HARRISON COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP MAY 23 EDITION OF THE BRIDGEPORT NEWS by Jeff Toquinto Editor of The Bridgeport News Bridgeport Middle School closed out its 2002 track season in the best way possible by sweeping the boys and girls titles in the Harrison County Championship. The meet, which was held May 15 at Wayne Jamison Field, saw the Braves roll to the crown. The girls totaled 238.5 points to romp past second place Lumberport, which finished with 114.5 points. Along the way, the girls set nine new county records. On the boys side, the Braves scored 173 points to easily outdistance second place Washington Irving, which closed with 125 points. For the girls, the win was taken by dominating the running events. In fact, Bridgeport won every running event with the exception of the 4x100-meter relay. The Braves finished second in that event by three-tenths of a second. The high point scorer for BMS was Lauren Gilbert. Gilbert dominated the sprint events by taking the 100- (13.39 seconds), 200-( 28.33), and 400-meter dashes (1:04.4). "Gilbert was impressive," said BMS coach Rob Riley. "She set three new meet records (100, 200, and 400) and she wasn't feeling 100 percent because of knee problems." Two other Braves - Marie Conley and Jenna Fogg - took a pair of individual first place wins. Fogg won the 1600-meter run (6:05.87) and the 3200-meter event (12:56.76), while Conley dominated the 75-meter hurdles (13.90) and the 200-meter hurdles (34.32). The Braves’ Amanda Fischer also took home a first place. She won the 800-meter run (2:39.79). "Fogg, Conley and Fischer were impressive as always," said Riley. "You can always count on them to finish near or at the top of their respective events." Despite the one setback, the relay teams also fared well. The 4x200 team of Lara Gallagher, Victoria Gorby, Jackie Kapp and Elizabeth Saliga finished with a time of 1:58.44; the 4x400 team of Gallagher, Kara Miller, Megan Dent-Carmen and Gorby won with a mark of 4:43.71; the 4x800 team of Dent-Carmen, Miller, Fischer and Fogg had a winning time of 11:06.66; while the shuttle hurdles team of Conley, Cassie Abbate, Gallagher and Kayla Lynch posted a winning time of 43.48. Along with the aforementioned records, new marks were set in the 800, 32000, 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800. The club also set or tied 13 out of 18 records throughout the year. "I guarantee that will never happen again," said Riley. While the girls won with dominating efforts in the running events, the boys took their title with a different combination. In fact, the boys won with only three first place victories. The Braves managed to win two running events and one field event during the meet. However, the club consistently placed in the top six to earn more than enough points to get the victory. "All year, their attitude is one of taken what we can get," said Riley. "At the county meet, I stressed trying to place two people in each event. ... This was truly a lunch box and hard hat type of team." The lone individual win came from Matt Wilson in the high jump. Wilson finished with a meet record mark of 6 feet, 1 inch to top the field. He also broke the meet record with a long jump, but tied with a WI athlete that earned first place because of a longer second best jump. In the running events, the 4x400 and the 4x800 teams both crossed the line first. The 4x400 group of Guy Nicholson, Jeremy Gum, Kyle Lanham and Jon Fisher posted a time of 4:07.37; while the 4x800 team of Lanham, Chris Mahdavi, Fisher and Andrew Cunningham won with a time of 10:07.80. The boys have won two consecutive titles. The girls have taken four straight.