Walther sets boys 1,600 state record as Padua and Saint Mark's claim county titles
WILMINGTON – Ethan Walther has not lost an individual race against a Delaware opponent since last spring’s Meet of Champions.
It’s normally the fierce kick of the Salesianum junior that separates him from the field, but Saturday he knew to reach his goals he needed to make the race himself from the gun. Walther stepped onto the Abessinio Stadium track for the county championship 1,600 not only wanting the win, but the state record and the distinction of the first Delaware high schooler to have run under 4:10.
The race unfolded almost to plan, with Walther leading from his first step. He came through 800 around 2:05 with Tatnall’s Ben Pizarro attached. Walther then accelerated in the third lap – the test of every mile. In the final 400, he broke away from Pizarro, revealing a new shade of his usual kick.
Walther finished in 4:08.91. He broke the state record of 4:11.71 set by Charter of Wilmington’s Kieran Tuntivate at the 2015 county meet.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to how mentally strong you are,” Walther said. “It’s not like my legs are not feeling it. I know I’m hurting more than everybody else out there.”
Strong competition is an annual tradition at the New Castle County track and field championships, and the 2024 edition was no exception. In the event following Walther’s record run, the Tatnall 4x100 relay team of Kiara Davis, Simone Bessong, Alexis Tarlue and Arianna Montgomery combined to run 47.70 and won by two and a half seconds.
They broke the state record of 47.78 set in 2010 by the Delcastle team of Kristina Viamante, Alexis Reeves, Javonna Dickerson and Celina Emerson.
Saturday’s race marked the end of an almost two-year pursuit of the 4x100 record, an effort that saw the Hornets cycle through multiple lineups. At last year’s Meet of Champions, the school came within five-hundredths of a second of the record.
“Kiara’s our best starter. Ari will walk down whoever is in front of her; she’s going to get her,” Tarlue said. “Simone’s one of our best 200 runners with speed endurance. So, it’s just like a perfect lineup for us.”
Both team championships were decided by fewer than 10 points. Padua scored 152 to Tatnall’s 144 to win their 12th consecutive team title. The Saint Mark’s boys posted 109 points to win. Salesianum finished second with 100.
Saint Mark’s sealed the victory with a come-from-behind win in the 4x400. The Spartans entered the meet seeded fifth in the event and appeared to be well off the leaders’ pace in the early legs. Anchor Brian Yeager overcame a roughly 20-meter deficit, moving from third to first in the final 200 meters.
“I knew what I had to do, and I did it,” said Yeager, who ran a split under 50 seconds and then was mobbed by his teammates on the infield. “We did it with depth. We had fresh legs.”
Walther continued his streak in the 800, running 1:53.82 to take down a field of six half-milers at or below 1:57. In a steady rain Friday night, Walther anchored Salesianum’s winning 4x800 relay, helping the Sals become the first Delaware school to run under eight minutes this season.
“He’s a generational talent,” said Salesianum distance coach Scott Davis.
Walther’s torrid stretch began with a sweep of the distance events in Division II at last year’s state meet as a sophomore at Delaware Military Academy. Walther then transferred to Salesianum and won the Division I cross-country state title this fall. In consecutive weeks in the indoor season, he set state records in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
The outdoor state records in those events are of a higher echelon, but the 1,600 record felt imminently attainable after Walther split 4:10.65 two weeks ago at Penn Relays on Salesianum’s state record distance medley relay.
The plan Saturday was to run a more even pace than Walther ran in previous races. To do that, he went straight to the front.
“I knew what I was doing,” Walther said. “Anybody that wanted to stick along, they could stick along. Ben Pizarro did that, he ran a great race, too.”
Tuntivate, whose record Walther broke, is now a professional runner with Nike’s Bowerman Track Club in Oregon. Representing Thailand, he ran in the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 world championships after graduating from Charter in 2015 and Harvard in 2020.
The 800 state record of 1:49.4, held since 1984 by Dover’s Bruce Harris, remains a goal in Walther’s final races this spring. If he doesn’t hit it this year, it’ll be top of mind in 2025.
In regard to the mile, he didn’t let up Saturday and doesn’t plan to in the future. The state record at the distance has now changed hands four times since Newark’s Jim Bray ran 4:15.7 for the mile at the 1972 county meet. Walther has already shaved more time off the record than anyone.
“I want a Bruce Harris record,” Walther said. “I don’t want anyone touching it.”
Padua wins 24th girls New Castle County track and field title
It’s tradition for Padua to bounce and chant in a celebratory huddle after winning a track and field championship. What was unique about Saturday’s cheer was how tight the huddle was – there were only about a dozen participants.
Athletes from Padua and Tatnall combined to win 14 of 18 events. But both schools racked up the team points with relatively small rosters, asking their top athletes to compete in three or four events each.
For the second straight year, Sophia Holgado won four races. The senior on Friday took the baton second on the Pandas' winning 4x800 relay then won a tactical 3,200 about an hour later. Saturday she again kicked to the win in the closing meters of the 1,600 and opened up a gap over Tatnall as the third runner on Padua’s victorious 4x400.
