The Randolph Men's Track & Field team concluded the 2021 ODAC Outdoor Championships with a slew of lifetime bests both in the throwing circles and on the oval.
The thrower duo of Mitchell Doss and Sha-Ron Bass kicked the day off for the WildCats in the Discus throw. Doss managed to break the 30-meter mark on his final throw of the day with a 30.38m throw to place 14th overall. Bass, with confidence brought on by his warm-up throws, threw a new lifetime best of 23.67m to place 20th overall.
Junior Justin Bliss would kick things off on the track in the first heat of the men's 1500m where he made his way up through the field throughout the race to kick to a new lifetime best at the event with a time of 4:47.96, his first time under 4:50. First-year Izaiah Burgos had strong race in his heat, pacing even splits of 67 seconds for the first 3 laps before closing the final 400m in 65 seconds to a new lifetime best of 4:11.55, narrowly missing the school record of 4:11.42 set by teammate Cody Thompson early this season at the WildCat Track Festival.
Next up, the men's 800m proved to be an exciting event for the WildCats with an additional three lifetime bests coming out of it. In the second heat, Tristan Palmer got out aggressively, making a move for the lead with 300m to overtake Tate of Ferrum, with teammate Blan Hodges tucked in just behind him. Tate would make his move on the final turn to take the lead before Hodges unleashed a kick for the line, winning the heat in a time of 2:05.54, beating his seed time of 2:11.77 to win the heat. Palmer would rally and finish closely behind with a new lifetime best of 2:06.93. The pair would finish 26th and 28th respectively.
Cody Thompson would take to the line in the 4th heat of the 800m where he was forced into the back of the pack around the second turn, coming through the first 400m in 58.95 seconds. He then made a move on the backstretch moving up steadily through the field before kicking to the line for a new lifetime best of 2:00.26. He ranks as the second-fastest WildCat in school history, just behind Matthieu Meyer's school record of 1:59.30.
The men would conclude the day with an electrifying 4x400m relay. Under the stadium lights, Lamont Mohabir exploded out of the blocks, running a smooth opening 400m, before kicking in and handing off to Tristian Palmer with a 54-second first leg split. Neck and neck with Eastern Mennonite's Jansen Miller, Palmer held on and kicked away to a running time of 1:50.57, handing off to Blan Hodges just behind Jamaal Hunter of Guilford. Hodges attacked the first turn and overtook Hunter for the lead along the backstretch, holding off Colton Spence of Virginia Wesleyan on the homestretch to hand off the baton to Cody Thompson in a time of 2:45.06 (54.49) with a narrow lead over the Marlins. Thompson charged through the first 200m, battling Isaiah Luckey from the beach school before powering down the homestretch to win the heat with a time of 3:36.48, just a few short seconds behind the school record set back in 2017 of 3:32.83.
"We had an incredible day top to bottom on the men's side," Coach Purrington said, "The sheer number of lifetime bests speaks to how well everyone has peaked for the right time and the point score doesn't tell the full story. In deep fields, our guys fought with heart in every event and just missed scoring opportunities in several events. We're a young team and I'm incredibly excited for how this sets us up for the future."
The men of Randolph finish the 2021 ODAC Championships with a team score of 7 to place 11th overall. While this concludes the 2021 season for most of the team, a small group will continue on for one last attempt for school records at Wednesday's Liberty Twilight Qualifier, hosted across town at Liberty University.
