The Niles Ring Lardner track teams traveled to St. Joseph Monday to run against three other teams.

The teams came from Upton Middle School, Benton Harbor and Eau Claire. This was the first meeting between the Upton Bears and the Vikings this season. Upton is always one of the top teams in the county and this year is no exception.The boys team hung in with St. Joe, but still lost by 12 points in the end, 95-83. Benton Harbor finished in third with 39 and Eau Claire had 21.

Sean Craig broke a school record in the 800-meter run and took a first with a new record time of 2:16.19, eclipsing the old time by three seconds.

He also led his 3,200-meter relay team of Kobie DoSantos, David Kennedy and Adam Langmeyer to a victory and his 1,600-meter relay team with Jalen Alexander, Derek Brown and Langmeyer to a second place finish.

Kennedy took a first in the shot put with a  throw of 41-6, while his fellow shot putters Alex Bata took fourth and Braulio Sosa finished in fifth place. Kennedy also went 16-feet in the long jump for another first.

Joe Avance took three seconds. He took the first in the 70-meter dash, the next in the 400-meter relay along with Elijah Thompson, DosSantos and Josh Buckingham, and the third in the 800-meter relay with Ethan Stanfill, Jalen Alexander and DosSantos.

Ethan Stanfill won the high jump by going over the bar at a height of five feet. Alexander was in fourth with 4-4.

A couple of impressive efforts were displayed by seventh graders Derek Brown in the relay and 800 run, and Devin Kuemin with Leo Edwards in the mile run.

The girls were not as fortunate as the boys running into one of the best Upton girl’s team in many years. They were defeated by a score of 149 to 46, with Benton Harbor just behind them at 42.

The score really doesn’t tell the story of a meet. The girls finished behind the Lady Bears by seconds, fractions of seconds or just inches in almost 10 events. The result pushed them back into second, third or even fourth place resulting in a loss of points. That is the story of a meet inches and seconds and St. Joe earned more of them.

A meet may have been lost by the young ladies but they they were willing to run against the best St. Joe had to offer.

Kylee Myer took a first in the high jump with a height of 4-6 and Chelsea Best was behind her with one of four feet. Maya Brookins won the 70-meter dash and finished second in the 100 meters. Maya also led her 400 relay team of Jay Palmer, Keilah DosSantos and Deja Jones to a victory.

Jones took a second in the 200 run, while DosSantos finished third in the 400-meter run. Allison Grant and Monica Harrison had good efforts in both the one and two-mile runs.

Wednesday’s meet at Berrien Springs was canceled due to the weather, marking the third meet lost for the young Vikings this season.