Published: May 15, 2008 11:21 pm            

State stocked with area athletes

BLUEFIELD — Patrick Flack is a track fanatic. The Bluefield senior will get one final chance to perform his sport at the highest level of competition, at least on the high school level.

“I love it, once I started running, to me, I feel like this is my sport,” Flack said. “I was born to do it, but I’m trying my hardest. This is something I want to go to college on so that’s why I try so hard.”

Flack will be making his third straight trip to the West Virginia Class AA State Track meet, being held today and Saturday at Charleston’s Laidley Field. He’ll be joined by Sarah Hudak — who will be going for a fourth year in a row — along with several others who will represent the Bluefield Beavers.

“I think they’re going to show a lot of people that, yeah, we’re small (in numbers), but we’ve got a lot of heart,” said Andrea Moreno, Bluefield’s first-year track coach. “Pretty much that is what is going to happen, they’re going to blow a few minds out.”

Bluefield will send eight athletes — six boys and two girls — while PikeView is sending 12 to the same event.

“We’d always like to have more, but I’m very pleased with that,” PikeView coach Paul Hodges said. “This has been a rebuilding year, and we’re a very young team.

“Probably half our athletes are ninth graders and we only have three seniors on the whole team. Considering where we started and where we’re at now, we’re very excited with what we have accomplished.”

They won’t be the lone Mercer County athletes in Charleston. Princeton will participate in the Class AAA meet, sending 16 in Terry Hughes’ first year back as the Tigers coach.

“Even though we didn’t set the world on fire compared to what they did the last five years or so, they’ve done a great job this year and I’m very proud of them,” Hughes said. “We had 47 kids run this year, and we’re pretty young, we only lose about four kids.

“We didn’t have any offseason programs, but we’ll have that this year and that will help them a lot.”

Hudak and Flack will participate in three events for Bluefield. Hudak will run the 100 and 200 meter dash and the 400-meter run, while Flack will do the 100, long jump and is also part of the 4x200 relay team.

“I really haven’t had a lot of time to put into track this year so my times have not been as good as in past years, but I’m getting up there,” said Hudak, whose best finish in a state meet has been third place in the 400 meters last year. “I think I can surprise a lot of people.”

Flack added: “I want to really go up there and actually do something. In past years haven’t been good for me because I guess I’m getting nervous and getting sick. This year I’m really looking forward to it, especially the 100 and the 4x200.”

That duo will be joined by Tiara Carper (shot, discus), Ansel Ponder (100) and Turquan Casey (100). Flack’s relay partners include Trey Williams, Robert Mitchell and Tre’ Baker, a quartet that finished fourth in last week’s Region III meet that saw the Beavers finish third as a team.

“These guys, they’re small, but they’ve put their heart into it,” said Moreno, who ran track and cross country at Buckhannon-Upshur. “They don’t really seem to care if they win or lose, they like winning, but they go out there and they give it their all every time.

“They don’t back off and if they get frustrated about it, they just come back and they work harder.”

Mariah Farley leads the PikeView contingent, winning the 300 hurdles at last week’s Region III meet, and finishing second in the 100 hurdles. She’ll be joined by Skieler Hamb (shot) and the 4x800 relay quartet of Leah Cook, Brandi Wiley, Trisha Galligher and Chelsea East, which finished second last week.

Long distance runners Brent Roark (1,600) and Jordan Weitzel (3,200) crossed the finish line third last week for the PikeView boys, while the 4x100 relay squad comprised of Wes Blake, Corey Clark, Zach Lambert and Dale Mitchell will also participate.

The goal in each event is to place among the top six, which isn’t easy since the top 16 performers from across the state are arriving with the same dreams.

“It’s going to be tough to get in the top six,” Hodges said. “We’re ranked towards the bottom in all the events so we would have to have an outstanding performance to score in most.

“Our best chance of scoring would probably be Mariah Farley, she has a pretty good chance in the 300 and possibly the 100. The next best chance might be the 4x100. If they get everything exactly right, they might sneak in there.”

Hughes returned to the track for Princeton after a long hiatus, and was pleased with a contingent that will include T.J. Benners in the 100 and 200 meters, along with his daughter, Kourtney Hughes, in the discus.

“We set out the first of the year to qualify 12 kids to go to states and we have 16,” Hughes said. “We did a little bit better than we thought we would do. We’ll try to raise the bar for next year.”

Benners will be joined by Matt Maddow (shot), Bryan Staten (discus) and the 4x100 relay squad that includes Benners, Mashi Johnson, Tevin Allen and Jerrell Powell. Dalton Christian, Josh White, Tanner Grose and Evan Ralosky will participate in the 4x400 relay.

Two girls relay teams will also perform, including Lauren Broyles, Tess Otey, Cali Surface and Temika Jackson in the 4x100. Broyles, Otey, Jackson and Leah Broyles will enter the 4x200 relay.

Hughes hopes the Tigers can cap off a building season with positive results in Charleston.

“We hope so. That would be gravy for us,” said Hughes said, who previously coached at Princeton in the late eighties and early nineties. “I hope we can go up there and do well.”

Hudak, who also played soccer at Bluefield, will end her athletic career this weekend, with plans to attend High Point University in North Carolina.

“I’m pretty excited just to get track over with, it’s a tough sport,” said Hudak, with a laugh. “I kind of have mixed feelings about it because I know I’m going to miss it, but right now I’m going to be happy to have my life back and get ready for graduation.”

“It’s been a lot of fun to represent the school. Our class, the class of 2008, we’ve done a lot for sports. Our soccer team were sectional champions and in track we’ve always been able to show really well.”

Flack hopes to continue his track career, possibly at West Virginia State and Concord. There’s little doubt he has the one ingredient that any track athlete must possess.

“It’s tough, but to me you’ve just got to believe in yourself and just push hard,” Flack said. “If you want to do good, you can do good, if you want to do bad, you can do bad. It depends on what kind of heart you have.”

From what Moreno has seen, the Beavers aren’t lacking in that area.

“It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve really enjoyed it, this is a really, really great group,” said Moreno, who also finds time to teach and serve as a whitewater rafting guide and a ski patroller. “With as many that did make it to the state meet, I’m actually very ecstatic...

“It’s going to be great. Everybody is going to go out there and do the best they can do. I think there are going to be some people that are going to be very surprised.”

—Contact Brian Woodson at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

        

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