Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
On Saturday, Jan. 8 the Maroon Devils indoor track team traveled to JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem for the Just Don’t Lose Classic 2022. Out of 50 teams Swain was the only 1A to compete and held their own against 3A and 4A schools.
Lady Devils
The Swain girls’ team did well overall with placing first in the 4x800 relay team with a time of 10:55.74.
In the 500-meter dash Amaya Hicks placed 10th with 1:27.28, in the 1000 meter run Gracie Monteith was 9th with 3:23.51. In the 1600-meter run Arizona Blankenship placed 4th with 5:26.87 and in the 3200 meter, she placed 2nd with 11:35.01.
“Gracie Monteith qualified in the 1000 (meter run) and that makes her the first girl at Swain to ever qualify in the 1000. Amaya Hicks was off by four hundredths of a second in the 500. I can’t even start a stopwatch and stop it that fast,” Coach Keith Payne said. “She is right on the edge, and she has at least three more meets to qualify and I know that she can.”
Amaya Hicks is currently ranked 9th in the 1A and 2A divisions in the 500-meter dash.
Maroon Devils
Swain’s boys’ teams had impressive finishes all over the board starting with the 55 meter dash, where Landon Matz placed 22nd with 7.10 and Gavin Roland placed 41st with 7.91.
In the 300-meter dash Landon Matz was 22nd again, this time with 40.00. Kane Jones was 18th in the 500-meter dash with 1:15.01 and Gavin Roland was 38th with 1:25.85.
In the 1000-meter run Connor Lambert placed 30th with 3:02.33 and Abhi Patel 41st with 3:07.90.
In 55-meter hurdles, Austin Jenkins was 11th with 8:89 and Kelan McCullough was 9th in Long Jump. In the triple jump, Kelan McCullough was 10th and in pole vault Matthew Gray came in 2nd.
The team has a few more meets to qualify before State on Feb. 11.
The track meet at Cherokee that was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 12 will now be held Wednesday, Jan. 19, due to Cherokee schools being closed for Covid.