State Champs – Girls Track and Field

The girls won the MHSAA 3A Track and Field State Championship and the boys placed 4th.
 
On a rainy May 5, St. Andrew’s boys and girls track teams headed to Pearl High School for the MHSAA 3A State Track and Field Meet.  The boys ended the day 4th in the state out of 30 teams.  Starting off the day was the boys 4x800 relay where John Spencer Jones (12), Jack Archer (12), Charlie Sewell (11), and Luis Flores (11) placed 1st.  In field events, Reed Finseth (9) placed first in pole vault with a personal best of 12”3’.  He is currently the number 3 freshman vaulter in the state among all classifications.  Joining Reed in the pole vault were Christian Wade (12) who placed 4th and Dallas ford (9) who placed 5th.  Emmanuel Opata (12) placed 6th in the triple jump and jumped his personal best to finish out his high school career.  Luis Flores (11) had a big day as he ran 4 events at state, the maximum number events for which an individual may qualify.  In addition to his first place in the 4x800, he placed 2nd in the 3200, 2nd in the 1600, and 1st in the 800.
 
As for the girls, the team knew that they had a chance to win state and there was a ton of nervous energy from everyone.  The 2nd best team on paper, Tylertown, has won state the last 3 years and was only 3 points away from our girls.  Every point mattered and everyone was pushing themselves to do better than their seed placing.  The girls 4x800 team started things off with Elizabeth Scott (12), Olivia Campbell (12), Olivia Huckabay (10), and Olivia Mitchell (10) (yes, that’s a lot of Olivias) placing 1st.  Next, Simone Weatherspoon (10) placed 1st in the discus with Ariel Cox (11) placing 3rd.  Shotput was delayed due to a lake on the infield that led to a lot of downtime for Simone and Ariel.  In the shotput, the girls were disappointed by their 3rd (Simone) and 6th (Ariel) finishes, but they were relieved that they pushed Tylertown down a point in that event.  Meanwhile, Sarah Elizabeth Sullivan (8), who had learned how to pole vault 4 weeks ago, placed 2nd in the pole vault after being seeded 5th. This was a huge boost to both the team’s points and its spirit.  Isabella Flores (8) was running the 3200m and became dehydrated.  She placed 5th when she expected 3rd. She would come back later to run an excellent mile.  While Ebun Opata (10) was in triple jump, the hurdles began.  Quickly, she ran from one event to the other.  In the hurdles, a disappointing stumble placed her 4th.  However, she bounced back and jumped her best jump of the day and placed 2nd in that event.  After these events were completed, we were halfway done with the meet and Tylertown had many events left.  The girls were sorely lacking a full spring team and Tylertown had many events locked up.  All we could do was wait.  Many events passed with Tylertown gaining points while St. Andrew’s was stagnant.  Elizabeth Scott (12) and Isabella Flores (8) placed 4th and 5th in the mile against tough competition. They managed to earn the points they were seeded.  At this point, the team knew it could not give up any more points.  Then, Phoebe Xu (10) ran an excellent 400, placing 4th while seeded 5th, gaining her team an extra point.  Olivia Mitchell (10) placed 2nd and Elizabeth Scott (12) placed 5th in the 800, again maintaining points.  The team was relieved for the moment until the realization came that Tylertown had two girls in the 200 dash and they could get 18 points added to their score.  In a stroke of luck, Tylertown only received 16.  At this point we arrived at the final event, the 4x400.  Tylertown was seeded ahead of St. Andrew’s, but we had the points advantage.  The scores were announced going into the event.  St. Andrew’s had a 6-point advantage going into the final race.  We knew we just needed to place 3rd to win and we were seeded 4th.  Still, anything can happen in the 4x400 and our girls knew they were going to finish strong.  Olivia Huckabay (10), Madeleine Halford (9), Olivia Mitchell (10), and Phoebe Xu (10) ran their best race of the season and placed 2nd!  After an amazing day with ups and downs, the St. Andrew’s girls were State Champions.
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Foundations — Grade 12 • Jackson, Mississippi
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