Pittsburg Kan – Competing in their final tune up meet before the Conference/Region 6 Championships, the Allen track and field teams ended the regular season with a thunderous bang.
The 20th ranked Red Devils were led by Sophomore All American Pedro Montoya and freshmen Vinny Butera and Ceaser Stephens respectively.
Friday night, Pedro Montoya shattered his own school record in the 5000m in a time of 14:44.24 lower the record by almost 20seconds. Finishing 4th overall that saw Pedro take the lead late in the race to ensure an honest effort was kept. Pedro is currently ranked 4th in the nation.
"Nothing surprises me by what he's been able to accomplish in his time here at Allen, he was a hard worker coming up from high school and he's continued that while here at Allen, and he'll do the same next year at Wichita State and continue to see improvements" DeGrado said.
Keshon McFadden who has been Mr. Consistent running another national qualifying mark in the 60m H in a time of 8.44.
Ceaser Stephens who's been nothing short of outstanding this season jumped a personal best in triple jump with a distance of 47-5.75 placing 2nd overall, and currently ranked 9th in the nation.
"I've been very impressed with what Coach Cadet has done with Ceasers development in the triple jump thus far. I see Ceaser continuing his development throughout the season." DeGrado said.
One of the highlights of the meet this weekend occurred on Saturday when freshman Vinny Butera broke the school record in the 800m with a time of 1:54.09 placing him 1st in the unseeded division. For Vinny this was his first time under 2:00 and was a 6 second improvement from his previous best time. "I've been saying it all fall that when Vinny finally figures out how to run the 800m he's going to be something special." "Our 800m crew has something special going for them, and to see all of them develop and get faster each week has been the most rewarding."
Freshman Chris Martin ran a personal best in the 800m and qualified for nationals with a time of 1:57.12.
Philip Lagemann runs a personal best time of 4:24.26 qualifying him for nationals.
The track meet concluded with one of the more surprising performances of the night by the men's 4x400m relay who ran a season best and qualified for nationals with a time of 3:19.95. Led by standout sophomore Carlos James who closed a 50m gap on the final leg help lead the team to a qualifying time. FR Ke'Voughn Manning also help ignite the team with a 49second split for the 2nd leg while Keshon McFadden and Chris Martin contributed with 50 point legs.
On the ladies side Asha Alvarez qualified for nationals in the triple jump with a distance of 34-09.50.
Tieasha Collier runs a seasonal best time of 26.11 in the 200 while Ivori Hood runs a personal best of 26.22.
Allen will next head to the Jayhawk East/Region 6 Championships hosted by Pittsburg State University this Friday and Saturday.