Hereford Relay Team Top Seed for State Championship

Hereford junior Emily VandeWater won the 1600 meter run, anchored the Bulls' triumphant 3200 meter relay and finished in third place at 800 meters to pace her team to the championship at last weekend's Class 3A North Regional track meet. 

VandeWater clocked the 1600 meters in 5 minutes, 19.7 seconds, the 800 in 2 minutes, 22.40 seconds, and anchored the triumphant 3200 relay unit that included freshman Morgan Oakley, senior Rachel Abbott and junior Bailey Wilhelm.

The girls 3200 relay totaled a nine minute, 46.8 seconds. It was the meet's fastest in that event by five seconds, according to Bulls' coach Bradley Duvall. 

"The [3200] relay team will be the top seed entering the state meet, with the hopes of earning a state relay championship," said DuVall, noting that the Bulls earned past regional championships in 2004, '05, '06, '07, and '08. 

"This was the first regional championship for the girls since 2008," said Duvall. "Western and Catonsville have dominated the region meet the past two seasons."

VandeWater's effort came a week after having helped the Bulls to their fourth consecutive Baltimore County championship by winning the 800 and the 1600 meter runs.

Vandewater's county championship times of 2 minutes, 19.56 seconds and 5 minutes, 13.88 seconds, respectively, in the 800 and 1600 were personal best milestones.

Also at the county meet, VandeWater ran the third leg of the Bulls' third place, 1,600-meter relay squad, whose clocking of 4 minutes, 11.56 seconds was .03 seconds off the school record. 

"This year, the girls completed an undefeated season against Baltimore County opponents on both JV and Varsity," Duvall said. "They also won the region in indoor this year." 

At last Saturday's regionals, Bulls senior Jessica Gee won the high jump with a leap of 4-feet, 11 inches and was fourth in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 9.5 inches.

Also, junior Abigail Wenck won the pole vault by clearing nine feet, and freshman Sara Carter and senior Rachel Barkley were second and third in the 3200 meter run, respectively, finishing in 12 minutes, 10.5 seconds, and, 12 minutes, 12.2 seconds. 

Carter also placed third in the 1600 meter run, as did senior Rosemary Hall in 300 meter hurdles. 

Wilhelm was fifth in the 800 meter run and anchored the Bulls' fourth place 1600 relay squad by following senior Rosemary Hall, Oakley and VandeWater. 

Sophomore Shannon Martello was fourth in both the 800 and 1600 meter runs, junior Julia McLaughlin was fourth in the high jump, and Hall was fifth in the 100 meter hurdles. 

Bulls in Boys Track

Senior Charlie Ryan won the discus with a record throw of 148 feet, five inches and was a runner-up in the shot put and long jump. Ryan's efforts paced Hereford's boys track team to last weekend's overall Class 3A North Regional title. It was their first regional crown since 2008. 

Ryan broke a 36-year old school record in the discus that Dave Lane held since 1975. His effort was complimented by his shot put toss of 46 feet, eight inches and his leap of 20 feet, 3.5 inches in the long jump. 

In other events, senior Ben Bemis, senior Brenden Martello, junior Evan Anderson and sophomore Jon Luckin were first, respectively, in the 1600 meter run, the pole vault, the 800 meter run and the 3200 meter run. 

Bemis clocked a four minute, 33.1-second mile, Martello cleared 12 feet, 10 inches, Anderson finished his 800 in two minutes, 1.7 seconds, and Luckin clocked a nine-minute, 59.9-second 3200.

Luckin and Anderson were the lead off and anchor legs, respectively, for the Bulls' triumphant 3200 meter relay team whose second and third runners were sophomore Matt Lehnert and senior Sam Cornwell. 

The 3200 meter relay team clocked a time of eight minutes, 31.5 seconds. 

Other who placed included senior Mason Rivera and sophomore Kevin Payne, who were runners-up in the 1600 and the pole vault, respectively, in four minutes, 33.7 seconds and by clearing 12 feet, four inches. 

In addition, Lehnert was third in the 800 meter run, junior Luke Kurtz was third in both the shot put and the discus, sophomore Julian Rivera, third in the 3200.

Senior Adam Smith and sophomore Graham Hensley were fourth in the discus and the shot put. 

Bulls Battled With Bats

Although the program's season ended with last Thursday's 9-3 loss to North Harford of Harford County in the Class 3A North Regional semifinals, this year's campaign for the Hereford's softball team was an improvement. 

The Bulls posted an overall mark of 12-5 under coach Laura Blama after finishing below .500 last year. 

"This season was a great improvement upon last season's record of 9-10, and we are only losing two starters to graduation in seniors Kelly Brown and Malorie Andrews," Blama said. "So we expect to build upon this season's success next year."

In the loss to North Harford, sophomore Jen Cope was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI's, junior Hannah Thomas was 2-for-3 with an RBI and junior Rachael Shaeffer, 2-for-3, with a double.

Freshman pitcher LeAnne Collins struck out two and walked one in her first game since returning from a shoulder injury sustained in April, Blama said.

"We were only six outs away from advancing to the region finals when North Harford's bats finally woke up," Blama said. "They took advantage of a couple of mental errors that we made, and they scored seven runs on six hits in that inning."

Collins finished the year with a mark of 5-3 after tossing 54 strikeouts in 51 innings. Collins posted an ERA of 2.47 for the season.

Junior pitcher Becca Smith was 7-1 and threw 45 innings. During which she struck out 37 batters and had an ERA of 3.58.

Thomas hit .475 with a .625 slugging percentage and a team-high 20 RBI, Collins hit .405, Shaeffer, .342, and Cope, .300. Cope led the team in runs scored with 16 and also knocked in 16 runs. 

Thomas was voted to the Baltimore County coaches' First-Team, and Collins and Cope, a third baseman, to the coaches' Second-Team as well as their All-Division Team.