Lady Eagles Earn Spots At Sectional Track And Field Meet

The Holden Lady Eagles track and field team emerged from the Class 3, District 7 Meet held at Dallas County School District in Buffalo as the third-place team on Saturday, May 14.

Five Lady Eagles in individual events, and two relay teams from the girls track and field team captured top-four finishes to qualify for the sectional meet.

“The boys and girls teams competed in an extremely tough district, especially in the field events and middle to long distance, and for us to qualify this many athletes to sectionals shows how hard these athletes have worked this year,” said Holden track and field head coach David Diener.

Senior thrower Liz Stout worked through the competition to place third in both the shot put, and the discus.

Stout delivered a distance of 29.76m in the discus to earn an all-district medal, and to qualify for the sectional meet. In the shot put, she recorded an all-district distance of 11.3m. Stout added a seventh-place finish in the javelin to score points for the team.

“I am very excited to see how Liz competes at sectionals,” said coach Diener. “She is an athlete who has really led the way for our throwing crew, and is set up to make a run in both events at state.”

On the track, the Lady Eagles 4x100m relay, and 4x200m relay teams turned in their standard steady performances to qualify for the sectional meet.

The 4×100 team composed of Kimmie Spring, Rachel Wamsley, Clara Hernan, and Kia Harmon placed second with a time of 52.76 seconds.

In the 4x200m relay race, Spring, Wamsley, Hernan, and Klara Tschoepe toted the baton to a third-place finish by clocking a time of 1:52.83.

“The girls sprint relays both needed to run season-best times to make sure they qualified, and they did that,” said coach Diener. “The girls are going into a very fast sectional, and they will need to continue to run their fastest splits of the year, along with continuing their clean handoffs that they have developed this season.”

Hernan earned an individual qualification for the sectional meet by placing fourth in the 200m dash. The first-year team member clocked a time of 28.13 seconds in the preliminaries, and bettered that with a time of 27.81 seconds in the district finals to advance.

“Clara had to run two of her best races of the year to qualify in the 200, and she pulled that off,” said coach Diener of the sophomore whose twin sister Chloe competed in throwing events this season. “Both her, and Chloe have improved tremendously throughout the year, and they deserve all the credit. They are both hard workers in the weight room during the school year, and as a result have become great athletes in our school

“I am excited they decided to join the track team this year, and have both contributed in their own ways this year,” stated Diener of the sisters who are also members on the Holden cheer squad.

Chloe finished in ninth in the shot put, just missing a top-eight scoring spot.

Harmon will compete in four total events at the sectional meet. In addition to carrying the baton on the 4×100 relay, the freshman force will compete in the 100m dash on the track, and will take to the field event arena in the long jump and high jump.

Harmon’s district day revealed a second-place finish in the long jump at 4.87m, a third-place finish in the high jump at 1.55m, and a third-place finish in the 100m dash with a time of 13 seconds flat.

“Kia is a special athlete, and she is really starting to see what all she can do,” said coach Diener. “As a freshman, there are technique things we can always fine tune to help her, and if she puts it all together, she could qualify in multiple events as a freshman for state.”
The 100m hurdles race at the sectional meet will feature two Lady Eagles after both veteran Millie Davidson, and freshman Lilee Keller turned in top-four district finishes on Saturday. Davidson timed out at 17.79 seconds to place third. Keller clocked out at 17.91 to place fourth.

“Camille has shown such great perseverance this year as she has been battling a quad strain, and for her to still push through to qualify for sectionals is outstanding,” said coach Diener of the junior year hurdler. “Lilee has peaked here at the right time! She ran her two best times of the year, in the prelims and finals.”

In the 300m hurdles, Davidson placed seventh as Keller placed 12th.

In other top performances at the district meet, pole vaulters Izzy Guinn and Elaina Young placed sixth and seventh on the day to kick in team points with top-eight finishes. The freshman Guinn cleared 2.5m to set a personal record. For Young, the senior ended her career by vaulting a height of 2.3m after setting a PR of 2.35m at the conference meet a week earlier.

“Our vaulters have competed well all year, and this was just a district full of great vaulters,” said coach Diener. “Izzy and Elaina both vaulted well in the meet, and I am proud of their growth.”

Young reflected on her senior season. “This is a great sport,” said Young after her final vault. “I’m ecstatic. I was able to improve so much over the season.”

Junior high jumper Marah Klover cleared a height of 1.5m to place fifth on the day.

In addition to her 4×200 relay performance, Tschoepe scored team points with a sixth-place finish in the javelin.

Junior sprinter Autumn Cantrell placed eighth in the 100m dash to chip in a team point.

Senior thrower Peyton Kilgore closed out her senior season with an 11th-place finish in the discus.

The Lady Eagle 4x800m relay team of freshman Ava Young, and juniors J’Lee Jones, Alli Iles, and GiGi Jones placed sxith on the day.

The Holden girls 4x400m relay team of senior Emma Lohe, and juniors Wamsley, Klover, and Gracie Carver placed eighth.

“For the seniors who ran in their last meet, I am thankful for their leadership,” said coach Diener. “This group really stepped up, and led this group of 74 track athletes. Emma was a big part of our relays, and was a great mentor for our underclassmen. Peyton stepped up in many different throwing roles this year. I am proud of how she found a home with the discus, and scored points for our team in almost every meet. Elaina had a great pole vaulting career, and improved greatly this year as she also worked hard helping all of the others improve in pole vault.”

The Class 3, Sectional 4 Track and Field Meet will be held at Odessa High School this Saturday, May 21. The start time is 9 a.m.