by winning their events on Friday. On Saturday, the team of Brown, Kendal Smith, Damian Galindez and Shamel Pressely won the 800-meter relay in 1:32.76, while Morris, Brown, Galindez and Smith took the 400 relay in 44.57.

Of course, Lake Forest picked up another 54 points from athletes who scored points with top-10 finishes in their events.

As for Morris, he won the 110 hurdles in 15.32 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 40.73, he said he was a little surprised that he had that much success in his first year in the sport.

“I just felt like it was time for me to come out for track,” said Morris, a receiver and defensive back in football. “I knew I could be really good at it. I didn’t really want to do the hurdles this year but he (Johnson) pushed me to do them and I’m kind of glad he made me do them.

“It took a little bit of time but ... it (winning a state title) is the best feeling I’ve felt in a while. The goal is to do better next year.”

Also in the boys’ meet on Saturday, Indian River’s Lucas Weber won the discus with a throw of 138-5.

Lake Forest was the top downstate team in the girls’ Division II meet, placing fourth with 79 points thanks to a big boost from Young’s performance.

Young, a junior, won the 100-meter title in 12.75 seconds, the 400-meter crown in 59.38 and the 200 meters in 25.57 seconds.

Young still had enough left to team up with Jessica Tyndall, Michelle Markland and Paris Drummer to win the 800-meter relay in 1:51.93.

Smyrna takes seconds

While Padua and Sallies were dominant in winning their Division I team titles, Smyrna was still pretty impressive in its second-place showings.

In the girls’ team standings, the Pandas finished with 186 points, Smyrna totaled 99.5 and third-place St. Georges had 81.5
In the boys’ standings, Sallies won with 160 points, Smyrna collected 98 and third-place Polytech had 70.

For Smyrna’s girls, the team of Amaris Rogers, Aasiyah Abdul-Kareem, Kayla Bess and Elise Carter won the 800-meter relay (1:45.88).

For the Eagles’ boys, Makhi Scott (long jump) and Devin Demoe (high jump) won their events on Friday.

Individually in the girls’ Division I meet, Polytech standout Casey Talamini-Kelemen won the triple jump with a meet-record leap of 38-11.75 while Caesar Rodney’s Cheyane Brown won the shot put (40-5.25),

Individually in the boys’ Division I meet, Dover’s Ethan Roth won the discus with a throw of 150-5 — 14 feet farther than the second-place finisher. The Senators picked up three titles in all, with Jakwon Kilby winning the triple jump (44-5.5) and Tyjhir Joyner taking the 200 in 21.68.

Sussex Tech’s Yougendy Mauricette won the 300 hurdles (40.49) while Polytech’s Matt Gatune added to his strong showing in the meet by winning the 800 meters in 1:58.63.