Sports

Cougars Shine At Moorefield Track Meet

East Hardy Track took advantage of sunny weather to secure team victories over the Yellow Jackets and Union at the Moorefield Meet last Thursday at Bill Hunt Field.

“This is the weather we have been waiting for all season. It was nice to finally have a sunny day with 66 degrees and no snowflakes. We had some good times and still have to work hard to prepare for the PVC in Keyser,” Moorefield Girls Track Coach Vivian Carr remarked.

The Lady Cougars won the meet with 68 points, followed by Moorefield with 52 points and Union finished with 16 points.

East Hardy Girls Track took top honors in eight events, Moorefield placed first in six events and Union’s Lexi Sirk won three events.

East Hardy Boys Track team won the meet with 78 points including a dozen first place events and the Yellow Jackets won five events to finish with 68 points.

There were a plethora of personal records set during the meet as the warmer weather was better suited for competing.

“It was a good practice, not so much of a meet. It’s nice actually see accurate times instead of having to speculate as to what it should have been with good weather and loose muscles. We talked with Moorefield and our staff coming in that this was pretty much a competitive practice. We had some very good competitive races and throws today and we’ll get better going into PVC,” East Hardy Boys Track coach Devon Orndorff stated.

Despite the second place finish, Moorefield Boys ruled the field events as Paul Peters set a personal record winning the discus on a throw of 124’8” and took top honors in the shot put with a distance of 42’7”.

East Hardy’s Phillip Mullin took second in the shot put with a throw of 39’8” and teammate Alex Vance was third with a toss of 36’3”.

There were four personal records in the shot put for Moorefield’s Anthony Redmon (35’3”) and Aiden Richardson (29’6”) plus East Hardy’s Avery Yeater (28’8”) and Layne Miller (21’10”).

East Hardy’s Alex Vance placed second in the discus with a personal record distance of 115’6” and teammate Logan Neff was third with a personal record distance of 105’6”.
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Moorefield’s Matt Wright leapt to victory in the long jump with a distance of 15’9”, one foot further than second place finisher and teammate Seth Wilson and third place went to Matthew Weatherholt at 14’6”.

East Hardy’s Sky Spell placed fourth overall in the long jump at 14’2” and had a remarkable full-split landing on his first attempt.

Moorefield’s Seth Wilson won the high jump at a height of 5’4” and teammate Riley Hedrick set a personal record in second place clearing the 5’2” bar.

For girls shot put, East Hardy’s Emma Lutz won with a throw of 26’10.5”, followed by Moorefield’s Kaitlin Orndorff at 26’7.5” and East Hardy’s Summer Funkhouser placed third with a toss of 23’3.5”.

Staying at the discus area near the boundary line can be dangerous as some athletes lose grip during release sending it foul.
There were a few laughs as the photographer avoided being hit and took the pictures.

Moorefield’s Brooke Ketterman set a personal record in her first place discus throw of 78’8”, followed by teammate Kaitlin Orndorff at 75’5” and East Hardy’s Summer Funkhouser was third at 65’.

East Hardy’s Sierra Marie Miller won the high jump at 4’6” even when knocking the bar down on one attempt, followed by East Hardy’s Emili Flynn at 4’5” and Moorefield’s Cassie Mooney took third at 4’3”.

Miller took top honors in the long jump with a distance of 12’10.5”, followed by Moorefield’s Desirae Morris at 12’6” and Union’s Lexi Sirk was third at 12’4”.

Union’s Lexi Sirk swept all of the sprint events winning the 100 meter dash in a time of 13.22, 200 meter dash at 27.49 and the 400 meter run at 1:05.86.

Moorefield’s Cassie Mooney placed second in the 100 meter dash in a time of 14.01 and teammate Rachel Shaffer was third overall at 14.38.

East Hardy’s Sierra Marie Miller took second place in the 200 meter dash with a personal record time of 28.49, followed by teammates setting their own personal record times as Marina Stotelmyer was third at 31.16, Hannah Merritt took fourth at 33.56 and Liz Dove was fifth at 34.22.

East Hardy’s Emili Flynn placed second in the 400 meter run in a time of 1:07.48 and Moorefield’s Lexi Helman set a personal record in third place at 1:25.45.

For the boys 100 meter dash, East Hardy’s Phillip Mullin won top honors with a time of 11.90, followed by Moorefield’s Eric McCausley at 12.23, East Hardy’s Sky Spell was third at 12.73 and Moorefield’s Isaiah Leininger set a personal record at 13.97.

The top three competitors in the 200 meter dash set personal records as East Hardy’s Jesse Miller took the gold medal in a time of 24.55, followed by Moorefield’s Will Brown at 27.67 and Leininger was third at 29.77.
Another personal record at fifth place was Moorefield’s Noah Greenwalt at 31.05.

East Hardy’s Aaron Fishel set a personal record in the 400 meter run with a winning time of 58.21, followed by personal record times for Moorefield’s Ben Pyles in second at 59.36, East Hardy’s Haydon Caldwell at 1:00.72 for third place and teammate Christian Robinson at 1:01.61.

Greenwalt had a personal record time in ninth place at 1:11.17.
“I was pleased with our performance, except our handoffs. A couple of them got PR’s and our 4×400 was incredible. They all beat their split times and shuttles as well,” East Hardy Girls Track Coach Monica Combs noted.

In the girls relay races, Moorefield won the 4×100 meter in a time of 57.15, 4×800 in 12:50.01 and the shuttle hurdles at 1:14.32; while East Hardy won the 4×200 in 2:02.89 and 4×400 in 4:52.

In the boys relay races, East Hardy was victorious in all of the main relay events except for the big men race.

The Cougars won the 4×100 meter race in 47.69, 4×200 in 1:38.14, 4×400 in 3:54.34, 4×800 in 9:32.51 and shuttle hurdles in 1:11.12.
Moorefield won the big men 4×100 relay race as anchor Paul Peters came from behind to defeat the Cougars as teammates and fans cheered loudly.

“It seemed we had a lot of our best times tonight. I think Paul [Peters] had a really good discus throw tonight too. It was nice to have a nice sunny day. The big man race was very exciting. They have been asking to do it at every race. That was the first thing they asked me this evening and it got everyone wound up. It was good and something we want to do again,” Moorefield Boys Track coach Barbie Stickley commented.

Moorefield and East Hardy will battle in the Potomac Valley Conference Track Championship in Keyser tonight.
Full results are posted on www.athletic.net.
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