Black Mountain – The 1A West track and field teams headed to Montreat College on Saturday for the regional track meet with hopes of a trip to state.
For teams in the Smoky Mountain Conference, the Andrews boys scored the highest and finished tied for sixth, with Murphy scoring the highest for girls getting a 12th-place finish. The Murphy boys finished tied for ninth place and the Andrews girls finished behind the Lady Bulldogs in 13th. Hiwassee Dam boys finished in 15th, with all eight points coming from Ethan Russell.
The Wildcats had multiple 1A West regional champions with Samuel Preston getting first in the long jump and triple jump. Logan Shuler continued his dominance in the high jump with a first place finish, winning the event by 4 inches.
Murphy’s Jordan Oliver was their only regional champ with first place finishes in the wheelchair shot put, discus and 100-meter dash.
Andrews, Murphy and Tri-County Early College had many strong finishes, despite not being in first place.
For Andrews, Kaiya Ellis finished seventh in the 100m hurdles finals, eighth in the triple jump and sixth in high jump. Kylie Donaldson finished eighth in the 100m dash finals, sixth in the long jump and sixth in triple jump.
O’Malley Salinas finished sixth in the 800m run finals. Alexis Beasley finished in sixth in shot put, with Demi Davis finishing in ninth. Davis also finished 12th in the discus. Beth Shook finished 10th in the long jump. Caleb Helton finished tied for 11th in the high jump.
In the relay events, the 4x100m girls team finished eighth, the 4x200m girls team finished 10th and the 4x400m girls team finished 12th. The 4x100m boys team finished 13th.
For the Bulldogs’ track and field team, Corrine Cotton finished second in the 400m dash finals. Camden Breazeale finished second in the 300m hurdles finals with Will Shore finishing in 10th. Gabby Lloyd finished seventh in the shot put. Aaron Harger finished tied for 10th and Brody Orton finished 12th in the shot put.
Saige Kent finished in seventh and Ansley Roper finished in eighth in discus. Orton finished sixth in discus, with Harger just behind him in seventh. Harger also finished seventh in the long jump. Breazeale finished fourth in the 110m hurdles finals.
For their relay teams, the boys finished fifth in the 4x200m, sixth in the 4x100m and the 4x800m team finished in 15th. The girls relay teams finished in fifth in the 4x200m, 11th in the 4x100m and 11th in the 4x400m.
For the Tri-County track and field team, Fern Crayton finished fourth in the 3,200m run. The girls relay teams finished 10th in the 4x800m and 14th in the 4x400m,
The boys relay teams finished ninth in the 4x200m, ninth in the 4x400m and 12th in the 4x800m.
Russell was Hiwassee Dam’s lone athlete competing in the regional championship. Russell finished fifth in both the 1,600m and 3,200m runs.
These teams will look ahead to the 1A state championship Saturday in Greensboro.