Salesianum junior Ethan Walther collects 800 record; 2 more Delaware records go down
WILMINGTON – Ethan Walther drinks a REIGN energy drink before every meet. The can rests in a koozie that has Romans 8:18 etched onto it. It's a bible verse Walther latched onto at some point last year.
"What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal."
That passage was with Walther on Wednesday as he unloaded his kick, both metaphorically and literally. He pressed Romans 8:18 in white letters onto the bottom right corner of a first-of-its-kind black Salesianum singlet he made the night before with his mom, Erin's, Cricut machine. The message stimulated him as he ran for home, his finish around the final curve of his 800-meter race mirrored by a wave of spectators sprinting across the infield.
For the second time at the 2024 Meet of Champions, the crowd saw something no one had ever seen before in Delaware. Elijah Williams of Smyrna about an hour earlier won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.80, becoming the first Delaware high schooler to run under 14 seconds under automatic timing. An hour later, they would again witness a Delaware first. The Padua 4x400 team of Anna Bockius, Madelyn Mead, Sophia Holgado and Molly Flanagan ran 3:47.85, breaking a 40-year-old state record by two seconds.
As Walther crossed the finish line on his home Abessinio Stadium track, the Salesianum junior stretched out both arms. Teammates surrounded him as his time became official. 1:49.02.
Walther broke Delaware's longest-standing individual state record in a running event, becoming just the second Delawarean to ever run under 1:50 in the 800 and the first to do so on Delaware soil. As of Wednesday night, according to the track and field website milesplit, Walther is the fastest half-miler in the nation.
"I came in imagining it, envisioning it and it just came true," said Walther.
His performance was aided by another half-miler on whom history will reflect fondly. A.I. du Pont's Camerin Williams led the race through its first 550 meters, setting a fast but comfortable pace of 53.4 through the first lap. Williams didn't drift far when Walther started his kick around 250 meters to go. He finished in 1:50.20, making him the third-fastest 800 runner in state history.
"It takes courage to run the 800 in my opinion," said Bruce Harris, who ran 1:49.4 as a Dover High junior in 1984 and held the state record until Wednesday. "It's that speed-endurance type of race. You have to have the combination and they both did. For them to both drop their times the way they did today was amazing."
In the first three decades after Harris set the state record, no one came within three seconds of his time. In recent years, several runners dipped under 1:53, but ultimately fell short. Williams and Walther appeared as the latest challengers after each ran sub-1:52 at out-of-state invitationals earlier in the spring.
They took different paths in the championship season. Williams ran the 400-800 double — races spaced just one event apart — at the New Castle County and state meets. He won the 400 both times and won the Division II 800, while placing second to Walther at the county meet in the only race they shared this season before Wednesday.
Walther won the county 1,600 in a state record time of 4:08.91, then won Division I championships at 3,200 and 800 meters.
Williams figured his typical sit-and-kick strategy wouldn't secure the state record, so in his final race in the orange and black tiger print uniform of A.I. du Pont, he decided to run from the lead.
"I knew that if the record was going to get broken today, it was going to be from me pushing the pace," Williams said. "I used my 400 speed, tried to make the race uncomfortable and put us on pace."
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Walther was able to match and still find the kick that has made him undefeated in Delaware since last year's Meet of Champions. After transferring from Delaware Military Academy to Salesianum prior to this year, he has amassed five individual state records: the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 indoors, and the 800 and 1,600 outdoors. Walther also ran the 1,600 leg of Salesianum's state record distance medley this spring.
He is a two-time cross-country state champion and has won five individual state meet races on the track.
"I still have another year," Walther said. "I know that mile can drop a lot more. That [800] is dropping. Hopefully, I can keep knocking off time."
After the celebration wore off, Walther dropped down to a blue mat he left spread on the infield and rested briefly on his left side before flipping to his stomach. His suffering was complete.
"Both Ethan and Cam became legends today," Harris said. "This is what people are going to remember in the years to come."
Flanked by strong competition, Elijah Williams runs 110 hurdles state record
The season-ending Meet of Champions brings together the top finishers from last weekend's team-focused, two-division state championship meet into a single showdown in each event. It takes on a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the state meet, but produces some of the season's top performances as it is the one time each year the state's bests compete head-to-head.
With temperatures in the low 80s to start and high 70s to finish and minimal humidity and wind, Wednesday's conditions were ideal. By the time the lights were turned off, it could be called one of the greatest track and field meets in Delaware history.
There were 19 performances that will register in the top 10 in their respective events on Delaware's all-time performance list. There were nine meet records, including three state records.
The boys 110 hurdles went off at 6:38 p.m., 13 minutes after Williams made his final attempt on the high jump. There, he surpassed the field with a jump of 6-8 for the second straight meet and stalled at the state-record height of 6-11.25. But, the 110 hurdles record of 14.00 set by Middletown's Brahmir Vick at the 2019 Meet of Champions was the record Williams wanted most.
Williams opened his season with a personal best of 14.08 and ran 14.09 in the state meet prelims. Steady rain for the Saturday final spoiled the senior's second-to-last chance.
"I knew if I wanted to get this, I needed to have a good start," Williams said.
Williams broke even with Odessa's Michael Latham and Division II champion Donovan Dixon of Caravel. He said his arm hit Latham early in the race, which forced him to pick up the pace knowing how close the competition was. After the fifth hurdle, Williams began to open a lead. Latham finished second in 14.29, 13th in state history.
