Baker & Thompson Lead
Finley Boys’ Track
The J. Taylor Finley Middle School boys’ track and field team featured a nice blend of athletes who explored a variety of events as they went about determining which ones were their favorites.
Coached by Tim Madden and Mike Marinello, the Falcons were captained by eighth grader Matt Baker. This year’s team consisted of 19 athletes who practiced daily and engaged in a series of meets against area middle schools.
“It was great to see substantial improvements by all as the season progressed,” Madden said. The team made extensive use of the facilities at Blue Devil Stadium and each of the seventh and eighth graders tried almost every event.
Baker excelled in the 55m and 200m dashes. Eighth graders Daniel Thompson (400m run) and Chris Engle (sprints) were two more of the team’s standouts.
“Matt is a great leader,” Madden said. “He works very hard each day to better himself.”
Thompson was also impressive. “He’s a driven, determined athlete,” Madden said.
Engle showed a knack for rapid acceleration from the starting line, an important quality for a sprinter, who has little chance to recover from a bad start over a short distance.
The roster also included Jerry Connolly, Rory Dara, Brandon Dewar, Mauricio Flores, Daniel Maier, Ryan Miller, Aldo Ochoa, Nicholas Otto, Luca Perna, Shawn Powell, Matthew Quinn, Benjamin Ribando, Harrison Skene, Jonathan Smith, Jairo Solares and Charles Sze.
Since Finley does not have a track at the school, the Falcons regularly utilize the high school facility, including the hurdles, high jump and long jump equipment and the track itself, complete with all of its distance markings.