Owen Middle School girls go back to back in track and field

The Owen Middle School Warcolts repeated as conference champions at the French Broad River Conference Track and Field conference championships held May 10 at the Karl Straus Track at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

The conference, consisting of all of Buncombe County middle schools as well as Asheville Middle, hosts an all-teams meet once a year to determine the conference champions.

With a great crowd on hand, the defending girls champion Warcolts showed up strong, outpacing the girls from Cane Creek Middle and Valley Spring Middle, who placed second and third respectively.

Top performers included Valley Spring’s Mariah Clement, who scored 20 points with first-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and six points as a member of the 4x100-meter relay.  Playing big roles for Owen’s team wereb Hannah Larios (26 points), Gracie Bolick (20 points), Laila Burk (18 points), Reynold’s Makiya Walker (26 points) and Claressa Simpson (26 points).

Also running strong was Creek’s Sarah Trent (26 points), who was apart of the Hurricane’s record-setting 4x400-meter relay. Ashanty Lee of Enka Middle School set a new conference record in the high jump, clearing the bar at a height of 5-foot-2.

The Owen girls scored points in all but three of the 14 events.  In the long jump, Gracie Bolick placed first with a jump of 14 feet 4 inches. She also placed third in the shot put (30 feet 7 inches), and fourth in disc 66 feet 5 inches).  Amber Wilson also scored in the shot put, placing fifth with a throw of 29 feet 10 inches. She won the discus throw with a 74 foot 7 inch throw. Anna Sobol placed sixth with a throw of 62 feet 4 inches.  Megan Ogle cleared the high jump bar at a height of 4-foot-6, good enough to tie for fifth place.

In the 55-meter hurdles, Sarah Khalil finished in a tie for fifth place with a time of 10.2.  The 4x100- and the 4x200-meter relay team of Lexi Hardin, Emma Bell, Sarah Khalil, and Alyssa Kriezel performed well, posting a fourth- and second-place finish.

In the distance events, the Warcolts really turned it on. Hannah Larios and Laila Burk finish as the 1-2 combination in the 1600-meter and the 800-meter runs.  Kira Treadway finished in fourth place in the 1600 and in third place in the 800 as well. Taking fourth of the top five spots in the 800-meter run, Natasha Luchinina finished in fifth place.  The team of Emma Bell, Kira Treadway, Natasha Luchinina and Hannah Larios finished the night for the girls with a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay.

A highly contested boys side showed the depth of the conference. But when the dust settled, the Valley Springs Rams finished in first place and the Owen boys team finished in fourth place, three points out of third place.