WIAA Track: Hamilton Quietly Wins Handful of Medals

Sussex-Hamilton is used to people talking about their track teams.

Both the boys are girls teams are very deep and both typically finish in the overall top two of each meet they compete in.

Thanks to a few injuries on the boys’ side and a record-breaking performance by Milwaukee Bradley Tech on the girls’ side however, and suddenly the Chargers, despite their success, became somewhat invisible.

Despite not being the talk of the track this year, Hamilton’s girls relay teams didn’t let that affect their performances as they took gold in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays, and settled for a silver in the 4x100.

“Coming into it, we won it last year so we wanted to defend our title,” Hamilton senior Brooke Patterson said of the team’s first event of the day, the 4x200. “Plus, we had another senior that got hurt this year (Danielle Barbian), so it was nice doing it for her too. We wanted to defend it for her.”

Patterson, the lone crossover in all three events, then helped Hamilton to gold again in the 4x400, cruising in over a second faster than the second-place finisher.

The attention still avoided the Chargers however, as, in their quest for a third gold they were up-ended by crowd-pleasing Bradley Tech.

Led by the state’s newest fastest woman, senior Dezerea Bryant, the Trojans crushed the record they established in qualifying the day before (46.64 seconds) with a lightning-fast 46.02 final.

Hamilton finished second with a time of 48.15.

Overall, the girls team earned 28 points over the two days’ events, good enough for sixth place in the division 1 standings.

On the boys side, Hamilton again went more unnoticed than normal.

The 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams suffered an injury to anchor Aaron Clinton-Earl in Friday’s qualifiers. The senior workhorse still competed on Saturday, but didn’t look quite the same as the Chargers finished sixth in the 4x200 and did not qualify for the 4x100.

Aaron’s twin brother, Cameron also had a bit of bad luck, falling one spot short of qualifying in the 300 hurdles and finishing only 13^th in the shot put event that he normally owns in his conference.

Cameron still considered it a good weekend though after taking third in the very tight 110 hurdles.

“I came out here hoping to finish in a first or second spot, but it was us (Brookfield East’s Aaron Dillon, 2^nd place, and Wauwatosa West’s Keith Brown, 1^st) all season,” Cameron Clinton-Earl said. “I expected to finish in the top three but what I really wanted was a one or two. But I’m very proud of how I did today. I have no regrets.

“I’m very blessed with my ability that I have, I’m happy it got me to state and happy with the place I’m in right now.”

Chris Harrell also medaled for the Chargers, taking sixth in the very tight 200.

In all, Hamilton amassed 12 points on the day, good enough for 20^th place in the overall D1 boys standings.