Wrapping up the last few weeks of the Lady King’s Track & Field season, the girls have been putting forward all they have at the big invitationals. Recently, the team traveled to Wabash High School to compete for the Three Rivers Conference title and will compete next week at Kokomo High School for the highly anticipated Sectional meet. Not every single member of the team qualified to participate in these meets, but the ones who did, did not take it for granted. Whether it is a relay race or an individual event, each girl gives all her effort to help the team and themselves move on to new, more exciting, and competitive meets.
At Wabash last week, the girls put on an impressive performance at the TRC meet. Moving up from a sixth-place team finish last year, the Lady Kings improved to a third-place finish. Varsity track & field coach, Megan Mannering, says she challenged the girls to go all out to try to shoot for the win. “The ladies went all in,” she says, “and even though we didn’t reach the ultimate goal, we still improved from last year.” Cass fell to Northwestern, who won with 91.5 points, while Maconaquah followed with 83.5, and the Kings took third with a close 80 points. Standout performances included Aftin Griffin winning the 400m, setting the meet record, and earning the silver medal in the 800m. Freshman Hope Rush scored an impressive third place in the 3200m run. For the strong throwing team, Mylie Sipe finished fourth in disc. In an exciting finish to the meet, the 4×400 relay team of Anna Hedrick, Brystal Gillem, Hope Rush, and Aftin Griffin is two seconds off the school record, running a 4:12. Coach Mannering is hoping to break the record in the near future. She believes the team will have this opportunity to break the record at the Sectional meet next week.
As the Sectional meet nears on Tuesday, the team is taking a closer look at who will be competing, what the competition will look like, and the overall scores of the meet. As Mannering says, the team has a lot of depth, so there will be many girls who will score, including some freshmen. One of those freshmen, Presley Johnson, who will be competing at Sectionals, says, “I am looking forward to getting a PR (personal record) in my events during Sectionals and helping my team get close to winning the meet this year.” Presley is set to run the 300m hurdles in sectionals. Along with Presley, Hope Rush has had nothing less than a very successful year. Rush will be running both the 1600m run, where she is seeded first, and the 3200m run, where she is seeded second. Both girls have been part of the outstanding 4×400 relay team this season, and they both shared that they loved being on the team with two other juniors, Anna Hedrick and Aftin Griffin, and claimed that the juniors push them to do their best every meet. Anna Hedrick will be racing in the 200, 4×400, 4×100, and long jump. Mylie Sipe will be competing in the shot put and discus and is seeded fourth. Sipe will have to give her best to accomplish her personal goal of moving on to Regionals. Aftin Griffin is shooting to win all of her events as she is seeded first in all of them. Aftin says,” The ultimate goal is to make it to state. Unfortunately, however, we moved into a more difficult Regional this year, which means it will be my most challenging year yet to make it out. I have worked hard this season, though, and I still believe I can make it out.” Lastly, the 4×800 team, consisting of Bianca Panmei, Brystalin Gillem, Lilly Hammond, and Liz Sprow, have all made tremendous progress all season long.
The season is wrapping up pretty quickly for the girls, and towards the end of the season, competition will only get more challenging. Through all the practices and meets, the girls have come together as a family and are able to work with each other when things might not always go as planned. As Mannering says, “It has been a good year and we are not done yet, taking one day at a time and enjoying the process with our team has been great, and why I continue to love this sport.” Come out and support the girls at Kokomo High School on Tuesday, May 20, with the field events starting at 5:00 pm!
