By Stephen Smoot
Not too long ago, a Pendleton County High School track squad was a dream. Visionaries saw an opportunity for student-athletes who enjoyed track, or who wished to compete in a non-team sport of some sort, to have an opportunity to enjoy competition.
What a difference a few years can make. Pendleton County’s girls track squad as a whole is headed for states. Several boys also qualified for a trip to Laidley Field in Charleston as well.
As a team in the Class A regionals, the girls scored 172 points, besting Tucker County’s 100, East Hardy’s 87, Paw Paw’s 64, Pocahontas County and Tygarts Valley’s 61, Union’s 19 and Harman’s score of 16.
Dominance showed most in the relay race events. The 4×200 team of Carly Kimble, Charity Chan, Arianna Alt, and Olivia Gonshor qualified for states by placing third with a time of 2:06.72. The 4×400 team qualified at second place. Gonshor, Allison Reuss, Makayla Turner, and Kimble finished with a 5:29.78.
Pendleton County’s 4×800 squad of Reuss, Shayne Clutter, Evie Nulph, and Callie Dunn finished ahead of all the competition and timed at 12:26.93. In 4.102.5 shuttle hurdles, Chan, Nulph, Dunn, and McKenzie Vandevander ran for 1:25.15, placed second, and also qualified for states.
In a highly competitive field for the 100-meter dash, Chan placed fifth with a 14.86 and Kimble sixth with a 14.94. Gonshor took seventh, timing at 15 seconds even. The 200-meter results had Chan in sixth at 31.67.
Gonshor qualified for the 400-meter race, finishing third with a time of 1:16.06. Jazminn Severance finished fifth with a personal best time of 1:16.06 and Alt timed at 1:22.14.
Clutter took first place in the 800-meter race with a personal best time of 2:58.02. Reuss placed second with a personal best 12.58. Both qualified for states in that event. The 1600 saw Dunn seize first place and a berth at states with a time of 6:49.78. Dunn also qualified for states by placing third in the 3200, timing at 14:56.76. In the same race, Turner took fifth and finished with an 18:21.33.
Vandevander qualified in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal best 56.90 and a third place finish. She also will compete in Charleston in the high jump, qualifying with a mark of four feet even.
Pendleton County’s boys squad additionally had several competitors qualify for the state meet. Again, this is a remarkable achievement for such a new program that lacks its own facilities for practice and to host events.
In the 100-meter race, Travis Owens finished seventh with a 12.60, followed by Britton Lough in eighth place with a 12.97. In the 200-meter race, Ryan Bruns finished eighth with a 27.42.
Cameron Wyatt placed third in the 400 with a personal best time of 54.08, good enough to qualify. Sam Eason placed fourth with a 58.59 and Cain Nulph took sixth with a personal best of 1:01.84.
The 300-meter high hurdles saw Cayson Armstrong in fourth with a 49.28, Cayden Minor-Figueroa in fifth at 51.83, and Logan Fisher in sixth timing at 54.18.
In the 4×200 relay race, composed of Owens, Armstrong, Eason and Wyatt, Pendleton County placed second with a team best time of 1:38.53, earning a trip to states. The 4×400 team of Wyatt, Minor-Figueroa, Nulph, and Eason timed at 4:01.21, placed second, and qualified. The 4×110 hurdles team of Minor-Figueroa, Fisher, Jonah See, and Armstrong also qualified, finishing in second place with a 1:21.64.
Spencer Hartman placed fourth in the shot put, hurling for a personal best of 35 and placing fourth. David Noble was 13th with a 28-09 and Garrett Hartman threw for a 24-03. In discus, Spencer Hartman took seventh with a personal best of 85-09. Ben Puffenbarger threw for a 73-05 and 12th place.
Owens seized second place in the long jump, hitting a 19-09.25 and qualifying for states. Noble leapt for a 17-06, a personal best, while Bruns hit a mark of 14-04.
All qualifiers will travel to Charleston at the close of this week. Competition opens on Friday and continues through Saturday.
Credit goes to the athletes and coaches who never let the barriers of what they lacked get in the way of what they have the potential to do.
