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Parry McCluer High School junior Kovyk Chandler broke his own school record in the boys’ 3200-meter run at the University of Lynchburg High School Twilight Invitational on Friday in Lynchburg, and freshman Kyra Lee qualified by time for the Class 1 state meet in the girls’ 3200-meter run.
Chandler placed second of 12 runners in 9:31.01, 13.82 seconds faster than the school record that he set last spring. He ran alone for almost the entire race and only trailed Franklin County’s Nathan Atchue (9:22.87), finishing well ahead of the third-place runner, Christiansburg’s Max Craig (9:48.64).
Pleased with Chandler’s performance, PM head coach Chris Poluikis said, “I expected him to run around 9:40, so for him to have run the time he did was great.”
Also running for the PM boys were freshmen Josh Cooper, Logan Wheelock and Caden Mason, who all competed in the 800-meter run. Cooper came in 11th of 29 runners with a personal-record (PR) time of 2:17.78, and was followed by Wheelock, finishing 13th in a PR time of 2:20.41, and Mason, coming in 26th in 2:40.96.
Cooper and Wheelock also competed in the 16000-meter run, with Cooper placing 10th of 23 runners in 5:06.75 Wheelock finishing 11th in 5:07.31.
“It was rainy during the mile, and that definitely impacted times, but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t compete,” said Poluikis.
For the PM girls, Lee qualified by time for the state meet by finishing the 3200-meter run in a PR time of 13:09.5, placing fourth of eight runners.
Junior Jasmine De Souza had her first competition for the outdoor season. De Souza placed 14th of 23 runners in the 800-meter run in 2:53.56. In the 1600-meter run, De Souza finished 11th of 16 runners in 6:19.37.
“Jasmine’s coming off an injury that’s stopped her from training at a high level until this point, but she’s on the way back,” said Poluikis..”She’s started to show more speed in practice, and I believe she can progress in the 1600.”
Throwing for the Blues were freshmen Kamilah Richardson and Griffin Harlow and sophomore Rayshan Richardson.
Kamilah placed fourth of 20 throwers in the girls’ shot put with a toss of 29 feet, 9 inches and finished 12th of 20 throwers in the discus with a heave of 51-5.
For the PM boys, Harlow placed 13th of 27 throwers in the shot put with a toss of 36-2 and finished 17th of 26 individuals with a heave of 84-1 for his first official varsity mark. Rayshan placed 15th in both the shot put (34-4) and discus (76-11).
Kamilah Richardson also competed in a meet last Wednesday at Covington, winning the shot put with a toss of 30-9 and placing third in the discus with a heave of 65-6.
The Blues will compete at Covington next Wednesday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m.
