By JOSH BURRIS
The Southern Wells Lady Raiders track and field team may have come in last at the ACAC meet last year, but finished a few places ahead of last at 14th in their sectional meet.
The sectional performance was aided by two freshmen regional qualifiers in Sydney McFarren and Allison Barger. McFarren advanced to the regional in the 3,200 meter run, and Barger moved on in the high jump.
“Allison was a surprise a little bit coming in as a freshman,” Paxson said. “She did a great job. It was a new experience for her being a freshman at the regional with the competition she was seeing.
“Then we had Sydney. She did a great job during the cross country season last year, and I kind of knew she was going to be pretty solid for us.”
Now sophomores, Paxson expects the two to continue to contribute in meets this season.
McFarren also was fifth in that sectional meet in the 1,600, and at the ACAC meet finished third in the 3,200 and fifth in the 1,600.
Joining her in the distance group will be senior Amelia Sabinske, who is switching over after running sprints last year, and freshman Lexie Leidig.
The trio all were regional qualifiers in cross country and are the only girls that will be running long distance at the moment. Paxson hopes he can find one more distance girl so they can still run a 4×800 meter relay.
“That’s where we are really thin at is the distance kids,” Paxson said. “We’ve either got to bring a sprinter up to run another 800 or just not have that relay. Really would like to not do away with a relay, but sometimes that’s the name of the game and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
The strongest area on the team could be high jump Paxson said. Barger will lead that group with juniors Brianna Hughett and Brooke Tonner also contributing. At last year’s ACAC meet, Barger was second in the event and Hughett was third. Tonner is a newcomer, but Paxson said she could make an impact as well.
“Our high jumpers are probably our strong point, but we’ve got to fill in some of those other areas too with these athletes,” Paxson said. “That’s going to be our big goal as coaches is to figure out which kids we can put in those voids.”
Hughett also will be running in the sprinting events. She will be joined by junior Zoey Solga and freshman Emma McCune. McCune is someone Paxson said could push for a spot at the regional meet. Tonner will also run some sprints and possibly some hurdles.
Solga will also be contributing in the shot put and discus. Sophomore Karlee Warner, junior Eve McElhaney, and freshman Ashlie Needler will join her. Paxson is excited to see how Needler develops. He said she has never done track before, but has good strength and could turn into a great thrower with more technique work.
Paxson expects their conference to be strong again this year. South Adams won the ACAC meet last year, and he expects them to be in contention once again with a strong distance group. He said Bluffton also will be strong especially with its distance group. He added Woodlan and Heritage always bring strong groups of sprinters, and Jay County – last year’s runner-up – will have some of its talent from basketball making an impact in track.
Paxson hopes his team can move up in the standings for that ACAC meet, and also send more kids to the regional meet. He expects McFarren and Barger to return and said Needler, McCune, Hughett, and Tonner could all join them.
“We just want them to get better as the year goes through. We want to try and get as many girls to the next level as we can,” Paxson said. “We want to try and place high at the conference meet because those are the kids that we are going to see day in and day out throughout the rest of their careers.”
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