By Carl Holcomb
When push comes to shove, there is a new sheriff in the Potomac Valley Conference Division 2 Track Championships in Baker sending out with the old title holders and ushering in fresh and new champions.
East Hardy Boys Track dethroned the Mountain Lions for the PVC crown by a mere 1.5 points in Baker.
Petersburg Girls Track snatched the PVC team title by ousting the co-defending champions Tucker County and East Hardy by double digits.
Despite Tucker County Boys collecting first place in the final PVC Track 4×400 relay event, the Cougars managed to reach fourth place in the same event to earn just enough points to grab the overall title.
East Hardy’s Nehemiah Graham received the PVC Boys Track Division 2 Championship plaque to commence the celebration, kissing the plaque and handing it over to teammate Silas Schetrom to kiss the prize as celebration continued.
“We all have to kiss the plaque,” Nehemiah Graham shouted as the Cougars enjoyed the success of the day.
The Cougars won the PVC Boys Track Championship with 180.5 points as every point mattered to reach this pinnacle to narrowly edge Tucker County at 179 points in their runner-up finish, followed by Petersburg with 52.5 points, Pendleton County 52, Pocahontas County 51, Union 26, Tygarts Valley 24 and Paw Paw rounded out the team scoring at 199.
The Cougars’ journey to PVC glory began in the field events as Korbin Miller earned a pair of gold medals in the discus (128’7”) and shot put (38’1”).
Cougars teammate Bodie Brill hauled in the silver medal for the shot put at 36’5” and added fourth place in the discus at 107’10”.
East Hardy’s Gideon Good launched the discus 111’7” for the bronze medal.
Later in the meet, Miller shared his wisdom teaching the younger throwers proper techniques to help them improve for future meets.
East Hardy’s Evan Hamilton set a new PVC Boys Track 100 meter dash record finishing in the only sub-11 second time at 10.86 besting his brother Mason’s previous PVC record.
Mason Hamilton took the silver medal this time around in the 100 meter dash at 11.40 and Graham finished in 5th place at 11.75.
The gold medal bling found its way back around the neck of Evan Hamilton in the 200 meter dash in 22.76 and the 4×100 relay at 44.30 along with Graham, Mason Hamilton and Khristian Bauserman.
Graham took fourth place in the 200 meters at 24.76.
A couple of Tygarts Valley Girls Track runners rested on the grass after the 200 meter run and invited their boys counterparts to take a break with them after the races.
East Hardy’s Xavia Barber and Madilyn Funk finished the same 200 meter race and took advantage of testing the Baker Den’s green mattress for softness, too.
Barber finished in 6th place for the 200 meter dash (30.48) and Funk took 9th place (31.64).
Tucker County’s Lela Wright set new PVC Girls Track Championship gold medal times in the 100 (13.12) and 200 meter (26.94) dashes.
East Hardy Girls Track’s Madison Kerr, defending Class A state track 100 meter hurdles champion, set a new PVC Championship record with a gold medal time of 16-seconds flat.
Kerr received her state championship ring moments after the gold medal run.
Kerr’s state championship gold medal time was better at 15.49.
Paw Paw’s Shayla Tanouye won the first state gold medal in school history in the long jump and added the 300 meter hurdles podium topper in Charleston.
Tanouye continued that success with PVC gold medals in Baker for the 300 hurdles and long jump.
East Hardy Girls Track’s Morganne Miller collected a silver medal in the 300 meter hurdles and the bronze medals for the 100 meter dash and 100 meter hurdles, along with a silver medal in the 4×100 relay joining Barber, Funk and Barber (55.70) which was one second behind the Vikings gold medal relay.
Kerr took fourth place in the 100 meter dash and Barber added a fifth place finish.
Union Boys Track’s Braylon Ward won gold medals in the 110 hurdles (16.42) and 300 hurdles (43.30).
In the 110 hurdles, East Hardy’s Gideon Good won the silver medal (17.55), Khristian Bauserman (18.23) snatched the bronze medal and Brice Toulomelis took fourth place (22.55).
Angelo Loulis earned the silver medal for the Cougars in the 300 hurdles (46.73), Bauserman notched fourth place (50.38) and Toulomelis 7th place.
The shuttle hurdle crew was setting up for the race as Tucker County’s Lynk Suesli was charging to the finish line in the two-miler attempting to break the PVC and TCHS record and nearly had a setback as the shuttle hurdle crew almost didn’t clear the lane in time with one member being pushed out of the way in the nick of time.
The PVC record fell in a time of 10:01.73 and Suesli added another gold medal in the one-miler.
East Hardy Boys Track’s Jonathan Montgomery took 4th place in the 3200 meter run and 5th place in the 1600 meter run.
East Hardy Girls Track’s Shaye Barb collected the silver medal in the one-miler (6:28.61) and bronze medal in the two-miler (14:32.10) as teammate Brianna Hamilton took 5th place (15:56.94)
The Cougars shuttle hurdle specialists of Good, Bauserman, Loulis and Aden Smith jumped to the gold medal with a time of 1:08.19.
East Hardy’s Gideon Good added a gold medal win for the high jump with a clearance of 5’10” and Angelo Loulis was tied for fourth place at 5’4”.
East Hardy Boys Track 4×800 relay took the bronze medal at 11:22.63 (Kane Persinger, Evan Sears, Hayden Myers and Brice Toulomelis).
The Cougars 4×400 relay took fourth place (Myers, Persinger, Sears & Toulomelis).
Tucker County Boys Track won the PVC titles for the 4×200, 4×400 and 4×800 relay events, while the girls took the 4×200 crown.
Petersburg Girls Track won the gold medals in the 4×100, 4×400 and shuttle hurdles relay events, while Pendleton County took the crown in the 4×800.
East Hardy Girls Track earned silver medals in the 4×100 and 4×800 relays (Madison Cowgill, Brianna Hamilton, Jaiden Gordon and Alexis McKinney).
The Cougars took fourth place in the 4×200 and 4×400 races.
