Lady Cats at Area Track Meet
Six Lady Cats’ track athletes qualified in seven events at the area track meet Thursday at Lovejoy Stadium. The Lady Cats finished fourth in the area meet. With only three races to go, they were in second place but only had one athlete in the final three events. Imani Taylor won the long jump by about 8 inches. Freshman Sydney Washburn qualified with a third place finish in the 3200-meter run. Taylor also ran the first leg for two Lady Cats’ relay teams that qualified for regional. The 4 X 100-meter relay team of Taylor, Abbi Baier, N’ysa Dugan and Sadavia Porter finished first and the 4 X 200-meter relay team of Taylor, Sheretta Hill, Dugan and Porter finished second. Baier qualified also in both the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles finishing third in each event. Dugan won the 100-meter dash and set a new school record in the process. Lady Cats Track Coach Triston Abron also had praise for Faith Hatley, who scored points by finishing sixth in both the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. Coach Abron noted that Hatley has been battling a twisted ankle injury for several weeks but continued to compete. Taylor also competed in the triple jump, Hill ran in the 400-meter dash and Washburn competed in the 1600-meter run. The regional track meet will take place next Friday and Saturday at Arlington.
Wildcats at Area Track Meet
The Wildcats’ track team qualified two athletes in one event for the regional track meet and the team finished ninth out of sixteen teams at the area meet Thursday at Lovejoy. Mason Buck finished second and Ryan Humphries fourth in the 300-meter hurdles to qualify. Both are baseball players and could have a baseball conflict with the first day of the regional meet next Friday. Wildcats Track Coach Matt Young said both had earned the right to compete but added each could have to decide what to do. The Wildcats’ baseball team could be playing a key game at Hallsville next Friday that could determine the district championship. In other Wildcats results at area, sophomore Landon Thornton finished seventh and Peyton Vickery eighth in the 3200-meter run. Coach Young said Thornton set a personal record by several seconds. He added Vickery was battling an ailment. Junior Ian Blanch was seeded sixth in the shot put field and finished sixth scoring a point. Sophomore Landry Tyson also scored team points with sixth place finishes in the high jump and the 110-meter hurdles. Coach Young said Tyson cleared 6-foot in the high jump but went out at 6-foot-2 after a near miss. He said Tyson was seeded eighth in the hurdles race but ended up two spots better. Humphries also ran his best time of the year in the 100-meter dash but still could not crack the top six. The regional track meet is in Arlington next Friday and Saturday.
