By Michael Moroney ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Brophy track athletes used to running in the hot, dry desert took their talents to the national stage in cooler climates last month.

The Brophy track team traveled to Eugene, Ore. to compete in the Nike Track Nationals Saturday June 26 and finished 12th out of 12 teams.

According to the Nike rankings, the Broncos finished as the 10th best team in the nation during the regular season, as well as first in the southwest region. The team sent eight athletes to compete in nine different events.

Brophy was projected to finish with 1,000 more points in the meet had Devon Allen ’13 not been disqualified in the 110-meter hurdles. Those extra points would have bumped the Broncos up to third place.

Allen more than made up for faltering in the hurdle event by winning the 100-meter dash later in the day with a time of 10.75 seconds.

Allen beat the 2010 100-meter champion Jovonte Slater of Vista Murrieta High School out of California, who holds the meet record in this event at Nike Track Nationals.

The school record for the mile run was broken by William Firth ’11 with a time of 4:15.19. He finished second in the race.

Also, Tommy Williams ’11 set the school record in the 800-meter run by finishing fourth and running 1:54.10.

Other notable athletes were James Harper ’12 and Cole Walsh ’13. Harper competed in the high jump and finished in fourth place with a height of 1.92 meters. Walsh finished fifth in the pole vault competition with a height of 4.15 meters.

The other three athletes at the meet for Brophy were Josh Dennard ’11, Danny Vimmerstadt ’12 and Ian Parker ’12.

A fellow Jesuit high school, Loyola High School from Los Angeles, Calif., finished first as the national champions at the meet. They scored more than 300 points higher than the second place Vista Murrieta team.

Brophy was returning to the Nike Track Nationals after achieving an eighth place finish at the 2010 meet. Allen, Williams, Harper and Dennard all competed in the 2010 competition.