After regional competition, 14 indoor track and field athletes qualified to compete at the States . There were also two new school records set for indoor track at the regional meet.
For the boys team, senior Harold Davis qualified for the 55 meter dash and is also heading to track and field Nationals. Davis ran the 55 in 6.69 seconds, a new school record. Along with Davis, the boys 4×800 relay team consisting of senior Blake Carberry, junior Cael Sims, junior Justin Collins, and senior Austin Parry also made it to States.
Six girls qualified for the State competition for running. In the 1600 meter, sophomore Kendall Chandler represented the Hawks, along with 3200 meter runner freshman Madilyn Coyle. The girls 4×800 relay team, comprised of senior Valentina Angulo, freshman Mallory McCartney, junior Eden Hussung, and Chandler, also competed.
Along with the runners, three girls qualified for States in field events. For the shot-put, the team had one athlete, senior Anna O’Leary, and two pole vaulters, senior Korynn Sims and junior Grace Bauer.
At states Davis placed 13th in the 55 meter dash. Boys 4×800 placed 13th place at states. Girls 4×800 relay placed fourth place at states. Chandler placed 14th place in the 1600 meter. Along with her Coyle placed 12th in the 3200 meter.
For the field events O’Leary placed ninth in the shot put. Along with her, Sims placed ninth with a jump of 9’3’’, and Bauer placed 13th with a jump of 8’3’’.
For Chandler, making it to states was surprising. “It was a complete shock, cause I wasn’t in the top three and I didn’t earn the qualifying time, so I was just in the next best 16,” said the sophomore. To qualify, athletes had to either meet a certain time, get in top three, or place in the top 16 of the state. Chandler ran the one-mile ina
5: 43 seconds to place 16th.
Coyle was the only freshman competing in an individual event at states. “I was really surprised because regionals were not good for me, so when I found out I was going to states, I was shocked and super excited about it,” the freshman explains. Even though Coyle is a freshman, this isn’t her first time running. “I’ve been running since I was eight years old, so I have a lot of experience with it, but I’ve never done track before so that was definitely a different thing,” said Coyle. At regionals, Coyle finished the two mile in 13:08.
The girls 4×8 relay team also got a new school record of 10:43.88 seconds. “I didn’t really know what the school record was before, nor did I know what our time was going to be, because that was the first time I had ran with that specific group of people for the 4×800,” said Angulo. “Honestly, I was surprised just because I didn’t really know where we stood compared to the other teams,” explained the senior. The team placed second in the relay at regionals, so they automatically got to go to States.
Adding to the girls team for pole vault, Sims and Bauer qualified for regionals. Sims placed second on the pole vault with a jump of 9’ 6’’. The senior’s goal was to jump ten feet at states. “It would be amazing if I jumped above 10’2”, as that is our current indoor female record,” said Sims.
Along with the girls team, the boys team also got a school record for their 4×800 relay race. “We broke the previous school record of 9:19,” said Carberry, a member of the relay team. Carberry was not surprised that the team beat the school record. “We had already run a 9:21 the month before on a much smaller track,” said the senior. “The track at regionals is better to run on, so it made sense that we would get the school record,” he continued.
Along with beating the school record, the team also qualified for States. “I could kind of see it going either way,” responded Carberry. “We knew that we had to run about a 9;05 going in, so it was about being able to follow through with that,” he continued. The team ran the race in 9:05 and placed third.
