CHARLESTON — The Morgantown High girls’ 4×800 meter relay squad stepped onto the track May 18 for the Class AAA state championships with three goals in mind: Re-break their school record, defend their 2017 title, and earn a trip to the 2018 New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
They fell just a few tenths of a second short of their first goal, but two out of three isn’t bad.
The Mohigans squad of Samantha Hatcher, Myah McAlister, Amber Dombrowski and Aleena McDaniel smoked the competition, finishing 16 seconds in front of crosstown rival and runner-up University (Kendall Ours, Zoe Shetty, Caroline Kirby, Peyton Kekura), with a time of 9:33.87.
“It’s really exciting. We’re all seniors, and we knew this was our last chance to leave our mark,” Hatcher said. “We’ve been on each other and pushing each other to achieve our goal, and we did.”
The group of girls has formed a tight bond, and came together to lay out their goals and achieve them at all costs.
“It’s really important. This is the same team we had last year, so we all knew what we wanted to achieve,” McDaniel said. “There would be days we just didn’t feel like practicing and we were sore, but we knew what it took to win a state championship in the 4×800. It feels great.”
As the girls say farewell to MHS track, they leave a legacy that will unlikely be touched in the near future: A school record mark and state championship wins and national championship appearances.
The squad hope that their success will lay the groundwork for future mid-distance athletes at the school, and serve as a motivator.
“Now we get to watch a new group of girls step up and try to break our record; that’s what records are for,” Dombrowski said. “It will be nice to see the underclassman step up to take our place next year.”
Now, all that’s left for the girls is to let the joy soak in — and prepare for another chance to shine on the national level.
“I’m overwhelmed to get the repeat, and I just want to say it’s been a great past four years,” McAlister said.
But for pundits and fans of track and field in West Virginia, there can be a new debate — where does this MHS 4×800 relay squad fit in the discussion of the all-time greats? If you ask MHS coach Steven Blinco, it’s near the top.
“This is one of the best squads ever assembled in the state of West Virginia. They came out today on a humid, overcast day, and ran three seconds off the state record time — what a performance,” he said.
Preston (Jenna Lenhart, Alex Gorondy, Jessica McClelland, Victoria Carr) joined sectional rivals UHS and MHS in the race, taking home a fourth place finish, with a mark of 10:05.57.
The tough performance wasn’t the only victory for an area school Friday, though, as Preston’s Ward Ries edged out Wheeling Park’s Ronnie Saunders by just one second to nab gold in the 3,200-meter run. Pacing the field with a time of 9:38.91, he was joined by teammate Cole Friend, who secured a bronze medal finish in the race with a 9:42.78.
Two additional runner-up finishers joined the UHS girls’ 4×800 relay, with Hatcher grabbing second in the 3,200 run with school-record mark of 10:44.16, while the MHS boys’ 4×800 meter relay (Kevin Donnelly, Andrew Christy, Gideon Temple, Andrew Riley) earned silver medal honors with a school-record mark of 8:09.13.
“We have a whole lot of underclassman contributing to the team, and it’s nice to go out here and show them that we can run fast,” Christy said. “It’s so cool to come out as a senior and set that school record; my last race, and I got to leave my mark.”
PHS earned a fifth place finish in the boys’ 4×800 relay (Trey Smith-Tathem, Wytt Wolfe, Ries, Friend) with 8:12.60, while Shetty (10:58.85) and Kukura (11:05.28) took home fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 3200 meter run. Kirsten Brown rounded out the area point-earners Friday with a sixth place finish in shot put for PHS, with a toss of 33 feet, 9 inches.
The Class AAA action at the state meet will resume at 9 a.m. May 19, with boys’ long jump and girls’ discus kicking off the action.