Competitors from across the state mobbed Williams when his time was announced.
"When I heard it, it was just, it was really instantly all the emotions," Williams said. "All the hard work and just sweat and pain and just relief."
Padua breaks 40-year-old 4x400 state record
Owners of the third-best time in state history entering Wednesday, the Padua team of Bockius, Mead, Holgado and Flanagan has been running from the front of 4x400 races the entire season.
Running together for the final time in a Delaware high school race, the Pandas found an extra gear.
"Everyone can do one more lap is what we always say," said Bockius. The only underclassmen of the group, she split a season-best 56.7 on the opening leg. "At that [final] 200, I was just thinking about them and you can just push harder for your teammates."
Mead, who ran the second leg in 58.9, said she was shocked when she heard the relay's time. The team has wanted to get under the state record of 3:49.74 set by the William Penn team of Shayla Baine, Connie Ellerbe, Tara Fisher and Theresa Hill at the 1984 Penn Relays. After coming within a second twice in the last year, Padua ended up smashing the record, running 3:47.85.
Holgado had about a 10-minute reprieve after placing second in the 3,200 in 10:34.46. She held the lead Bockius and Mead built and handed to Flanagan with a chance at the record, running 57.8. Flanagan finished in a blistering 54.2.
"They're all my best friends inside track and outside," Flanagan said. "So we just love each other and we do it for each other."
The current Padua team now holds the indoor and outdoor 4x400 state records, as well as the 4x800 state record, set earlier this year at Penn Relays.
Aaliyah Turpin of Smyrna and Arianna Montgomery of Tatnall ran hip to hip through the first 50 meters of the 100 hurdles. Turpin pulled away with a meet record of 14.34 that catapulted the sophomore to fifth all-time. Montgomery finished in 14.36 and is now tied for eighth all-time.
"I was a little nervous for that race because she's fast, but I just stuck to it," said Turpin, who moments later placed second in the 100 in 12.23. "My start is not the best so I just ran through it and gave it my all."
Alongside his strongest competition of the season, Dixon won the 300 hurdles in 37.90, the ninth-best time in state history. Expect to see Dixon with studs some time soon — he said his mom told him he could get his ears pierced if he won.
The winners of the 400s both produced the fastest times in Delaware this year. Dickinson's Jakai Robinson continued his breakout season, winning in 47.62 for sixth on the all-time list. Danielle Wooten of Ursuline dropped her time from 61.35 at the start of the season to 55.51 Wednesday.
The junior pointed to 450 and 300 repeats as the source of her speed endurance.
"I just wanted to really get out strong and then on that back stretch just glide, stay smooth," said Wooten, who is now ninth in state history.
Padua's Juliana Balon ran a meet record of 12.01 to win the 100 and vaulted to seventh all-time in the 200 with a winning time of 24.37. Balon also won the long jump in 18-6.5, giving her seven career individual Meet of Champions victories, the most in state history.
Tatnall's Carlita Kaliher broke away late in the girls 3,200 to win in 10:26.39. She is now third all-time behind state record holder Haley Pierce of Tatnall and Middletown's Isabelle Walsh who ran 10:15.24 to win the Division I race last weekend.
Tatnall sophomore Abby Downin won the 800 in a personal best of 2:09.22. She is third on the all-time list. With a time of 4:51.81, Tatnall junior Katie Payne improved to eighth on the all-time list in a second-place finish in the 1,600 to Walsh.
Cape Henlopen's Edward Houck cleared 14-6 for second place behind teammate Bailey Fletcher (15-0). Houck is now tied for ninth all-time.
Relay teams took down four meet records, in addition to the Padua 4x400. The Tatnall 4x100 of Kiara Davis, Simone Bessong, Alexis Tarlue and Montgomery, which ran under the state record at the county meet, won in a meet record time of 47.96.
The Middletown 4x100 of Messai Maynor, Amir Jones-Branch, Anai Burney-Green and Zamir Miller ran the sixth-fastest relay in state history (42.14) and a meet record. All four members of the relay are underclassmen.
Dixon teamed with Vandrick Hamlin, Elias Hackett and Craig Miller to run a meet record of 1:26.57 in the 4x200. Miller held off Odessa anchor Kasai Truitt in the final 100. The Ducks ran 1:27.81. They are the fifth- and eighth-fastest teams in state history.
The Dickinson team of Na'im Benson, Ben Johnson, Isaiah McKnight and Robinson won the 4x400 in 3:18.20, about a half-second ahead of second-place Caesar Rodney (Gabe Harris, Josh Johnson, Aiden Cain and Ian Cain). They are the sixth- and eighth-fastest teams in state history.
After finishing second to Saint Mark's in the Division II 4x800, Sanford shuffled their order Wednesday, moving 1:55 runner Tegan Kovacs to the third leg. The tactic worked with Kovacs and anchor Lazo Slijepcevic splitting under 1:56 behind Henry Stenta and Daniel Brake to take the win and help Sanford to the sixth-best time in state history, 7:51.75.
Brandon Holveck reports on high school sports for The News Journal. Contact him at bholveck@delawareonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Ethan Walther breaks DE record; Padua smashes 40-year-old relay time
