By Stephen Smoot
In the last few weeks of the season, the Pendleton County’s girls’ track squad continues to improve as competitors prepare for the post season regionals and, hopefully, a place at states. Two of the last three meets were the Potomac Valley Conference meet at Baker and the Jim Turbin Memorial Invitational at Keyser.
At Baker, Olivia Gonshor placed ninth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 15.33 seconds, followed by Charity Chan in 10th place at 15.56. At Keyser, McKenzie Vandevander placed eighth in the finals with a time of 15.08.
The level of competition between PVCs and at the Jim Turbin event is significantly different, with Class A and AA schools at Baker and larger schools competing in Keyser.
No girls competed in the 200 in Baker, but at Jim Turbin, Arianna Alt took 12th with a time of 34.62.
The 400-meter race at PVCs saw Alt placing fifth with a time of 1:18.26. In Keyser Gonshor took sixth with a 1:16.30 and Alt was eighth at 1:19.38. Jazminn Severance placed ninth with a 1:20.
At Baker, Allison Reuss in the 800 took second place with a time of 3:05.07, Carly Kimble raced for fifth and with a time of 3:14.6, and Shayne Clutter finished right behind in sixth at 3:16.08. In the finals at Keyser, however, Callie Dunn finished fifth with a 2:53. Clutter placed 10th, improving by almost 13 seconds over Baker with a 3:03.78. Evie Nulph took 12th at 3:24.29 and Makayla Turner placed 14th and timed at 3:29.67.
Dunn in the PVCs 1600-meter race took third with a 6:38.82 and Turner finished fifth at 8:05.63. In the Jim Turbin meet and in the same race, Dunn finished second and timed at 6:19.87 while Turner took fifth and finished with a time of 7:51.48. Both saw significant improvement.
Dunn finished second at PVCs in the 3200 with a time of 14:20.03.
In both races, Vandevander competed in the 300-meter hurdles, finishing fifth in the PVCs with a time of 59.23. In Keyser, she took fourth and timed at 58.82. Nulph in the same event was seventh with a 1:05.28.
The relay events in Baker saw the 4×200 team of Kimble, Chan, Vandevander, and Gonshor placing third and timing at 2:07.6. In Keyser a team of Kimble, Chan, Alt, and Gonshor took fourth and finished with a 2:05.36.
The 4×400 team finished second at PVCs. Gonshor, Reuss, Turner, and Kimble timed at 5:23.8. At the Jim Turbin in the same event, Gonshor, Dunn, Turner, and Kimble took third with a 5:16.7.
In the field events at PVCs Vandevander leapt for fourth in the high jump and cleared 4-02 and placed second in Keyser at 4-6. Alt was sixth in Keyser with a 4.
Reuss finished ninth in the long jump at PVCs with a 9.
Regionals took place on Tuesday of this week.
