Graddy, Rojas, Other Individuals Shine for Madison Track

The Madison High School girls and boys track teams were both overcome on Thursday at Cougar field in Chatham, with the Chatham boys winning the dual meet 90-50 and the girls' final tally coming to 88-47. With the losses, the Dodgers girls' record drops to 1-2 and the boys to 2-1.

Many Dodgers performed well, however, including Aaron Shinn who took third in the 400 meter hurdles to start off the meet, and then went on to take first in the pole vault competition.

Gabby Rojas was one of the leaders for the Madison girls, taking first in the 100 meter hurdles and second in the 400 meter hurdles.

"I am usually better at the 400 hurdles," Rojas said. "But with spring track you never know. I accelerated better between the hurdles for the 100, which I've been struggling with."

Melissa Iskandar had a break-out winter track season this year, which she is attempting to extend to the spring season. Last year, as a sophomore, she broke her foot at the beginning of the spring season and was out all year. This year she is already among the top runners for the Madison girls, and on Thursday she took second place in both the 1,600-meter and 800-meter events, falling in both to Chatham's star runner Kat Grimes.

"This is the first spring track season where I'm 100 percent," Iskandar said.

Her 800 meter time of 2:28 minutes is a personal best in outdoor track. Kyle Flyer, another Madison runner who had an outstanding winter track season, earned a personal best on Thursday as well, in the 400-meter event with a finish of 52.7 seconds, which he took second in.

"It was better than any 400 split time I've had, so it is my personal best, although it was the first time I ran the open 400," said Flyer.

Flyer was also part of the Madison boys 4x400 meter team that took first, along with sophomore Jack Mahoney, senior Carter Buxton, and freshman Nick Haboj. The Dodgers take the 4x400 meter event seriously–the whole team watches and cheers their teammates on to the finish, and on Thursday it seemed to help the boys. Their time of 3:46.4 was enough to beat Chatham.

"It's our big race," said Buxton. "I was hoping we would come in first, and we did. We have a good 4x400 team."

"The whole team gets together for these 4x400s," Mahoney said.

Caroline Miller was another of Madison's first place finishers, winning the 3,200 meter event with a time of 13:05 minutes. Her best outdoor time in the event is 12:15, but this early in the season she was happy with her finish.

"I'm looking forward to a good season," Miller said.

Madison's next meet will be the Dodgertown relays at Madison High School on Saturday morning. Currently, 12 teams are expected to compete.

Madison First Place Finishes

Gabby Rojas, 100 meter hurdles, 18.8 seconds

Kyle Flyer, 800 meter, 2:05.7 minutes

Caroline Miller, 3200 meter, 13:05 minutes

Jack Mahoney, Carter Buxton, Kyle Flyer, and Nick Haboj, 4x400 relay, 3:46.4 minutes

Aaron Shinn, Pole-vault, (opponents failed at 9.5 feet)