ADDISON COUNTY — After missing the 2019 season due to the pandemic, track and field teams in Addison County have roared back into action this month. And despite varying weather conditions, local athletes have posted some impressive performances.
As expected, some of the more notable performances this spring have come from the middle distance runners at Vergennes Union High School. At their season opening meet at Milton on May 5, Commodore runners won both the 4x400m and 4x800m relays, plus the 800m and 1,500m individual races. Running on the relays were 4×400: Xander DeBlois, Gabe Praamsma, Aiden Gebo and Ben Huston (all seniors); and 4×800: Praamsma, senior Jarret Muzzy, Gebo and Huston.
At the same meet, the Mount Abraham girls’ squad also shined. The Eagles won the 4x800m relay with the quartet of Madeline Donaldson, Ruby Hall, Maisy Hill and Abigail Johnson; plus Eliza Bent won the discus and Louisa Funk won the 100m hurdles. Not to be outdone, one of foursome of Eagle boys also won: claiming the 4x100m relay were Hugh Ball, Joseph Darling, Branden Reynolds and Alex Yaggy.
In the competitive Burlington Invitational this past Saturday, which drew two dozen teams, squads from all three local high schools competed. Organizers combined girls’ and boys’ team scores and VUHS netted the highest local finish in 18th place with 23 points.
The Mount Abe girls’ and boys’ teams combined for 13 points and 21st place. Middlebury was 22nd with nine points.
The highest local finishers were the VUHS boy’s 4x800m relay, which finished second in a time of 8:36.23.
Mount Abe also hosted a home meet on Tuesday afternoon, with the Eagle boys pulling off a team victory (Mount Abraham 226, Northfield 178, Rice 120.5, Randolph 42.5) and the host girls coming in second (Northfield 207, Mount Abraham 145, Rice 120, Randolph 46). Full results weren’t available by press time for this section; look for them with this story on addisonindependent.com.
At the May 5 Milton track and field meet, the local athletes who finished high enough to score team points were:

BOYS AT MILTON
4x400m relay: 1. V, 3:48.55, DeBlois, Praamsma, Gebo and Huston; 4. Vergennes “B”, 4:37.28, Ryder Messinger, Calder Rakowski, Riley Gagnon, Calvin Gramling; 5. Mt. Abraham, 4:43.00, Hugh Ball, Liam Davison, Sean Davison and William Iliff.
200m: 2. Reynolds, Branden, Mt. Abe, 25.40; 4. Willis, Jonathan, V, 25.93; 5. Muzzy, Jarret, V, 26.11; 6. DeBlois, Xander, V, 26.14.
800m: 1. Praamsma, Gabe, V, 2:13.64.
300m hurdles: 4., Gavin Bannister, Mt. Abe, 52.52.
400m: 2. Gebo, V, 55.92; 3. DeBlois, V, 56.98; 4. Muzzy, V, 58.64.
4x100m relay: 1. Mt. Abe, 50.10, Ball, Darling, Reynolds and Yaggy.
1,500m: 1 Huston, V, 4:15.71; 4. Noah Engvall, Mt. Abe, 4:59.78.
100m: 2. Reynolds, Mt. Abe, 12.48; 5. (tie) Willis, Jonathan, V, 12.65.
4x800m relay: 1. Vergennes, 8:57.55, Praamsma, Muzzy, Gebo and Huston; 3. Mt. Abe, 10:21.72, Abel Atocha, Gavin Bannister, Noah Engvall and Tristan Parker.
Discus: 2. Joseph Darling, Mt. Abe, 26.26m/86’-02”.

GIRLS AT MILTON
 4x100m relay: 4. Mt. Abe, 1:01.90, Olivia Devino, Louisa Funk, Maisy Hill, and Eliana Ginsberg.
1,500m: 5. Johnson, Mt. Abe, 6:23.83.
100m hurdles: 1 Funk, Mt. Abe, 20.55; 5. Hill, Mt. Abe, 21.52.
4x800m relay: 1 Mt. Abe, 13:24.18, Donaldson, Hall, Hill and Johnson.
Discus: 1 Bent, Eliza, Mt. Abe, 24.63m/80’-10”.
High jump: 2. Hall, Mt. A.
At the May 8 Burlington Invitational meet, the local athletes who finished high enough to score team points were:

BOYS AT BURLINGTON
Discus: 10. Darling, Mt. Abe, 29.13m/95’-07 1”.
1,500m: 4. Huston, V, 4:10.60.
4x400m relay: 6. Vergennes, 3:54.30, DeBlois, Praamsma, Gebo and Huston.
4x800m relay: 2. Vergennes, 8:36.23, Praamsma, Gramling, Gebo and Huston.
400m: 8. Gebo, V, 54.83.
300m hurdles: 8. Bannister, Gavin, Mt. Abe, 47.45.
800m: 3. Praamsma, VUHS, 2:05.18.
200m: 8, Reynolds, Mt. Abe, 24.86.

GIRLS AT BURLINGTON
Discus: 3. Bent, Mt. Abe, 26.89m/88’-03”.
Javelin: 6. Bent, Mt. Abe, 24.80m/81’-04”.
1,500m: 5. Ella Landis, MUHS, 5:30.26.
400m: 6. Hannah Turner, MUHS, 62.91.
800m: 5. Sofia Stefani, MUHS, 2:29.51.