Youthful Pioneers show

signs of potential
By Steve Behr

GREENSBORO — The final numbers may not reflect a day of success, but Watauga track and field coach Randy McDonough liked the way his youthful team competed in the state 4-A track and field championships at Irwin Belk Stadium at North Carolina A&T Saturday.

The final points totals were not exactly eye-popping. Watauga’s girls’ team finished 22nd overall with 10 points, while the boys’ team was 40th with four points.

Southeast Raleigh won the girls meet with 54 points and Myers Park was second with 48. Butler was third, West Charlotte fourth and Harding fifth.

New Bern came from behind by winning the 1,600-meter relay, and with the 10 points earned, beat Mount Tabor for the overall championship. New Bern finished with 46 points, while Mount Tabor was second with 40. Green Hope and Southeast Raleigh finished in a tie for third with 32 points each.

“We’ve got a very young team,” McDonough said. “We’ve put together a good foundation.”

Watauga’s boys team got its lone points from sophomore Jordan Pineda, who finished sixth in the discus with a toss of 143 feet, and eighth in the shot put with a throw of 49 feet.

“I was kind of struggling at the beginning of the year, but I kind of pulled through in the end,” Pineda said. “I got some good throws in.”

Watauga’s other individual performers did not qualify for points. Ian Boyd did not qualify for the finals in the 110-meter hurdles and finished ninth in the pole vault with a vault of 13 feet. Daniel Osborne, another sophomore, was 12th in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 24.23 seconds.

The Watauga 3,200-meter relay team of Osborne, Thomas McDonough, Justin Martin and Ethan Poulos finished 14th with a time of 8:28.07.

“The 3,200 team’s goal was not to finish last,” Randy McDonough said. “They still finished last, but they also took six seconds off out time, so they battled and did what they could do.”

Watauga’s girls’ 3,200-meter relay team was forced to run in the slower heat after preparing to run in the faster heat during the week. The team of Hailey Middlebrook, Hannah Barbour, Kristina Kanagy and Kayla Schneider still managed to finish sixth with a time of 9:53.36. Barbour also finished eighth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:44.89.

Kasay Jones, a sophomore, finished sixth overall in the preliminaries of the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.15, which qualified her for the finals. She ended up seventh in the finals with a 15.25. Jones felt she could have run better, but will get two more chances if she qualifies in her junior and senior seasons.

“We’ve got a lot of freshmen who are doing great,” Jones said. “We’ve definitely got a great track team coming up.”

Tara Trivette, a freshman, scored a point by finishing eighth in the high jump with a leap of 5-2. McDonough was impressed with Trivette’s poise during the event.

“She was the only freshman in the bunch,” McDonough said. “I was proud of her for not being a basket case out there. She seems to be very mature and she’s in it to have fun and doesn’t let things get to her.”

A pair of seniors, Taylor Cook and Kristina Tracy, had to settle for seventh place in the pole vault. Both reached the height of 10 feet.

“They battled well,” McDonough said. “Kristina Tracy went over 10 feet for two seeks in a row, so she ended on a great note.”