Bobcats And Lady Cats Register Some Good Performances In Track And Field Meet With Brookville (03/2/19)

The Clarion Area Track and Field Teams opened their 2019 season on Monday (March 25th) at Brookville. The Lady Cats fell 87-60, while the Bobcat Boys fell 107-46, but they turned in some fine performances.

Laken Lewis, Wendy Beveridge and Evelyn Lerch met or surpassed qualifying standards for the District Nine Class AA Meet.

Lewis qualified in the high jump (5′-0″ – first place), pole vault (11′-3″ first place), triple jump (33′-1″ – first place) and long jump (15′-9.5″ – third place). Beveridge qualified in the long jump (16′-4.5″ – first place) and triple jump (31′-10″ – third place). Lerch qualified in all three dashes, while finishing first in each, 100 (13.3), 200 (27.5) and 400 (62.31).

Phylicia Hockman finished first in the 800 (2:37.91) and second in the 400 (1:11.23), and Gabriella Fleming finished third in the 1600 (7:06.53).

Rebekah Ketner won the shot put (29′-9.5″), and Gabriella Fleming was first in the discus (58′-7″). Ketner was second in the discus (56′-6″) and Fleming was third in the shot put (23′-6″).

The Boys 4×800 relay team, consisting of Nick Schill, Don Cunningham, Daniel Ketner and Noah Schill captured the event and qualified for districts with a 9:00.33. Gavin Brinkley also qualified for districts, going 39′-2.5″ in the triple jump, garnering second place. He also finished second in the high jump (5′-6″) and third in the long jump (18′-10.5″). Cunningham finished first in the 400 (:56.97)

The Bobcats swept the 800 with Noah finishing first (2:16.18), Daniel taking second (2:25.59) and Jacob Smith finishing third (3:32.65). Nathaniel Lerch finished second in both the 1600 (4:57.80) and 3200 (11:13.82). Nick was third in the 1600 (5:11.70) and Josh Mitchell took third in the 300 hurdles (:48.41).

Clayton McElravy won the shot put (39′-4″) and the discus (99′-1″) and took third in the javelin (106′-9″)

Girls Head Coach Rosary Pennington shared her thoughts on the Cats first dual meet of the 2019 season: The Clarion girls put up a good fight with only seven girls participating due to a couple of injuries.

Laken Lewis set a new school record in the pole vault 11-3 over her old record of 11-0 Laken also won the high jump and triple jump.

Stand out freshman Evelyn Lerch took first place finishes in each of her three events and qualified for districts in the 100, 200, 400.

Nice showing by out female throwers. Gabriella Fleming and freshman Rebekah Ketner made a good pair

Returning senior Phlyicia Hockman started the season out strong and looks to be a stiff contender in the 800 again.

And Wendy Beveridge, who took a year off from track to play softball last year, came back with a bang – scoring in each of her three events; she will be a positive contributor to the jumping events.

Boys – We have a competitive group of men in the mid and distance events.

Seniors the Schill brothers – Nick and Noah and Dan Ketner along with sophomore Don Cunningham qualified for districts in the 4X800 right out of the gate.

A squad of three seniors swept the 800,  and junior Nathaniel Lerch is starting the year off right in the mile and two mile.

Returning seniors in the field – Gavin Brinkley had two personal bests in the long jump and jump scoring in all three jumps and Clay McElravy won both shot and disc and took a 3rd in the javelin

This is a small yet dedicated group of athletes that should be very proud of their first meet of the 2019 season.

(Thanks to Rosary Pennington for her summary. Keep up the good work, Cats!!!!)