Boys Finish 3rd, Girls 9th at SWC Track Championships

The Oxford High School boys and girls track teams competed at the 2011 SWC Track and Field Championships held on a rainy Monday at Bethel High School.  The Wolverines placed third in the boys event, and ninth in the girls meet.
 
Boys Coach Charlie Rizzio was proud of his team’s performance. “I am happy for the boys. You only get four years to make memories in high school, and I'd like to think that what they did today will be part of those memories.”  
 
The senior leadership propelled the Wolverines performance on the day.  “Our three seniors (Kevin Parkin, Steven Parkin, and David Ives) finished their SWC careers with a great showing, earning a combined 50 points in open events.” 
 
While the seniors contributed 50 points toward the team score, Rizzio has a promising group of underclassmen that look to make Oxford track a strong team in the future.

“The 4x100 relay defended their 2010 SWC title, while the 4x400 and 4x800 also had top five finishes,” he said. “But it was the performances by the underclassmen that allowed for the team to finish third overall. If not for them we would have came in sixth.” 
 
A third-place finish is quite an accomplishment for any school in the SWC.  For Oxford, however, to finish third will be even more memorable.

“Not having a track facility at our school and still being able to compete at a high level, in an extremely competitive league, makes it that much more special,” Rizzio said. 
 
Although the SWC meet is over, Oxford still has more work to do to bring home even more accomplishments before the end of school. Rizzio knows there is a lot of hard work left to put in.

“Even still, we can't allow ourselves to be satisfied," he said. "The state meets are coming up, and we will be getting back to work right away in order to have an opportunity to put on another good showing as we represent the town of Oxford.”
 
The girls side was paced by a third place finish in the 4X400 relay with a time of 4:37.51.  Taylor Drayton placed first in the discus with a distance of 104’10,” and first in the shot put with a distance of 32’.5”  Amy Persson won the high jump, leaping 4’10”.  
 
Boys Finishers:
4x100: 1st. Chris VanKamerik, Joe  Greco, Steven Parkin, Kevin Parkin 43.80 
4x400: 2nd. K.Parkin, Cameron Swift, S.Parkin, J.Greco 3:32.25
4x800: 4th.  Ryan Flach, Brandon Au, Mike Morton, Cameron Swift
100: 1st. Steven Parkin, Oxford, 11.48; 2nd. Kevin Parkin, Oxford, 11.55
200: 1st. Steven Parkin, Oxford, 23.05; 2nd. Kevin Parkin, Oxford, 23.28 
Triple jump: 1st. David Ives, Oxford, 40-9.5
High Jump: 5th. David Ives
400: 5th. Joe Greco
800: 5th. Mike Morton
1600: 6th. Cameron Swift

Girls numbers:

Amy Persson, High Jump 4-feet, 10-inches; and Taylor Drayton, Shot Put 32-feet, 0.5-inches, and Discus 104-feet, 10-inches, were named SWC Champions and earned All-SWC honors by winning their individual events.

Drayton also placed sixth in the havelin with a throw of 96-feet, 7-inches.

The 4x800 meter relay team of Marcea Stilson, Caylee Richardson, Johnna D'Ambruoso and Olivia Richter placed 8th with a time of 10:34.

Marcea Stilson set a school record in the 1600 with a time of 5:40.52. She placed 9th overall in the event.Caylee Richardson placed 6th in the 3200 meters with a school record time of 12:17.77. Marcea Stilson placed 8th (12:23.19) and Sara Ponce placed 9th (12:26.47) all beating the previous school record in the event.