Last Saturday the Avery track and field team made the long trip to Crenshaw is putting the touches on a stellar prep track career with another trip to the state tournament. The senior came tantalizingly close to a championship in the 300 meter hurdles a season ago, but has continued to work with diligence to earn a shot at another championship. Crenshaw ran the 5th fastest time in prelims, but picked up the pace to bring home a fourth place finish with a time of 52.42 seconds.
Mary Chesnut Smith, no stranger to the state championships herself, ran well in both the 800 meter run and the 1600 meter run. Smith came home second in the 800 meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 28.55 seconds, a terrific mark considering she had played a grueling and emotional soccer match less than 24 hours before the run. In the 1600 meter run, Smith brought home another second place finish, completing the distance in 5 minutes, 38.42 seconds.
Sophomore Alex Villanueva proved again how uniquely gifted an athlete he is by qualifying for a pair of events. Alex qualified for the state meet in the high jump by clearing the bar at a height of 5 feet, 10 inches. In the 110 meter hurdles, Alex leapt his way toward the front, finishing second in both the preliminary heat and the finals, less than a second behind the regional champion from Hayesville.
A number of other competitors for Avery had positive showings to help earn team points. Christy Ray and Megan Robbins each competed in the women’s high jump, while Robbins also took part in the women’s 100 meter dash. The Avery men’s 4x800 meter relay team of Cody Estes, Justin Gragg, Zack Russ and Forrest Sickler competed in Cherokee, as did the quartet of Andy Gonzalez, Bryce Pittman, Taylor Potter, and Hunter Shields in the 4x200 meter relay. The best relay finish was a sixth place from the team of Andy Gonzalez, Joey Potter, Hunter Shields, and Alex Villanueva in the men’s 4x100 meter relay.
The most disappointing aspect of the Saturday regional was the absence of Avery senior runner Kyle Griewisch. Griewisch, who was running his best times of the season in the 100 and 200-meter dash events and was a runner on the Avery 4x100 meter relay squad, pulled a hamstring in practice Thursday and was still unable to go on Saturday. Griewisch would most likely have qualified for the state meet at the 100 meter dash and 200 meter dash events, and the coaches felt his times with teammates in the 4x100 meter relay might have afforded him a third event to compete in next Saturday.
“Our 4x100 meter relay team missed Kyle. We had Joey Potter fill in and he worked for a day and a half with the team, and he ran well for it being his first meet in a very long time. I’m confident that if Kyle were healthy, though, we could have been fast enough to qualify for the state tournament with that group,” Avery track coach Darrell Brewer stated.
Despite that setback, the Avery team ran well overall and had a lot to be proud of following Saturday’s event.
“I was proud of the kids. Our 4x8 guys ran their fastest time, as did our 4x200 meter guys relay,” Coach Brewer stated. “We earned points in almost every event that we participated in.”
The NCHSAA 1A state championships will be held Friday, May 14th at
