The Irish, Led by Senior Darien Maragh, Show Up and Show Out With Numerous High-Level Performances

SEATTLE- The Irish track and field team rolled in a stellar performance on Thursday's meet that featured schools such as Rainier Beach, Lincoln (Seattle), Nathan Hale, and more in week 2 of the track season.

Star senior triple jumper Darien Maragh stated, “Our mentality right now is just to get better day by day in our events and to continue to build a great culture and build a family within the team. Many of us play other sports so we have a good idea of what that culture looks like, and I think were at a good spot with that.”

Maragh stole the show by triple jumping 37’ 4.5, placing him 11th in Metro.

“I felt good today but still felt I have more in me but that’s only going to help motivate me to reach the goals I set out on earlier in the season,” says Maragh.

Another Irish athlete who performed exceptionally well is senior discus thrower Tucker Ashcraft. The Wisconsin tight end football commit threw an impressive 147’1 feet in the discus placing him 1st in the Metro rankings by a margin of over 16 feet. The Irish sophomores Gobi Goodson and Alex Bannerman also both set personal bests at over 100 feet.

On the topic of throwers, O’Dea’s shot put team featured 5 throwers who set personal bests. Leading the way was senior Anthony Hall throwing team-best 43’2 feet placing tied for 5th best in Metro while senior Chris St. Louis is inches from 40 feet at 39’5 feet in which he sits at 13th in Metro.

Junior shot put thrower, Amen Ephrem stated, “Our main goal was to try and set personal bests each time we throw and right now we're doing that and I think that says a lot about how good our coaching is and how hard we work at practice.”

The Irish’s top short sprinters did not perform this week but plan to next week after having two 100-meter sprinters, sophomore Sage Salopek and junior Ryan Phillips within Metro qualifications and a 4x1 team that placed first in last week's meet.

“Overall we’ve been competing at a high level and have had a lot of our guys place 1st or very high in their events and that’s great to see this early in the season,” says Maragh on the Irish’s performance.

Even with the Irish performing well, track is often an individual sport with individual goals.

Maragh stated, “My goals are to hit 40 feet in the triple jump, place high through Metros and districts, and ultimately qualify for state.”

With the Irish continuing to roll with Darien Maragh leading the way, O’Dea looks to not only compete in state, but ultimately bring home the state trophy.