Bronchos Win Bethany Track Invitational, Howard Sets New School Record
Bethany, OK - For 57 years Bethany has hosted their annual high school invitational track meet, but this year's certainly goes down in the record books as one of the most successful for the home team. The Bronchos came out on top of the 16 team field with 146 points compared to 129 points for the second place team and Class 5A powerhouse Bishop McGuinness. In addition to the team championship Bethany's Jackson Howard came away with a school record on the day by running 22.05 seconds in the 200 Meter Dash. This record comes just two years after a long standing 200 Meter Dash record was broken by Rob Greer when he ran 22.34 seconds.
The meet started off on a bad foot for Bethany as their 4 x 100 relay team, which was projected to finished in 2nd place, missed the 2nd exchange and did not finish the race, but the Bronchos overcame that start and dominated the meet in several other areas to take home the team championship. The second relay of the day, the 4 x 800 Meter Relay, saw Bethany run a season's best time of 8:36.41 as Carson Sandvik, Tyler Cobb, Jeremiah Martinez and Blake Balenseifen combined to run what is a top five time in Class 4A so far this year. The Bronchos continued the domination in the 3200 Meter Run where Sandvik finished first, Cameron Jernigan finished second, and Carlos Maya came in fourth.
After the botched exchange in the 4 x 100 Meter Relay the Bronchos bounced back with a relay win in the 4 x 200 Meter Relay, 1:33.78 which is a top ten time in Class 4A so far this year. This relay team was made up of Jackson Howard, Scott Lynch, Zack Copeland and Nate Jones. In the next race, the 800 Meter Run, the Bronchos continued their point scoring as Tyler Cobb finished in second, Blake Balenseifen finished in third, and Jeremiah Martinez finished in sixth. The Bronchos then came away with 18 points out of the 200 Meter Dash with the win by Howard and a second place finish by sophomore Scott Lynch. Howard's school record time of 22.05 has him in 4th place in Class 4A, while Lynch's second place time of 22.25 has him in 6th place overall in the state.
The Bronchos were down five points to Bishop McGuinness heading into the 1600 Meter Run, but 22 points scored in that race would solidify the team championship for Bethany. Tyler Cobb closed the race in strong fashion to win the title, while Carson Sandvik finished in second and Cameron Jernigan in fourth. The Bronchos also claimed a third place finish in the 4 x 400 Meter Relay to finish the meet off.
Bethany will travel to the Class 4A Regional Championship in Enid, OK, next Saturday, April 28 which will be hosted at Chisholm High School.