State track meet concludes for county athletes

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com
It was a light day for athletes from the county’s schools on Saturday. The sprint medley relay team of Mollie Sorber, Emma Saddoris, Emily Christensen started out the morning running 1:50.73 which is three seconds better than their previous season’s best time that they ran at the district meet. Class 3A was very competitive in this event. Seven teams ran under 1:50.00, and the Rams had to settle for tenth. Their time would have placed second in Class 1A, third in Class 2A, and eighth in Class 4A. The girls shuttle hurdle relay team of Mollie Sorber, Nadia Fisher, Sarah Sandage, and Eme Johnson ran 1:08.24 and placed seventh in the 3A finals. Seniors Sandage and Johnson had been on the shuttle hurdle team all four years of high school. Ram coach Kelly Simpson was very pleased with the team's performance. The girls improved their time on every relay that they ran at state. They had three events that earned medals for placing in the top eight, and ended the state meet with 12 team points, which was good for 15th place in class 3A.
Paton-Churdan senior Jake Carey placed 15th in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:05.85. Jake got boxed in at the beginning of the race and after using a lot of energy running in lanes two and three to go around people, he didn’t have much left for a kick at the end. “The state meet was a great atmosphere and a great couple of days,” said Paton-Churdan coach Chris Stimson. “ I am super proud of the career that Jake has had and what he has accomplished. Instead of dwelling on the low numbers on the team, he worked harder to qualify individually.”