…Small Group of Ryan Thinclads Qualify For State Meet
It was a two gold-medal kind of day for Ryan’s Walker Rawlings at the Class A Regional Track Meet at Alex last Saturday.
Rawlings, a freshman for the Cowboys, won the shot put and discus at the regional meet and he will compete in the Class A State Track Meet Friday and Saturday at Western Heights High School.
Photo by Shannon McCord
In most meets this season, Rawlings has competed in the junior high division, but for the regional meet he stepped into the high school division and had an outstanding day.
Rawlings’ throw of 40-9 was first in the shot put, while his toss of 118-6 was good enough for first in the discus.
Rawlings has a little work to do over the next few years to try to break the shot put school record that his owned by his older sibling, McClain.
The older Rawlings was a three-time regional champion in the shot put and a two-time regional titlist in the discus.
The regional titles won by Walker in the shot put and discus marked the eighth and ninth regional titles in those events by a Ryan athlete this century.
M. Rawlings owns five of the titles, while Elijah Greeson won a title in the discus in 2002 and Jay Bergeron claimed a title in the shot put the following year.
W. Rawlings was the only competitor at this year’s regional meet for the Cowboys.
His two first-place finishes earned 20 team points, which put Ryan in 14th place among the crowded field of Class A schools.
It was another good day for the four-member Cowgirl track squad at the regional meet.
Photo by Shannon McCord
The Cowgirls finished ninth in the regional meet with a total of 27 points.
The 3,200-meter relay team of Lilybet Harmon, Lily York, Holland Carter and Juliet Spangler recorded a time of 11:00.89, which is another school record.
The mark earned the squad a silver medal and a spot in the Class A State Track Meet.
Photo by Shannon McCord
It marks the fifth time this season the squad has set a school record in the event and it was 27 seconds better than the school mark set just four days prior at Velma-Alma’s invitational meet.
Photo by Shannon McCord
Despite a sixth-place finish in the 3,200 meters, Spangler earned a spot in the state track meet in the event as an additional qualifier. Her time in the event was 14:00.63.
In the 800 meters, Carter qualified for state with a third-place finish. She recorded a time of 2:39.63.
Spangler also placed sixth in the 1,600 meters with a time of 6:18.30, which is the third best time in school history in the event – all posted by Spangler.
Also scoring for the Cowgirls was Harmon in the 800 meters. Her time of 2:48.09 put her in fifth place among the competitors.
The 1,600-meter squad of Harmon, York, Carter and Spangler did not place in the regional but did record a time of 4:54.46 – which was less than a second off the school record set last week for the Cowgirls in the event.
