Leesville Road High School traveled to JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem on Friday, December 15 to compete in the Wake County Invitational #2. The team performed very well, both in individual competitions and the team as a whole. Each and every team member performed strongly.
This was the first meet of the year for many sprinters on the team, due to the previous meet getting canceled because of dangerously slick roads and questionable weather conditions. Despite the meet being several runners’ first debuts, the results were very strong.
Jasmine Jenkins, senior at Leesville, competed in both the 55-meter dash and shot put; she finished first in shot put overall and exceeded the distance needed to qualify for the State 2018 Meet.
“I am really pleased with how the team did as a whole, and I was also pleased with my performance,” said Jenkins.
McKenna Brunick, sophomore, has been a phenomenal new addition to the team, setting the standards high with her teammate Elise Hall for all young girl pole vaulters. Brunick, clearing 12’2” at the meet on Friday, exceeded the State Meet qualifying standards by 3 feet 2 inches.
“I go straight from school practice at the Leesville track for two hours, and then go to pole vault practice for another two hours. It is a crazy schedule, but it seems to be paying off as shown in my last couple performances, which I have been proud of ,” said Brunick.
Timara Chapman, senior, has committed to NC State for track. She finished first for girls in the 55-meter hurdles on Friday, also qualifying for states. “I wasn’t too happy with my performance, but I will take it. I was a little high over the hurdles and didn’t come out of the blocks as well as I should have,” said Chapman.
There were several other notable performances from the pole vaulters on the men’s side of the team, with Ben Blackburn and Jonathan Beck finishing second and third overall.
Andrew Macemore, a sophomore, finished 6th for the boys in the 3,200 meter run, equivalent to two miles. His time for the event was 10 minutes, 24.1 seconds, which is an outstanding time for the lengthy distance.
Overall, the meet went well for Leesville. “There were a lot of new personal records accomplished and school records broken. There are a lot of people already proving their place on the team and that shows we are since we are already strong, we can only get stronger,” said Kate Fearn, senior.
JDL is a phenomenal indoor track that has hosted three national championships in the past. However, the climate is very dry, causing the air to be thick and difficult to breath for some, generally new, runners. Fortunately, for the athletes not accustomed to this atmosphere, there were minimal problems and the competition was fierce.
Overall, this was a great debut for most runners, and showed off all the strengths that Leesville has to offer.
