By Reed Hennessy
Op-Ed Editor

Neshaminy High School hosted the Rob Thomas Memorial Invitational on Saturday, May 5th, and 21 schools were in attendance while Neshaminy was able to show off their sprinter, senior Bryan Reice. Bryan has been a dominate force on the track team since ninth grade when he walked away from the Rob Thomas Memorial Invitational with three first place medals hanging around his neck and his head held high.

Neshaminy dominated the majority of the sprinting events on Saturday. Bryan placed first in the 100 meter, 200 meter and along with his teammates seniors Austin Gardener, Ryan Depinto, and Ron Smith all broke the meet record for the 4 by 100 meter with an incredible time of 42.37 seconds.

However, they were missing their usual starter, junior Cody Minnig, which makes it even more surprising that they broke the record.

“Our goal for today was the 4 by 100 meter. Our coach said today’s the day to get the record back and we did,” Bryan said.

In the 100 meter dash Bryan placed first with an amazing time of 10.91 seconds and his three teammates Gardener, Depinto, and Smith placed second, third and fourth respectively. The time closest to 10.91 set by another school was 11.24 seconds. Bryan was able to increase his time from 11.02 seconds in the 100-meter trials to 10.91 in the 100 meter finals.

“It’s the best I’ve ever felt running the 100 meter and it was the adrenaline and getting out good that helped,” Bryan said. “Quite honestly I shocked myself.”

Bryan also placed first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.25 seconds, again increasing his time from 22.39 seconds to 22.25 seconds.

“My time here has been good; for me it started slow and in 10th grade it started to pick up for me and then it hit me that I needed to get it going,” Bryan said. “Practices kept getting harder each year, my work ethic has changed and I hope it shows; it’s been fun knowing the coaches.”

As a senior Bryan has tried to set a good example for the underclassmen that will one day be the leaders of the team.

“They have a lot of potential; it’s shocking to see how hard they work, and this is by far the hardest working year,” Bryan said.

Overall, the sprinter’s experience at Neshaminy has been both positive and rewarding. While Bryan ran a state qualifying time of 10.91 seconds in the 100- meter, he will still have to go through districts and run another state qualifying time to go to the PIAA state championships.

“Barring any sudden injury Bryan should have no trouble getting to states,” Head Coach Russ Horrocks said.

The PIAA state championships will be held on May 25th and 26th at Shippensburg University.