By Allen Hamrick
The CCMS Mustangs and Lady Mustangs track teams finished their season at the first ever Middle School Best of the Best state championship held in Huntington on Friday, May 16. With this being the inaugural event, both teams set the precedence for all future track stars. Middle schools from across West Virginia sent their best athletes who had to earn their ticket to the event.
The Mustangs qualified 12, but Cole Boggs, one of the best at the high jump, couldn’t make it due to an injury. Jackson Stricker was ranked at the top in the pole vault and didn’t disappoint fans by placing 4th in the event with a jump of nine feet. The boys’ shuttle team competed against some of the best teams in the state and placed 4th. The 4×800 team placed 11th, and the 4×200 team placed 11th. Tilyr Bird placed 7th in the 100 meter hurdles running against the fastest runner in hurdles in the country. For the Lady Mustangs, it was Hayden Rogers taking 14th in the 200 meter, and Marissa Atha placed 11th in the 1600 and 8th in the 3200 meter runs. The shuttle team was 13th, and Langston McKinney took 13th in the 100 meter hurdles. Natalie Tanner placed 8th in the 200 meter hurdles.
It was a great tournament, and the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs proved they are some of the best. While you may say 13th and 14th is finishing low on the totem pole, remind yourself they are in the top twenty among all the middle schools in the state. The track athletes who placed in the top five are TOP 5 in this state and all without a place to practice.
Since there will be a new Astroturf football field and a new softball field coming soon, maybe the track teams, who have more than a few state finalists, could actually get a local, regulation field to practice on. If they did, I believe that Clay County could have some state champions for sure. Congratulations to the whole team and their coaches for giving the track fans that showed up their money’s worth and setting the Mustang name in stone as a team to beat.
