GREENSBORO – (Special from Philip Latter) On a beautiful mid-May day on the campus of NC A&T University, the Maroon Devils track team closed out the season with their best meet of the year. Coming into the meet ranked sixth in the State, the Maroon Devils put together a fantastic run of performances and ended up placing third overall.
The highlight of the meet was the first race on the track, the girls’ 4 x 800-meter relay. The No. 2 seeded Lady Devils came in believing they had a legitimate shot at a State title and saw that belief confirmed as Shelby Hyatt ran a tactically perfect 2:32 opening leg to hand off the baton in second place. From there fellow junior Madison Travitz ran a lifetime best of 2:28 to keep Swain neck and neck with archrival Robbinsville, the No. 1 seed. Sophomore Maggie Burns quickly took the lead on the third leg of the relay, but Robbinsville hung tough all the way into the final exchange. Robbinsville’s anchor leg was still even with Swain freshman Emma Pindur entering the last lap, but Pindur put on the afterburners, splitting a 2:21 last leg to give the Lady Devils the victory. Their time of 9:51.83 broke the existing school record by 12 seconds.
“It was one of the most inspired performances I’ve seen in my life,” said head coach Philip Latter. “This race meant so much to these girls. They couldn’t be more deserving.”
Plenty of other track athletes showed they were deserving as well. Pindur came back three hours later and placed third in the 1600 meters in a personal best of 5:31. Freshman Lynsey Hicks – who helped the 4 x 800 qualify for State when Pindur was injured – placed fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24, a 9-second personal best. Hyatt also placed fourth in her other event, the 3200 meters, with a personal best time of 12:38. Maggie Burns rounded out the track scoring with a 1:00.4 performance in the 400-meter dash, fast enough for sixth place.
In the field, Lydia Sale proved to be one of the best triple jumpers in the state. With a personal best leap of 34’10”, the senior took home third place. Sarah Hyatt and Samantha Thomas placed fourth and fifth in the pole vault with leaps of 8’0” and 7’6”, respectively. Kathryn Brown also placed fifth in discus with an excellent throw of 99’7”.
“It’s so rewarding when you see a girl like Lydia perform at her best at her final State meet,” Latter said. “For her to come back from injury and do what she did this year is truly remarkable. Then again, Lydia has been the leader of this team all year, so I’m not surprised that everyone would follow in her footsteps and perform so well. I’m just so happy for this team. What a great group of young ladies.”
On the men’s side, Swain was led by Cooper Reinert. The defending State champion in the pole vault just missed repeating as he placed second with a leap of 12’0”. Other scorers included Angel Bowers leaping 20’1” to place seventh in the long jump, and Ben Miller placing seventh in the 110-meter hurdles. The 4 x 100-meter relay team of Angel Bowers, Caleb Woodard, Shane Swimmer, and Jordan Cody placed ninth in a season best time of 45.07.
“Our boys’ team was very young this year, and there’s no better place to gain experience than the State meet,” Latter said. “I know Cooper was bummed he wasn’t able to repeat as champion, but it doesn’t in any way diminish the fantastic season he had. Same with the 4 x 100 relay. That team carved out a new identity for Swain this year, and since all those guys will be back next year, I can’t wait to see how they build on their success.
“On the whole it was the best overall meet I’ve seen by a Swain team in my four years here,” Latter added. “Both the guys and girls should be incredibly proud of what they accomplished this season.”