Sophie Chase Claims Another Title

Both the Lake Braddock boys and girls indoor track and field teams enjoyed top 10 overall finishes in Saturday's Northern Region meet at George Mason University. The boys team finished fifth overall with 41 points while the girls team finished eighth overall with 30.50 points. “It was a good day for the Bruins,” said Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan. 

Sophie Chase won a regional title in the girls 1600-meter run, finishing a full seven seconds ahead of the race’s second place finisher. In the same race, freshman Hannah Christen finished third and senior Casey Lardner finished fifth. Although Lardner’s fifth-place finish qualifiers her for the event at the state meet next week in Hampton, Mangan suggested that Lardner would not be participating in the event, allowing her to focus fully on her specialty (1000 meters).

Lake Braddock’s Women’s 4x800-meter relay (Hannah Christen, Sophie Chase, Casey Lardner, Katie Roche) team, which is ranked among the top 20 in the nation, did not participate in yesterday’s meet. But they have already qualified for, and will participate in, the state event.

Rounding out the rest of the Lake Braddock’s girls track state qualifiers are seniors Tara Fialkow (shot put) and Jessica Bourneuf (pole vault). When talking about what it means for the two senior qualifiers, Mangan said, “As seniors, they finally got to the big dance. It’s just awesome. I cheer for all of my kids the same, but deep down inside you want the seniors to make it because it’s their last shot at it.”

The Lake Braddock boys team performed exceptionally well. Javier Brionez placed fourth in the shot put, which set the pace early for the rest of the day. Sean Daugherty finished second in the pole vault, jumping nearly two feet higher (13.00) than his previous best (11.10). Matt Fraedrich, who has only been hurdling for a month, placed an impressive second in the boys 55-meter hurdles.

In the boys long distance events, Sam Rubenking placed second in the 1600-meter run. Luke Sohl placed fifth in the same event. Sohl also placed third in the 3200-meter Run and Nick Tuck placed fourth.

Lake Braddock’s state qualifiers will compete at the State event next Friday and Saturday in Hampton.