
By Stephen Smoot
On both the boys and girls sides, Pendleton County track has seen remarkable growth in participation and also in results. Often the team takes on schools with much higher student numbers and many more years of track and field program experience.
But Wildcat track is not intimidated by either.
In Keyser, the sprinters shone. Aubree Keiter ran for a season record of 14.46 in the 100-meter race. She also set a season record in the 200 with a time of 30.54. Also in the 200, Arianna Alt ran for a personal best of 31.35, Emma Hartman set a personal best with a time of 32.47, and Autumn Lockard performed at her personal best with a time of 34.71.
Alt had set a personal best in that same race at East Hardy with a time of 32.88a.
In the 400-meter event, personal records fell here as well. Laney Sites-Woods, a senior described as a quiet leader by head coach Christopher Wilburn, set a personal best in the 400 meter, placing third in Keyser with a 1:08:88. Shayne Clutter similarly set her personal best with a time of 1:23.04a.
Sites-Woods also set a personal mark also in the 800 meters at Keyser, placing fourth with a time of 2:48.7. Clutter followed in ninth place with a personal best time of 3:23.41.
Allison Reuss has demonstrated solid improvement through the season as she has posted strong performances in the 1600-meter race. She ran for 7:21.71 at Elkins, but shaved her time down to 1:13.50 in earning fourth place in Keyser. Callie Dunn set a personal record at Keyser, hitting a mark of 15:07 in the 3200-meter run.
Success continued in the 300-meter hurdles at Keyser where Alt sprinted and leapt her way to a personal record of 1:01.32a.
In the 4×200 at Keyser, the team of Alt, Hartman, Keiter, and Lockard set a record of 2:09.12, improving on the 2:10.37 set at Frankfort a week earlier. The Frankfort event also saw the 4×400 squad of Hartman, Sites-Woods, Lockard, and Keiter setting a record of 5:29.79.
In the 4×800, Reuss, Sites-Woods, Clutter, and Dunn improved their time between Frankfort and Keyser, moving from a time of 12:22.92 to 12:16.14.
At Keyser in the high jump, Keiter took second place with a 4’2″, Hartman third with 4’2″, and Alt fourth with a 4’2″.
The team will perform next at the Potomac Valley Conference meet.