Second of Three - Girls - State May 30 Edition enough to get past Grafton. But, coming in second amongst all the Class AA-A teams in the state still proved to be quite an accomplishment. This past weekend, the Indians totaled 56 points to finish as runner-up in the annual West Virginia State Track and Field championship held at Laidley Field. The spot was the highest finish ever by a BHS club in the state meet and left a smile on the face of coach Jim Dawson. “To see this team come along in the last few years was a coach’s dream,” said accomplishments that they will not realize until they are out of school and can reflect back on just what they did.” What they did was to come within 18.5 points of the Bearcats (74.5 points) to take the school’s first-ever title. The Indians were able to get that close thanks to several dominant performances. Leading the way, once again, was the one-two punch of Theresa Melko and Ali Moore. Melko and Moore both managed to earn on the day by winning the discus and 100-meter high hurdles, respectively. For Melko, her throw of 121 feet and 3 inches was more than enough to get her the crown. The second place throw was nearly 10 feet shorter. “She came out and threw a good preliminary throw,” said just kept throwing better in the finals.” Melko said it was just. “My first throw was 116 feet 10 inches and my second was 116 11 inches and I knew no one else had thrown that far," said Melko. "I really relaxed after that and was just able to go out and throw." Melko also finished fifth in the shot put. She earned the spot with a throw of 36 feet four inches. For defend the hurdles title she won as a junior. The competition had the unenviable task of trying to beat her. The competition failed. “She just blew away the field,” said was nearly seven-tenths of a second better than the second place finisher. The time came after finished second in the preliminaries. “That made me work harder,” said lot of pressure going in as a state champion because you’re targeted and people look at you as the person to beat. Knowing that made this year’s win so much more satisfying.” The Indians also had a trio of second place finishes in the pole vault, the long jump and in the shuttle hurdle relays. It was in the pole vault that Emilee Stout made a statement as to what the future may hold. The sophomore finished with a mark of 9 feet to earn second. That was just six inches shy of the winning mark. "Emilee performed like a veteran," said Rachel Williams just missed the state crown in the long jump. Her mark of 15 feet, 7 inches was three inches short of the winning leap. "She equaled her longest jump of the year in In the shuttles, veteran performers Sarah Abbate, Lindsay Burnett, Eliza Haws and Moore broke the school record to get the second spot. The time of 1:06.58 also featured personal bests by all four in their splits. In the 4x400 meter relay, the team of Kodie Miller, Melko, Haws and Emily Moore finished fourth with a time of 4:21.77. That time nearly broke a school record that has stood since 1990 and is the only record that has not been broken since coaching BHS. The 4x200 team also finished fourth. Ariel Biggs, Moore, Miller and Jamie Bragg posted a time of 1:51.57, which missed a school mark by half a second. "We loaded that relay hoping they would place and they ran with determination after the 4x100," said In the 4x100, lane beside the Indians knocked the baton loose on the exchange. That, he said, ended that event and hurt the club's mental state until the 4x200 made up for things."We were all sick over it," said think that it affected the girls involved to the point they did not perform well in their field events." The club also placed in the 4x800-meter relay. The team of Miller, Melko,Meghan Shepherd and Moore finished fifth with a time of 10:356.23. |