by Ashley Miller

Last Thursday, May 14, both the boys’ and girls’ track teams embarked on a journey to
Eddyville for Districts. Both the boys and girls had qualifiers for State. The boys qualified in two events and the girls qualified in eight.
Starting off the night for the boys was senior Skyler Koder in the high jump. Koder placed second jumping 6-03, automatically qualifying him for State. The boys placed third in the shuttle-hurdle relay, the team of seniors Ricky Reeve and Luke Pendroy, junior Austin Sneller and Koder finished with a time of 1:01.41. Even though they placed third, the shuttle-hurdle team is still going to State for being in the top eight.
The girls had a lot of automatic State qualifiers that night. Senior Rachel Peter started it off by winning the 3000 with a time of 11:06.64, her new personal record. Peter also won the 1500 with a new season-best time of 5:00.29. In the 400 hurdles, sophomore Jayci Vos came in at 69.23 landing her first place. Vos, juniors Emily Hugen and Ashley Van Gorp and senior Kenzie Clarke placed first in the 4×200, with a time of 1:50.53.
“Although getting to State Track takes a lot of hard work, there is nothing like running around that blue oval with your best friends,” Vos said. “I couldn’t do it without my teammates and coaches. God has blessed me with these amazing people, and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
Van Gorp, Vos, Peter and sophomore Rachel Stafford placed second in the 4×400, finishing the race with a time 4:12.25, a new season-best. The Mustangs also had two third place finishes in the 4×100 and the distance medley. PCM also placed fifth in the sprint medley. Despite not placing in the top two, the girls will still be taking these events to State.
Head Coach Bridget Martin said, “We talked about taking care of the little things like proper warm-up and preparation which they did a great job with this evening and it showed in their events.  We were very impressed with the girls’ level of intensity this evening.”