Avery sophomore Mary Chesnut Smith won a pair of events and finished second in another at the Western Highlands Conference Track and Field Championships held last Wednesday, April 29th.Smith finished first in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:32.44, and captured first in the 800-meter run with a finishing time of 2:29.24. She finished second to Madison's Cynthia Griffin in the women's 3200 meter run with a time of 12:48.14.
Other female Avery athletes with top 8 finishes in events included Caroline Crenshaw, who was 4th in the 300m hurdles (54.07 sec) and 5th in the women's triple jump (27-11.5), and Sara Wiseman, who finished 8th in shot put (26'02") and 4th in discus (67'11.5")
The Lady Vikings finished third in the 4x100m relay, 4th in the 4x200m relay, and 5th in the 4x800m relay.
Avery's male athletes competed in individual and team events as well. The team finished 4th in the 4x100m relay, 3rd in the 4x200 relay, and sixth in both the 4x400m and 4x800m relay events.
Viking men competitors with top eight finishes at conference included senior Kyle Griewisch, who was third in the 100m dash with a time of 11.88 seconds, and finished 4th in the 200m dash with a time of 24.16 seconds.
Fellow senior Andrew Ingram finished sixth in the 100m dash (12.19 sec.), seventh in the 200m dash (25.10), and 5th overall in the long jump with a distance of 18-06. Phillip Corley finished seventh in both the men's high jump (5-04) and triple jump (35-06), while freshman Alex Villanueva finished sixth in the 300m hurdles (46.74 sec), 4th in the men's high jump (5-08), and sixth in the long jump (18-04).
A number of Avery track and field athletes have qualified for Western Regional competition, which will be held next week at Polk County.
In other news, the Western Highlands Conference Golf Championships were also held last Monday and Tuesday. Avery finished in fifth place at the event as a team.Avery's Chase Watson was the Vikings' lone individual qualifier for Western Regionals, which will be held on Tuesday, May 5th at Meadowbrook Country Club in Rutherfordton. In addition, Avery head coach Boe Barinowski was named WHC Coach of the Year in his first season as Vikings golf team head coach.
Polk County was the 1A team winner at the conference tournament, while Owen and Mitchell qualified for the 2A regional tournament as a team, which will be held at Cedarbrook Country Club in State Road.
