Cape Tech Track Places Fourth At Vocational Championships

PLEASANT LAKE – The Cape Cod Tech track and field team is smaller than essentially every other opponent they face. That’s not something reflected by their results in meets and the quantity of points their athletes accrue.

Bolstered by phenomenal distance runners, a top jumper and competitive relay squads, the boys team has gone undefeated in dual-meets this spring.

“We go up against teams that have three times as many kids, and it’s fun to do that — to win — but it's also fun to see them progress,” head coach Sam McCormack said.

On Monday, the boys placed fourth as a team at the MVADA Small Division championship meet in Canton. The Crusaders’ 55 points put them just one behind third place, the hosting Blue Hills Regional Tech.

Cape Tech earned a number of wins and high finishes in the vocational competition. Junior Anthony Bartlett won the triple jump (43 feet, 6.5 inches, a personal best). He also placed second in the long jump (21 feet, 1.5 inches).

Fifty-fifty odds are partly to thank for how Bartlett has reached this level. He started doing track his freshman year, which he felt didn’t go well. So sophomore year, he flipped a coin, heads or tails dictating whether he’d do track and field again or not. The coin landed, and now Bartlett is a key piece for Cape Tech.

The Crusaders’ other top performers compete in the distance category. At the vocational championship, sophomore Casey Fitzgerald won the 2-mile (10:26.31, a personal best) and placed second in the 1-mile (4:56.81, also a personal best). In addition, Jayden Jecroys placed third in the 1-mile (4:58.19).

“There are so many individuals on this team that are very gifted, but I know that they all work very hard for that, and I think it's really just been hard work for this team,” Bartlett said.

Also for the Crusaders, senior Cole Rauch placed second in the 800-meter (2:06.96, a personal best). The boys 4x100 team (Kayden Belair, Jahmario Bartlett, Anthony Bartlett, Thomas Allen) placed fourth (46.16) and the 4x400 team (Jayden Jecroys, Cole Benton, Casey Fitzgerald, Cole Rauch) placed sixth (3:51.76).

“At least the guys that I've been running distance with, we really push each other a lot, and the sprinters definitely push each other a lot,” Fitzgerald said. “And I feel like we all kind of just work off each other really well.”

The girls team had one athlete, junior Belle Bigley, competing at the vocational championships. Despite being Cape Tech’s sole representative, Bigley made her mark. She won the discus (86 feet, 5 inches) and placed sixth in shot put (24 feet, 9 inches).

Bartlett credited McCormack, now in his eighth year coaching the team since its inception.

“You should see him in practice,” Bartlett said. “He's great. He runs around. He helps whoever he can as fast as possible, just trying to make us better, and I think when that really started to set in on us, that's when we improved.”

Other competitors at the vocational small school state meet included junior Thomas Allen placing 11th in the javelin (115 feet, 5 inches, a personal best), senior Kayden Belair placing 13th in the long jump (16 feet, 9 inches) and 14th in the triple jump (34 feet, 11.25 inches).

Brendon Burke finished 14th (22.74, a personal best) and Colby Garrity finished ninth (19.54, a personal best) in the 110-meter hurdles preliminary. In addition to the jump events, Bartlett also placed 12th in the 200-meter (24.11, a personal best).

So while Cape Tech’s limited numbers as a team make it hard, in some cases impossible, to win certain meets (especially on the girls’ side), the talent still glimmers on an individual level. 

“What we're trying to do here is build the program, and like any small team, we need to have more people,” McCormack said.