CITIZEN STAFF
MIAMI —The Key West High School track and field team began the 2006 campaign with some strong individual performances at the Belen Relays at Belen Jesuit High School Friday.
Before a heavy rain washed out some of the events, Key West finished first out of 15 teams in four events — the long jump, triple jump, 4x100 relay and girls long jump.
Key West boys coach Dave Perkins was pleased with the first showing of his team, which is trying to fill holes left by a team that finished fourth in the state last season.
"Considering all that we lost from last season, we did pretty well," he said. "We had some good performances."
The tops among those was Laurence "Poppy" Marius. The senior who has signed to play football at Georgia Tech next season took individual titles in the long jump (21-feet-6 inches) and triple jump (42-31/2).
Marius also ran on the 4x100 relay team which took first place. Other members of that team were Marcus Bolden, Roman Orifino and Clayton Strachn.
Marius was closely followed by Bolden and Strachn, who finished second behind Marius in the long jump and triple jump, respectively.
Marius and Bolden also combined with Mason Marshall and Wesley Muir to grab a second-place finish in the 4x400 relay.
Hali Lombardi, who was the girls team's lone representative at the state meet last year, had the other top finish, taking first in the long jump (15-21/2). Right behind Lombardi was Sele Gordon, who jumped 15 feet.
Another positive note for the girls' team was a second place finish by the 4x400 relay team of Karolina Nowak, Courtney Walker, Gigi Orofino and Natalie Harper.
The Conchs' next meet is Tuesday at Coral Shores.
1/2
Published on Saturday, February 25, 2006
http://keysnews.com/296937204827527.bsp.htm