The weekend of April 23 the Alden Boys and Girls Track team traveled to compete in the first Niagara Falls Invitational. It was a challenging meet with the Bulldogs going up against many larger schools but still came off with many impressive places. The boys team finished the day 12th out of 17 and the girls finished impressively at 2nd.

For the guys team, Leyton Miner continued his dominance at shot put, taking first with a throw of 48 feet 6 inches Leyton is currently the number one shot put thrower in section 6 small schools and is two feet off qualifying for the state championship meet. Chris Greenwald took 4th in discus with a throw of 122ft 1in and Colin Skowronski placed 7th with a throw of 114 ft. 2 in. Also placing in field events was Mike Handley in the pole vault, finishing tied for 5th with a vault of 9 ft. Raymond Boucher also notched a 5th place finish in the high jump with a height of 5 ft 2 in. Boucher also helped the 4x 800 relay, comprised of Adam Czech, Conrad Boucher, Josh Jeziorski, and Ray Boucher, finish 6th place with a time of 9:15. The boy’s teams 4x 100 meter relay of Josh Dudely, Tim Fawls, Colin Skowronski, and Christian Snell, came in 8th with a time of 46.90 and the 4x 400 relay of Adam Elis, Alex Leigh, Jeremy Jeziorski, and Charlie Varshay placed 7th with a time of 3:46.

On the girls team, they brought home a lot of ribbons and medals for the Bulldogs. In the field, Alex Mots placed 3rd in discus throwing 94 ft 9in and 6th in shot with a throw of 30 ft 10in. Karlie Hake took 4th in shot with a 32 ft 2in throw. For the jumpers, Madison Stercula had a triple jump of 32 ft 10in for 4th place and Kayla Kopinski placed tied for 7th with a jump of 31 ft 3in. In long jump, Hailey Rospierski finished 3rd with a distance of 15ft 4in and Cookie Altieri finished 7th at 14ft 7in. Sara O’Connor cleared a 8ft 6in height in pole vault to take 5th. In high jump Altieri took second with a finishing height of 5ft and Rospierski followed behind also at 5ft but took 4th due to having more failed attempts.

On the track Kayla Kopinski finished 6th in the 100 meter dash with a time of 13.40.  Ashely Duza took 3rd in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:04. In the 800 meter dash, Becky Kron and Jackie Wallace finished in 6th and 10th with times of 2:33.70 and 2:37.80 respectively. Sarah Golas took 5th in the 1500 with a time of 5:26.30. State champion Hailey Rospierski took first once again in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15 flat. In the 400 hurdles other state contender, Sara Augustine, finished tied for first with a time of 1:09.30. The girls 4x 100 relay team of Sara Augustine, Kayla Kopinski, Hailey Rospierski, and Peyton Zelasko took 7th with a time of 54.10. The 4x 400 relay of Ashely Duza, Becky Kron, Ashleigh Strasser, and Savannah Warner took 5th at a 4:28.10. Finally the 4x 800 relay finished 4th consisting of Becky Kron, Ashleigh Strasser, Jackie Wallace, and Savvanah Warner.