Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson Track Teams Setting All Kinds of Records

All it takes is a little warm weather for both of the Viking schools to really heat up! The Ben Franklin 8th grade boys defeated another opponent on the track, taking down Portage-Fegley. During the May 7th meet, the team established three new records! Lonnie Pappas was a part of all three records, first by winning the shot-put with a throw of 49 feet and 6 3/4 inches. This distance took down the old record by over a foot. Pappas also set a new standard in the 100 meter dash, winning with an 11.7 time; and as part of the record-breaking 4x100 relay team of Pappas, Marco Medina, Vince Milton, and Andrew Kittridge.

However, the Ben Franklin team is not the only group setting records for their schools. Thomas Jefferson 7th grader Andrew Jankowski has also set and tied records this season for the Vikings. Jankowski teamed with 8th graders Peyton Reed, Xavier Reed and Jacob Hamer to win two events at the Valpo Relays on May 2. They first won the distance medley relay (400m-600m-800m-1,000m), and then set a meet record in the 3,200 meter relay with a time of 9:24.28 besting the former record of 9:25.7 .

Also, on Monday May 11th, Jankowski tied the Thomas Jefferson 7th grade school record in the 1,600 meter run. He ran time of a 5:03, tying a record previously set during the school's 2001 campaign.

You can root for your favorite Valparaiso middle school out at the Lake-Porter Conference meet this Saturday at the Portage High School track and support your Vikings!