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Several Parry McCluer High School runners set personal records, while the Fighting Blues’ throwers performed well at the Titan Track Classic on Saturday at Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke.
While some of his teammates had already qualified by time for the Class 1 state track and field meet, PM sophomore Logan Wheelock was the latest qualifier, placing 12th in the boys’ 800-meter run in a statequalifying time of 2:09.56, a personal record (PR) by three seconds. Wheelock also set a PR in the 1600-meter run, finishing 11th in 4:44.91.
Sophomore teammate Josh Cooper placed eighth in the boys’ 800-meter in 2:04.28, a PR by a half-second, and finished ninth in the 1600-meter run in 4:36.5, a PR by about 2.5 seconds. Cooper had qualified earlier for the state meet in both races.
PM freshman Sam Carpenter placed 28th in both of his races, finishing the 800-meter run in 2:26.51 and completing the 1600-meter run in 5:12.41, a PR by about six seconds.
Senior teammate Evan Cook placed fourth in the long jump with a PR leap of 19 feet, 9.5 inches, and finished ninth in the 400-meter dash in 54.95 seconds, a PR by about a second. Cook came in 20th in the 100-meter dash in a PR time of 11.84 seconds and finished 33rd in the 200-meter dash in 25.46 seconds.
The PM boys rested their top two distance runners, senior Kovyk Chandler and his younger brother, Kebryl, a freshman who had both broken the previous school record in the boys’ outdoor 1600meter run a week earlier in Matthews, N.C.
Two PM girls competed in distance races. Senior Jasmine De Souza placed ninth in the 1600-meter run in 6:04.82, and sophomore Kyra Lee finished 10th in 6:08.06. “It was a tough race,” said PM head coach Chris Poluikis. “Half the field was way faster than them, and the other half was way slower.”
Leading the PM boys’ throwers was sophomore Griffin Harlow, who placed third in the shot put with a toss of 44-8.75 and 14th in the discus with a heave of 109-4. Junior teammate Rayshan Richardson placed seventh in the shot put (41-6) and eighth in the discus (122-8), while PM sophomore Vincent Wilson came in 28th in the discus (90-3) and 29th in the shot put (32-9.25). Sophomore Brendan Holdren finished 38th in the shot put (30-4) and 45th in the discus (77-5), while junior Lincoln Garrett came in 55th in the discus (67-10) and 61st in the shot put (23-4).
For the PM girls’ throwers, junior Kamilah Richardson led the way, placing second in the shot put (31-9) and 23rd in the discus (60-1). Junior Keeli Wheeler finished 20th in the discus (63-6) and 23rd in the shot put (24-0.75), junior Presley Austin came in 21st in the discus (63-3) and 31st in the shot put (19-3.5), and freshman Phoebe Wood finished 33rd in the discus (50-2) and 40th in the shot put (16-8.75).
The PM boys tied Southwest Virginia Academy for 12th place of 18 scoring teams, tallying 15 points, while the PM girls finished 13th of 14 scoring teams with eight points. Salem won the boys’ meet with 85 points, Blacksburg (79) placed second, and Lord Botetourt (62) finished third. Blacksburg (149) won the girls’ meet, Heritage (88.5) placed second, and Wilson Memorial (73) finished third.
With the Chandler brothers racing for PM again, the Blues will head to the University of Virginia to compete in the Dogwood Track Classic on Friday and Saturday at Lannigan Field in Charlottesville. Poluikis said he’ll enter all of his distance runners in the 3200-meter run.
