After a successful area meet at Burger Stadium, Thursday, April 18, 20 athletes advanced to the regional track meet.
“This is the most kids we’ve had at a regional meet, and I think that shows how far we’ve come this season,” girls coach Kelly Thompson said. “I’ve got to give credit to the senior class. This is their fourth time to go to regionals, but they’ve really led the other girls this year.”
The athletes qualified for area after placing first through at the district meet. At area, the girls finished first while the boys were fourth overall.
“I just came hoping to qualify,” said freshman Madie Boreman, who won the 1600 and 3200 meter run. “And hoping my teammates would do their best in their own competitions.”
Senior Allison Agbasoga won the triple jump and also helped the 400 meter relay team take second.
“I feel amazing just because this is our fourth time to regionals,” Agbasoga said. “I’m so excited to see not just how I do individually, but how we all do as a team. Coach Thompson has believed in us the whole way, and he keeps telling us that we can only do better.”
With the help of Thompson and Luke Harrison, the boys head coach, the team has undergone vigorous training in preparation for the season.
“We’ve just practiced, practiced, practiced,” freshman Abby Lentz said. “We do things twice a day, and there hasn’t been a day I wasn’t sore, but it’s totally worth it.”
Among all runners, the goal of the season is unanimous: to make state.
“We’ve been looking forward to this all year,” said junior Eric Gill, who was part of the 1600 meter relay team that took first. “We’re ready for state.”
The coaches are behind the runners, and their endeavors are no different from the rest of the teams.
“We do expect to win the meet,” Thompson said. “We’ve talked about this before, and we had this plan that we’d go to district, then area, then regional, then state.”
Overall, the team is confident that they’ll advance further than ever before this year.
“If we don’t advance to state, I really think the only way that would happen if some kind of accident occurred,” Lentz said. “But if we didn’t advance, I think we’d all be disappointed, but we’d be happy with how far we’ve come.”
Area Track Results
Varsity Boys
4×100 Relay Chris Hendricks, Morgan Vest, Joey Beauchamp, Billy McCrary – 4th place
4×200 Relay Chris Hendricks, Billy McCrary, Morgan Vest, Brent Pradia – 5th place
4×400 Relay Demetrius Hood, Brent Pradia, Eric Gill, Joey Beauchamp – 1st place
100 Meter Dash Billy McCrary – 3rd place
200 Meter Dash Morgan Vest – 4th place
Pole Vault Jonah Marquez – 3rd place
Long Jump Wesley Lewis – 5th place
High Jump Eric Gill – 6th place
Varsity Girls
100 Hurdles Maddie White – 4th
100 Meter Dash Allison Agbasoga – 2nd
400 Meter Dash Justine Franklin – 6th
200 Meter Dash Abby Lentz – 5th
1600 Meter Run Madie Boreman – 1st
3200 Meter Run Madie Boreman – 1st, Haley Timmons – 4th
4×100 Relay Deja Beechum, Marielle Plunk, Torrey’ana Smith, Allison Agbasoga – 2nd
4×200 Relay Torrey’ana Smith, Bailie Rogouski, Marielle Plunk, Abby Lentz – 2nd
4×400 Relay Adriana Reyes, Abby Lentz, Madie Boreman, Justine Franklin – 1st
Long Jump Deja Beechum – 1st, Torrey’ana Smith – 5th
Triple Jump Allison Agbasoga – 1st
High Jump Adriana Reyes – 5th
Pole Vault Courtney Whitson – 2nd
