Field leads the way for Warrior track
By Lenny Sementi
The second part of Tuscola’s track and field team came up big for both the boys’ and girls’ squads Monday, April 15 in a loaded quadrangular meet at Paxton. McKinlee Miller and Karli Dean led the girls’ squad, and CJ Picazo, Josh Dyer, and Brandon Douglas were strong for the boys as both teams ended the day in third behind talented Gibson City teams and Rantoul.
Miller took home first place honors in the triple jump and collected fourth place points in the long jump. Dean landed in second place in both shot put and discus to secure eight points with a toss of 30 feet 1 inch in the shot and 114 feet 5 inches in the disc. Laney Cummings added to the point totals as well with a fourth place effort in the high jump.
Miller donated in the hurdles, as well, taking second place in her 100-meter outing. Brynn Tabeling secured second place in the open 800 and Emma Zimmer (15:32) was runner up in the 3200. Katie Wells finished out the distance races with a second place effort in the 1600 with a season best time of 6:54.
Wells, Ashlynn Donnals, Maddie Stahler and Kyla Gough opened the relays with a second place in the 3200-meter race. Donnals and Wells were also part of the 1600 relay, joining with Molly Liffick and Abigail Pettry. Pettry was the common denominator in the sprint relays, as well, being part of a 400 and 800 group comprised of Hannay Lemay, Skylar Wilkins and Ava Cothron that took third and fourth, respectively.
On the boys’ side Picazo was tops in the point department for the boys in the field events. The senior weight man is consistently near the top of both the shot and discus every time out, and head coach Ryan Hornaday counts on team points in both. Picazo captured top honors in the disc with a throw of 148 feet 11 inches while tossing the shot 47 feet 11 inches. Josh Dyer added second place points to the totals, landing right behind Picazo in the shot at 45 feet 1 inch and Hans Goodmann donated with a fourth place outing in the disc.
The full story can be found in the Wednesday, April 24 edition of The Tuscola Journal.