Despite the loss of several
of their top athletes towards the beginning of the 2011 season, the Park Hill
girls track team was able to salvage what was shaping up to be an
underperforming year with several unexpected sectional qualifications at last
year’s district meet. Building off some of those late season successes, the
Lady Trojans hope to come back strong in 2012.
“It seemed to be one thing
after another (last year). We thought it was going to be a great season and
(even with the absences) still ended up qualifying five events for sectionals,”
Coach Tari Garner said. “I would’ve never guessed it, based on how things
started out. It was shaping up to be one of our toughest seasons, but actually
turned up being pretty good.”
Building on strong finishes
at the freshmen and junior varsity levels, Park Hill has a good portion of
their sectional qualifiers returning this year. At first glance, the Trojans’
top strength coming into the season appears to be their field events, but their
runners are young and aim on building off early.
Stephanie Atkinson in the
pole vault, Dominique Broadus in the shot put, and Bailey Cation in the high
jump lead the way in their respective events with jumpers Taylor Houx, Eleanor
Parrot, Riley Stoulil and thrower Stephanie Lane adding depth in those events.
A number of young runners
return including members of the sectional qualifying 4x100, 4x200, and 4x800
relay teams. Maddie and Brook Bischof, Ryann Fahrenholz, Chelsey Lewis, Katie
Ebbrecht, Jo Grauberger , Daisha Battles, Onjhana Davis, and Marche Belcher all
hope to improve on solid freshman and sophomore years. Belcher will also
compete in the 300 hurdles. Kim Rau, Park Hill’s top cross country runner, and
Carly Moyer will contribute in a variety of running events.
While the Trojans finished
fourth in conference and seventh in districts as a team in 2011, the season
which seemed to be headed towards disaster created some valuable experience for
many of the core members of this year’s squad, leaving plenty of optimism about
the 2012 season ahead.
Park Hill starts the season
off with a dual track meet against Park Hill South on March 27th.
No comments:
Post a Comment