Maroon Devils finish second
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Swain County High School Lady Devils were Western Regional Champions again this year. The Maroon Devils earned second place at the championship.
Over the weekend the Swain High School track and field team competed at the Western Regional Championships. Swain was predicted to place second at regionals behind Mountain Island Charter, but the Lady Devils weren’t giving up their defending Western Regional Championship title without a fight. They gave it 110% and ultimately pushed ahead in the final event of the day, the 4x400 meter relay.
“We have some outstanding kids here at Swain County HS that continue to amaze me over and over again. Our girls were predicted to finish 2nd to Mountain Island Charter by about 30 points in the 1A Western Regional,” Coach Ian Roper said. “They clawed and fought all day to enter the final race, the 4x400 relay, in a tie for 1st. Seeded just seconds apart from Mountain Island Charter, our girls ran a season best time of 4:13 to win the 4x400 relay and secure their 2nd straight 1A Western Regional title.”
On Saturday the Maroon Devils fought hard all day at the Western Regional Championships in Cherokee, but ultimately finished in 2nd place with 93 points, behind Mountain Island Charter with 135.
Both the Devils and Lady Devils had record breaking finishes at the event.
Coach Ian Roper said that it would be impossible to recognize all of the highlights of the day because every point counted, but here are three 1A Western Regional Records broken that day by Swain.
Matthew Gray’s 15’0 pole vault, Amelia Rogers 10’1 pole vault, and the girls 4x800 relay with Amaya Hicks, Arizona Blankenship, Gracie Monteith, and Mazie Helpman with a time of 9:57.
Other notable highlights for the day were:
• Arizona Blankenship: Regional Champion in three events (1600, 3200, 4x800) and 3rd place in the 800.
• Amaya Hicks: Regional Champion in Two events (4x800 and 4x400) and qualified in two more (4x200, 800 - 2nd place).
• Kelan McCullough: Qualified for states in three events as a Freshman and set the SCHS school record in the long jump (20’11).
• Taking three of the eight places in the two mile when down 17 points to tie the meet. Gracie (2nd) and Lily (7th) both had Herculean finishes to secure some huge points.
There were 13 State qualifiers for the girls: Arizona Blankenship, Amaya Hicks, Mazie Helpman, Gracie Monteith, Sienna Hackshaw, Amelia Rogers, Alden Thomas, Savana Smith, Mya Burrows-Kurr, Isabella Walker, Laiken Harvey, Allie Gibson, Lily Bjerkness and
9 state qualifiers for the boys: Connor Brown, Connor Lambert, Kane Jones, Abhi Patel, Matthew Gray, Kelan McCullough, Austin Jenkins, Dawson Cody, and Corey Wolf.
“Our boys team fought through adversity all day long to secure a strong 2nd place finish. This was our boys team’s highest ever finish in a Regional meet.” Coach Roper said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the season they’ve had.”