“Last year, when I ran at counties and states, it all went out in like 5:30 and then all of a sudden everyone started negative splitting,” Holgado said. “I feel like I run better like that.”
Elce Walsh ran back and forth from the pole vault to the track, competing on Padua’s 4x100 and 4x200 teams between attempts. After suffering a partial PCL tear last spring when she collided with a teammate on a relay exchange, Walsh has reestablished herself as the state’s best pole vaulter.
Walsh cleared 11-9 to win Saturday. She hit her chest on her final attempt at 12-3, a height that would have won the boys competition.
Padua also got wins from Molly Flanagan (400), Juliana Balon (100 and 200), Mekiyah Earnest (triple jump) and Libby Neiburg (high jump).
Anna Bockius placed second in the 800, fourth in the 3,200 and ran on Padua’s winning 4x800 and 4x400 teams with Flanagan and Holgado. Wolff, the fourth member of the 4x800, finished third in the 800 and 1,600. Madelyn Mead placed fifth in triple jump and ran on the winning 4x400.
For Tatnall, Abby Downin led wire-to-wire in the 800, winning in a meet record 2:11.08. Montgomery won the 100 hurdles, and Davis won the long jump.
Saint Mark’s wins first boys New Castle County track and field title
Yeager’s close in the 4x400 was just one piece of Saint Mark’s team title. The Spartans won four events and had eight other top-three finishes.
2024 was the 81st running of the New Castle County Championships. Never before had Saint Mark’s won the boys title.
Even though Chad Dohl left a tad early receiving the baton as the final runner of the Spartans’ 4x100 relay, he was able to recover and catch the Caravel runner to his inside for the win. Dohl, who also won the 100, combined with Tahj Johnson, Jude Rykaczewski and Keigan Barnes to run a school record time of 42.79.
“That’s the greatest feeling in track, catching somebody,” Dohl said.
Saint Mark’s finished third in the 4x200 and 4x800. The 4x400 team of Matthew Cox, Brandon Smith, Sean Kemske and Yeager was perhaps the freshest of the field, a byproduct of the Spartans' depth. Yeager had the closest double, finishing third in the 800 two events prior in a personal best of 1:54.75.
The Spartans also fared well in the field events. Among several scorers, sophomore Max Batten won the high jump with a leap of 6-2, Logan Klein placed third in shot put and second in discus and Michael Burgos placed second in pole vault.
Notes from around the track
A.I. du Pont’s Camerin Williams was the last runner to the bullpen for the boys 800 as about an hour earlier he won the 400. Williams took a conservative approach to the first lap of 800, knowing he would be dealing with fatigue from the 400. He made a late move at Walther but was bumped to lane three and finished 23-hundredths of a second shy. Both expect to race again in the 800 at Meet of Champions.
Middletown’s Simone Cooper became the first girl to win the county title in shot put and discus since Padua’s Chioma Njoku in 2019. Cooper moved to third on the all-time performance list with a new personal best of 44-10.75 in shot put.
With a strong group of sprinters and the deepest pool of hurdlers in the state, the Odessa boys built on a second-place finish at last week’s Blue Hen Conference Championships with a third-place finish in the county. The 4x200 team of Daniel Kissi, Michael Latham, Jordan Hollis and Kasai Truitt won in a school record time of 1:28.73. Truitt outleaned the Appoquinimink anchor, winning by a hundredth of a second. Latham won the 110 hurdles in 14.43, the second-fastest time in the state this year. Hollis finished second in the 400 and the 300 hurdles, events contested in succession.
Tatnall junior Ben Pizarro ran a blistering final 400, splitting under 59 seconds, to win the 3,200 Friday night. Trailing Walther Saturday, Pizarro ran 4:13.65 in the 1,600, eighth-best in state history.
Kam’Dyn Thomas of St. Georges missed her junior season due to an Achilles strain. The senior on Saturday completed one of the day’s most thrilling comebacks, closing a 25-meter gap in the final 100 to win by four-hundredths of a second. “That comes from saving some energy on the curve,” she said. “I used to have a mental block on the curve. I was scared I was going to hit the hurdle next to me, but I really powered through it today.”
The baton pass between the first and second legs of the Saint Mark’s girls 4x200 relay is always smooth. "We don't even need to practice it," said Alexis Donovan, who took the baton from her twin Arianna Donovan. The Donovans and teammates Angel Rizzo and Reagan Garibaldi ran 1:43.05 to win the 4x200 by two seconds. The relay team has won the last 10 races they’ve entered. They are all juniors.
Tatnall’s Max Martire has the state’s best discus throw this year. The sophomore won his first county title in the event by more than eight feet Friday.
Caravel had two individual winners: Vandrick Hamlin in the long jump and triple jump, and Donovan Dixon in the 300 hurdles. Dickinson’s Jakai Robinson made a late pass to win the 200. Red Lion Christian’s Xavier Moore won the shot put and Salesianum’s Eli Ecret won the pole vault.
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 Delaware 1,600 record. Padua and Saint Mark's win New Castle County meet
