Diaz’s bunch goes mining for precious medals in Arthur
Photo: Kayleigh Rahn
The 2019 Warrior girls’ track team is pictured during spring photo day at TCHS Thursday, April 4. Pictured in the front row from left are Abigail Pettry, Hannah Lemay, Victoria Wells, Alana Simms, Ava Cothron, Emma Zimmer, Lana Miller, and Olivia Fulk. Pictured in the second row from left are Ashlyn Donnals, Brynn Tabeling, McKinlee Miller, Alyssa Williams, Katie Wells, Ashton Smith, Sophia James, Faith Hardwick, and Skylar Wilkins. Pictured in the back row from left are Molly Liffick, Maddie Stahler, Carlie Seip, Kate Dean, Karli Dean, Hannah Hornaday, Kyla Gough, and Laney Cummings.
By Lenny Sementi
Head girls track coach Lacey Diaz and her Lady Warriors came home with a lot more precious metal than they left with this past Friday evening. The Lady Warriors rode a strong performance from their four relay squads and some personal record setters in the open events to a first place finish in the Arthur Invitational. The girls in black and gold beat the host Knights by nearly 20 points and ended the night with 98 points on the docket.
“Everyone on the team stepped up to help us win this meet,” stated the coach. “Our relays scored 34 points and our field events scored 46 points.”
Junior thrower Karli Dean did throws coach Stan Wienke proud setting personal records in both the shot and discus en-route to a double gold medal performance to deliver 20 points to the team totals. Dean fired the shot 32’ 5” and launched the discus 118’1” to earn top spot on the awards stand. Senior Gabi Ainsworth donated to the team totals as well in the disc taking fourth place honors and adding three points to the mix while classmate Faith Hardwick was a near miss in the shot.
Senior McKinlee Miller and sophomore Brynn Tabeling took home some gold as well. Miller led the charge in the jumps, taking first in the triple earning top spot on the podium with a leap of 33’8”. She also captured bronze in the long jump, touching the sand at the 15’8” mark. Freshman Carli Seip PR’d in the triple and ended up two spots back of Miller in third.
Tabeling did her mining for gold in the open 400 meter. The second year runner rounded the oval at Arthur in a personal best 1-minute and 4-seconds. She also came up big anchoring the 4×4 catching and passing a Casey Westfield runner leading the squad to a first place finish. Joining her in the race were Seip, junior Sophie James, and senior Laney Cummings.
Tabeling also was part of the 4×4 wining relay.
“Brynn ran an impressive anchor leg in the 4×4 posting a 1:02 split, catching Casey-Westfield who had a huge lead when she got the baton,” Diaz said. “All the relays came up big, we got a second from the 4×8 (Tabeling, Kyla Gough, Cummings, Maddie Stahler) and third from the 4×100 (Skylar Wilkins, Alyssa Williams, Ava Cothron, Sophie James). Sophie helped us tremendously in the sprint relays, and McKinlee stepped in at the last minute in the 4×2 for an injured teammate and ran a great split for the first place team.”
The full story can be found in the Wednesday, April 10 edition of The Tuscola Journal.
