Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  On a gorgeous spring day, Tuesday, May, 8, about 50 Nederland Elementary School students clambered off the school bus that pulled up to the Nederland Middle Senior High School entrance. They were cheered by NMSHS 360 leaders who greeted them with a welcome banner.

The annual event brings the fifth grader to the track and field giving them an opportunity to break previous school records. On Tuesday, one school record, the 50m hurdles, was broken by two girls. Jade Patterson-Blake who had a time of 8.71 seconds and Maeve Dufton who had a time of 8.75 seconds.

The first event of the morning is the all-fifth grade mile run, a good time to get warmed up for the rest of the events.

Henry Dufton passed the first place runner in the third lap to win the race with a time of 6.48. Talus Lantz holds the school record, with a time of 6:30 in 2012.

Henry said he is in good shape because he plays soccer. “My sister told me to start slow and then when the first guy gets tired, you take him.” Henry’s sister Maeve came in first for the girls with a time of 7:45. She said she just kept running.

Cedar Shop took second place in the mile with a time of 7:38 and Jayden Abookire took third place with a time of 7:45.

“When I felt like I needed to stop, I just kind of kept on going.”

They compete in nine field events: softball throw, frisbee throw, fox tail throw, high jump, long jump, football throw, soccer kick, basketball shoot, and volleyball serve.

The students also compete in eight track events: 50 m dash, 100 m dash, 50 m hurdles, three Legged race, jump rope race, 400m run, and the 4 x 100 m relay race.

There were many record breaker close times: A finish of 7.61 seconds in the 50m dash by Shiann Stover-Winter, which was only .05 seconds off the school record. She was also the top finisher in the girls at 400 m run with a time of 1:26.43, which was less than 1/2 second off the school record.

The top boy finisher in the 400m run was Henry Dufton with a time of 1:20.94 which was just under three seconds off the school record.

In the 4 x 100 m relay, the following teams had notable times: the all girl team of Aya Pelkum-Donahue, Amelie Bodnar, Shaiann Stover-Winter, and Breauna Stephenson ran a time of 1:15.09, coming within 3 seconds of the NES School record.

The all boys’ team of Jacob Geels, Maddox Gioia, Keahi Pelkum-Donahue, and Matteo Beauvineau had a time of 1:16.40, within five seconds of the boys’ record. And a mixed team with Jade Patterson-Blake, Maeve Dufton, Dean Howell and Gray Schlosser ran a time of 1:12.27, just four seconds off the record.