The TCHS Track teams will open their season this week and they look to improve from last season. Both the Girls’ and Boys’ teams performed well last year, but with experience coming back this year the expectations are higher. There is a total of 63 athletes that came out to compete this season for the Girls’ and Boys’ teams.
The Boys’ team has a good number of kids out this year with 38 total out to open the season. Returning for their senior season is: Brett Reall, Jacob Davis, Nathaniel Rader, Luke Poling, Jack Melnick, David Kines, Garrett Crossland-Bolyard, Brandon Zirk and Jacob Hauser. Juniors: Zane Myers, Mark Barnes, Gariet Pennington, Owen Poling, Ben Callaway, Cole Rapp, Corrick Ambrose, Raheim Lamb, Ben Kines, Edward Lewandowski, Clay Shockley, John Anderson, Seth Cangley, Jon Rhodes and Chris Chambers. Sophomores: Wyatt White, Noah Lipscomb, Hunter Collar, Will White, Holden Young, Ethan Pacella and Raine McCauley. Freshman: Josh Callaway, Wyatt Betler, Tate Mullenax, Taylor Long and Bode Shockley. Coach Tom Gutshall is back as the Boys’ Head Coach and Coach Eakle is the Girls’ Head Coach, but both coaches will assist each other with both teams. Randy Davis and Amber Evans also volunteer their time to help out with practice and meets.
The Girls’ Track team has a strong nucleus returning from last year’s team. This year there is 27 girls out for the season. Here are the members that make up this year’s Girls’ team, Seniors: Sydney Moore, Sydney Nestor, Emily Crosten, Natalie Evans, Cecily Strawderman and Carleigh Bolyard. Juniors: Riley Evans, Aliyah Plum, Kelcee James, McKinley Murphy and Amber Price. Sophomores: Mary Carr, Lacey Cross, Sarah Bates, Katie Surguy and Macy Nestor. A new class of athletes enter the track season as Freshman, Kaylynn Crossland, MacKenzie Zirk, Abbie Eakle, Alexis Evers, Addie Buckley, Karlee Smith, Zoe Nestor, Shelby Gooden, Resi Anderson, Rachel Friend and Tessa Naylor. Coach Shane Eakle was ask about this year’s Girls’ and he said, “We have only been outside 1 day because of the weather, something all spring sports fight here at Tucker County.” Coach Eakle also stated, “We have some senior leadership returning for the girls’ and the boys’ that had helped establish a tone for pushing the younger kids and if we can stay healthy and can develop some depth we can make some noise with the Girls’ and the Boys’ teams.” Eakle also talked about a new event that was starting back up this season, “This year we are going to start up Pole Vault this season, which is something we haven’t competed in for some time.” Coach Eakle mentioned, “Abby Long and Hailey Tibbs have helped out tremendously with keeping stats and times the last couple years and have done a good job at keeping things organized which sometimes goes unmentioned.”
The schedule is loaded up again this year with mostly “AA” and “AAA” teams which makes the team better toward the end of the year. These athletes will be working for 35-40 dress positions at each of the 8 regular season meets. The first meet of the season was scheduled for this Thursday March 29th at Keyser. Here is the schedule for the remainder of the schedule; 4/3 @ Keyser, 4/6 @ Parkersburg South, 4/10 @ Buckhannon-Upshur, 4/13 @ Laidley Field Charleston, 4/17 @ Buckhannon-Upshur, 4/20 @ North Marion, 4/24 @ Keyser. The PVC will be 5/2 @ Keyser and the Regional Meet will be 5/11 @ Lewis County. The State Meet in Charleston is scheduled for May 18th and May 19th. Keep up with the Track team all season on TuckerCountySports.Com and RunWV.Com
