Lady Cavs win first T&F meet on new home surface

Icard- History was made as East Burke hosted their first track & field meet since 2014 on a brand new rubber track surface installed last spring.

The Lady Cavaliers beat out Patton 63-52 in Wednesday's four-team Northwestern Foothills 2A Conference meet with Draughn and West Caldwell.

Chloe Cook (800 meters - 2:56.87), Ambria White (shot put - 28-03), Taylor Bostain (discus throw - 86-10), and the 4x800 relay (13:02.23; Janie Ennis, Haylie Evans, Meah Walsh, Piper Strong) were first-place winners for the Lady Cavs.

The shot put and discus throw events were key to victory with White and Bostain joined by Sierra Pelham and Emily Burkeen as top four finishers.

Freshman KJ Byrd and senior Noah Rooks led the East Burke boys to a third-place finish (57 pts).

Byrd won the high jump (6-0), pole vault (14-0), and triple jump (41-0) events and was also the last leg in the winning 4x400 relay (4:06.28) joining Travis Craig, Jackson Spencer, and Luke Elliott.

Byrd's 14-foot pole vault clearance also broke a 40-year old school record previously set at 13-03.

Rooks dominated the competition in the throwing events with marks of 40-02 (shot put) and 143-03 (discus).

Hunter Mauldin (shot put 3rd, discus 4th) and Caleb Johnson-White (800 meters 4th, 1600 meters 5th) were other key Cavalier finishers.

"For our girls and boys, there were many personal records recorded yesterday (and) that is our goal for each meet to get better," said East Burke track & field coach AJ Schwankert. "There were many who were pretty 'gitty' about being the first to compete on the new surface and having a home meet for the first time in many years."

The Draughn girls came in third place (39 pts) with wins from Bella Williams (high jump - 4-8) and the 4x200 relay team (2:05.04) and runner-up finishes from Ambria Blalock (400 meters), Alexis Diaz (triple jump), and Georgia Goulding (high jump).

Junior Reed Farrar led the Draughn boys (4th - 40 pts) with wins in 1600 (5:03.69) and 3200 meters (11:29.28).

Farrar beat out EB's Elliott by 3.03 seconds in the 1600 meter race taking the lead on the third lap.

Luke Rector (shot put, discus) and Ben Thao (400 meters) were runner-up finishers for the Wildcats with third place finishes from Dustin Riffle (400 meters), Andrew Albright (800 meters), and Donnell Wilkins (discus).

Schwankert also acknowledged helpful support from other team's coaches in the Cavaliers' first home meet in several years.

"As a staff, our main goal was to show appreciation to the other schools who have hosted meets when we couldn't, I hope we were successful. A thank you to the coaches of Draughn, Patton, and West Caldwell for their willingness to help when asked."