High School Sports: Girls Outdoor Track

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, May 10, 2004

HARTFORD -- La Salle's Matt Maloney and Hope's Peter Gbaa were double winners Saturday at the Hartford High School Invitational, held at Trinity College.

Westerly sophomore Samantha Gawrych won the 800-meter run in 2:15.69. She is the Rhode Island record-holder in that event -- 2:11.71, set at last year's State Championships.

Maloney, a junior, won the 12-pound hammer event with a throw of 178 feet, 8 inches (54.46 meters), and was the gold medalist in the javelin with a distance of 188-5 (57.42). Maloney holds the state record with a distance of 203-1 (61.90), which he threw last month.

Gbaa, the Blue Wave senior, captured the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.28 seconds in negative wind. He also took the triple jump with a combined distance of 47-10 (14.58). Gbaa, state record-holder in the 110 hurdles (14.16) was named the Hartford meet's field-event MVP.

Rhode Island's female contingent at the Hartford meet was provided solely by Westerly. The Bulldogs' sprint medley relay team placed second with a time of 4:06.99. Westerly's 4 x 800 relay finished fourth with a time of 9:27.23, with Gawrych running a 2:09.5 anchor split. In the girls' 4 x 400, the Bulldogs came in fifth with a 4:10.56 clocking.

Westerly's Sarah Waddington was a bronze medalist in the 4-kilogram hammer. Her throw was 118-9 (36.20). Katie Lima, another relays regular for Westerly, finished eighth in the 800 meters. Her time was 2:22.31.

In the girls' mile, the Bulldogs' Lindsay Post clocked 5:40.19 for 11th place.

Westerly got a good day's work out of their weight man, Travis Cox. He finished second in the hammer with a throw of 172-8 (52.62), was third in the discus (153-1, or 46.66 meters) and 12th in the shot with a put of 48-5 (14.75).

The Bulldogs' distance twins -- Dan and Josh Springer -- were entered in the 800 and 2-mile, respectively. Dan clocked 1:58.91 in finishing 11th in the 800, and Josh was 17th overall in the 2-mile run with a time of 9:26.00.

Other Rhode Island boys' results:

HT -- 3, Ryan Sanborn, West. 151-0 (46.02); 5, David Leuttgens, Cumb. 142-5 (43.40); 6, Kris Koch, Cumb. 129-1 (39.34); 7, Greg Parrillo, Cumb. 124-5 (37.92).

400 -- 11, James Quiah, Hope 51.22.