After many thrilling individual performances at Sectionals the weekend before and a fantastic girls team finish, the Dodgers moved on to compete at Groups. In order to compete at Groups, one must place top six in their event at Sectionals. Groups was held at South Plainfield’s Frank Jost Field on the 29th and 30th of May. All athletes were very excited to get the chance to place top six again and make it to the prestigious Meet of Champs.

Senior Helene Rowland started off the Madison magic with a 6th place finish in shot put. Just like previous years, Rowland was able to move on with a mighty throw of 38-01.00 feet. Following Rowland’s performance, the MVP of the girls team Rose Ciriello competed in the 800 and 400. She also qualified for high jump and 400m hurdles but decided to focus more on the later two. Senior Ciriello narrowly missed placing in the 800 by 2 seconds, running a time of 2:19. The multiple Madison recording holding athlete Ciriello, wrapped up a fantastic career with a 14th place finish in the 400 with a 1:00.20. To cap off the Lady Dodgers Groups appearance, the 4×8 team finished 17th in a 10:21. The team consisted of Seniors Libby Johnson, Lauren Datillo and Sophomores Cara Smith and Meghan Timmons.

Will “Falcon” Hendrickson finally broke under that 2:00 minute barrier in the 800 with a speedy 1:59.36 and finished in 16th place. Next up was Connor Riley and Noah Buzinkai in the 3,200 meters. Battling through the heat in the early afternoon, Riley finished 8th with a 9:51 and Buzinkai 21st with a 10:40. Even though the three competitors did not place in their individual events, it was a different story in the 4×8. Falcon, Riley and Buzinkai were joined by Sawyer Tadano to place 6th in the 4×8 and beat the school record for a second week in a row. With a time of 8:15.43, the four boys who were seeded 9th did the unthinkable and were going to MOCS. Senior Riley, Juniors Falcon, Buzinkai and Sophomore Tadano were excited for the opportunity to race with some of the best in the state.

A fantastic showing by the Dodgers led to a very exciting Groups meet! All the Dodgers who competed should be very proud of their accomplishments over the past season and for making it to the State level for championship season. Good luck at MOCS to the boys 4×8 relay team.