A lightning delay that lasted over three hours, as well as what Anthony Brinkley described as a "splitting headache" prior to the 800 run of last week's Colonial League Meet, didn't stop the Catasauqua senior from having one of the best races of his career.

During the second day of last week's meet held at Whitehall High School's Sports Complex, the event resumed around 9:30 p.m. after numerous lightning strikes were visible in the sky. The delay, though, didn't seem to affect Brinkley one bit.

With about 200 meters to go, Brinkley hit another gear to complete the race in under two minutes. He broke away from Salisbury's Kyle Gonoude and the rest of the pack - finishing with a time of 1:59.66 - a new school record in the event.

"Probably my strongest part of my running is sprinting from the 200 meter mark," said Brinkley. "I've worked on that since my freshman year with my coach. We've always worked on that. Everyone on our team has itwe call it the kick right at the end.

"I took the two warmup laps and I had a headache, and I was like, 'Oh God, maybe if I just medal I'll be happy.' When I came around here and I finished and looked at the clock and it said 1:59, it was an unreal feeling for me."

Brinkley also medaled in the 1600, finishing in second place behind Gonoude with a time of 4:31.25.

"I won the mile last year [and] I would've liked to repeat," said Brinkley. "But Kyle ran a great race. His third lap was ridiculous [and] he really pulled away there. I got to give all the credit to him there."

The boys 4x100 relay team of Berrian Raphel, Devin Flores, Ra'Von Burton, and Eric Matz, finished in third place (44.64) behind Northwestern Lehigh and Palmerton. Burton anchored the team in the race's final leg, but wasn't able to close the gap.

"We have some things we definitely need to work on," said Burton. "Our handoffs need to get smoother. There's no reason we should be in third place.

"We beat every team coming into this. There's no excuses. We lost and a loss is a loss."

The 4x100 team will look to fix those miscues in the week as they prepare for a district run that hopefully propels them into states.

"I know we have to get at least first or second to make it to states, and that's our goal at the end of the season," said Burton. "So we're looking to improve as best as we can."

Burton also finished fourth in the 100 (11.62). Brinkley helped the boys 4x800 relay team finish third behind Wilson and Bangor, and Ty Kern came in third in the pole vault event with a mark of 11-06. Flores finished 7th in the pole.

On the girls side, Trinity Henderson took second in the shot put, finishing just behind winner Morgan McCollian of Bangor who threw a 35-9. Henderson had a throw of 35-1/2.

Colleen Hickey, Megan Covert, Morgan Meckes, and Laura Gerhard finished in ninth place in the 4x100 relay. Gerhard also placed ninth in the girls 100 with a time of 13.89, Trinity Henderson took 11th in the Javelin, and Dakoha Zelinsky finished 12th in the discus.