The Lehigh Valley Conference Track and Field Championships took place last week at Whitehall High School where Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom, and Liberty competed for top honors.

On the first day of the two-day meet, Becahi's Freddie Simmons broke the meet record in the 300 hurdles with a time of 38.68. Becahi graduate, Tyler Horton, held the record from the previous year with a time of 38.71.

Liberty's Darius Jones won the triple jump with a distance of 45-1 1/2, and Denzel Vereen placed second in the shot put with a distance of 48-3 3/4.

Freedom junior, Shaina Palmer, was second in the 3200 with a time of 11:26.88, Liberty's Nicole Capuano was also second in the javelin with a distance of 109-9, and Becahi's Tess Zamolyi placed third in the same event with a distance of 104-11.

On the second day, Simmons won the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.79. Liberty's Victor Santiago took third place in the 100 dash with a time of 11:38, and Becahi's Donovan West finished in second place in the 200 dash with a time of 22.45, and Liberty's Josiah Wright was third with a time of 22.8.

Liberty's Jaylyne Aminu won the 100 dash in 12:48, and placed second in the 200 dash in 26.40.

Freedom's Palmer took third place in the 1600 with a time of 5:18.34.

For Becahi, Antwon Keenan, Donovan West, Mike McDaniel, Simmons won the 4x1 relay, and Simmons, Mike Duffy, Sean Moroney, and John Spirk placed second in the 4x4 relay with a time of 3:27.84.

Moroney said, "We always had high hopes [even though] we were ranked around sixth, but we keep getting better, and it was a close finish."

Simmons led off, and because of the lane staggers, it appeared the Hawks were in last place, but after handing off to Duffy things changed.

Duffy said, "The second runner has to run the first 100 meters in their lane, and then can cross into the first lane and just run."

That's exactly what Duffy did.

"It's basically a dead sprint to get to the front because if you're not there at that point, you're in trouble," he said.

Duffy pulled the Hawks into second place behind Nazareth, and after handing off to Moroney, Moroney passed the Nazareth runner to take first place, but the Blue Eagles' anchor was able to get by John Spirk for the Nazareth win.

"It was a bit bittersweet," said Duffy. "The general consensus was that we can do better. I told everyone that we faced a good team, and we lost, so we have the opportunity to race against them again [at districts]. It's up to us to change the outcome."

Districts begin this Thursday.

Moroney said, "We look good for districts. Last week, we were working on sprints. Before that, it was all distance."

In jumping and throwing events, Liberty's Darius Jones won the long jump with a distance of 22-3, Becahi's Lauren Posch placed third in the triple jump with a distance of 35-2 1/4, and Rachel Finn from Liberty won the pole vault with a height of 11-0.

Aminu took second place in the shot put with a distance of 35-3 1/2.