Warren East Lady Raiders take home title at Raider Classic
By Perry Swack
The Raider Classic was held at Warren East High School on Saturday. Sixteen boys’ teams and sixteen girls’ teams competed in this mega event. Many schools wanted to get a feel for the track and field at Warren East, as the Class 2A and 3A regional championships will be held there in less than two weeks.
Warren East took home the girls’ team title with 124 points. Greenwood placed second with 111, Daviess County in third with 106, South Warren in fourth with 75 points, and Warren Central rounded out the top five with 74 total points. Barren County (43 points) placed sixth, Bowling Green (21) finished tenth, and Franklin-Simpson (13) placed eleventh. Allen County-Scottsville (3) and Logan County (2) rounded out the meet in 15th and 16th place.
Warren East freshman Tayanah Woods and senior Jillian Harrell placed 1-2 in the 100-meter hurdles, as Woods ran the final in 17.09 seconds. The freshman also won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 51.57 seconds. Fellow Lady Raider freshman Amiyah Carter won the long jump competition with a final 16-09.75. She also placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.08 seconds. Carter was a part of the girls’ 4×100 meter relay team that placed second behind Daviess County. Cheyenne Stark, Natajia Alexander, Carter, and Harrell ran the event in 52.10 seconds. Harrell placed second in the triple jump (31-07.25), third in the high jump (5-00), and third in the long jump (14-00). Junior Laila Sells won the discus throw with a final score of 87-01. Senior Caroline Forrester (31-00) and junior Kaylee Miller (30-06.50) finished second and third in the shot put.
Greenwood finished second behind strong performances on both the track and in the field. The Lady Gators got off to a strong start in the 4×800 meter relay as Macy Daniels, Lily Clark, Caroline Freeman, and Erin Heltsley ran the event in 10:47.14 to finish second behind Daviess County. The same relay team finished second behind the Lady Panthers again in the 4×400 with a time of 4:23.73. Heltsley and Daniels placed 3-4 in the 800-meter run. Senior Rachel Evans took second in the 300-meter hurdles and sophomore Jessica Peterson placed third in the 100-meter hurdles and in the pole vault (7-00). Freshman Myra Jones finished third in the 100-meter dash, while sophomore Kaydee Wooldridge took third in the 1600-meter run with a finals’ time of 5:41.84.
South Warren totaled 75 points behind a smattering of second and third-place finishes. The Lady Spartans’ first top-three finish was in the 4×200 meter relay led by Kate Chiddister, Lilly Degehart, Karson Deaton, and Madeline Irvin. They also placed third in the 4×400 meter relay, with Megan Kitchens, McKenna Armstrong, Taylor Brown, and Katherine Gill pacing the squad. The sophomore Brown finished second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:39.46, while fellow sophomore Kitchens placed second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:02.04. Senior Karson Deaton placed second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.04 seconds.
Warren Central placed fifth as a team, but the Lady Dragons managed to win four events. Senior La’Auhnni Lewis won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.80 seconds. She was also a part of the 4×200 meter relay squad that won the event. Mia Cardillo, Ariana Simmons, Jaida Tooley, and Lewis won with a time of 1:48.71. The quartet placed third in the 4×100 meter relay with a time of 53.29 seconds. Tooley, a senior, won the high jump with a final tally of 5-06, and Cardillo won the triple jump event with a final score of 32-04.50. Cardillo also placed second in the long jump with a final of 14-10.25.
Barren County freshman Chesney McPherson won the 1600-meter run with a finals’ time of 5:34.32 before blowing by the field at the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:12.03. Junior Makayla Brooks won the pole-vaulting competition with a final score of 9-00, edging Thomas Nelson senior Carly Spalding.
Bowling Green got a second-place finish from senior Anna Neal in the high jump competition with a final of 5-00. Franklin-Simpson junior Shelby Scott took third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 53.86 seconds.
