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Tigers sweep Class AA Region 3

gary fauber, the register-herald, beckley, w.va.
·4 min read

May 9—The night belonged to Shady Spring.

The girls and boys swept the team titles Thursday night at the Class AA Region 3 Championships on the Pete Culicerto Track at Van Meter Stadium in Beckley.

The girls ran away with their title, finishing with 210 points. Herbert Hoover was second with 109.

The Tigers were ninth in the Class AA state power rankings going in.

"We have a great team all across the board," said sophomore Reagan Mann. "Our sprinters are good, we have pretty good jumpers, hurdlers. So, yeah, we've had a pretty good season."

Mann won the shot put with a personal record of 33 feet, 6 inches, duplicating the distance she achieved at last week's Class AA Coalfield Conference Championships.

Coach Vince Culicerto believes she has a chance of beating the school record currently held by Emma Albright.

"I'm really excited," Mann said. "I think I'm ranked sixth in the state right now. So I'm hoping to keep progressing and go to states."

Mann began throwing shot put in seventh grade, her first year competing in track and field. It's a challenge, but one she enjoys.

"I just think it's fun and it's challenging, and I can push myself," she said. "It's different from any other sport I play. I play volleyball, and it's definitely different from running. (The form) is very difficult. There's so many intricate details to your form that people don't even notice. It's a really underrated sport."

In addition to Mann at shot put, other winners for Shady were Jadyn Farmer (400) and Lilian Hatfield (100 hurdles).

Shady won in the 4x400 (Abigail Honaker, Mann, Rachel Mann, Farmer), 4x800 (Gwynn McGinnis, Abigail Such, Kaydan Mooney, Bre Crouse) and the shuttle hurdles (Kylie Wahl, Rachel Mann, Allison Betkijian, Lilian Hatfield).

The boys race was much closer but the Tigers made it a Shady Spring sweep, holding off Nicholas County and PikeView. Shady finished with 138 points, Nicholas 134 and PikeView 131.

A win in the 4x400, the last event of the night, helped solidify the team title. The foursome consisted of Jack Billeter, Eli Jordan, Reid Radford and Seth Farmer.

Also winning for Shady Spring was Gabe Knoblet in the shot put.

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Independence senior Lillian Honaker will finish her track career right where she wants.

Honaker qualified for the state meet after finishing second in the 100 hurdles and as a member of the second place shuttle hurdle relay team (along with Kenzi Taylor, Kate Honaker and Sydni Weis).

But, she had a decision to make. And it wasn't exactly a slam dunk.

Honaker is also an accomplished gymnast. In fact, she has signed to join the acrobatics and tumbling team at West Virginia State next year.

As a member of Flipstarz Gymnastics, she qualified for the Xcel Regionals in Lewisburg, Pa. Those are scheduled for May 16-19.

The state track meet will be held May 17-18.

Obviously, Honaker can't be in two places at the same time, so she had to choose one. Track ended up winning out.

"It was very hard, especially because it was my senior year and making it to regionals — that's a huge deal in gymnastics," Honaker said. "States is the main thing and then regionals is even bigger. It was tough, but I had to choose track because I knew I could do good. But it was so hard because I really wanted to go to regionals.

"I've done gymnastics for 13 years, so it's definitely my main sport my whole life. Because that's what I'm going to be doing in college, (the decision) was hard, and track is going to be done after a few more weeks."

The team concept with track played a factor.

"I knew our shuttle team is good and we're seeded high," Honaker said. "I wouldn't want to be the reason that we couldn't run."

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Overal winners were:

Girls

100: Iyana Patton (Bluefield); 200: Cara Brown (Bluefield); 400: Jadyn Farmer (Shady Spring); 800: Jenna Brown (Herbert Hoover); 1600: Jenna Brown (Herbert Hoover); 3200: Jenna Brown (Herbert Hoover); 100 hurdles: Lilian Hatfield (Shady Spring); 300 hurdles: Ella Biggs (PikeView); 4x100: Bluefield; 4x200: Bluefield; 4x400: Shady Spring; 4x800: Shady Spring; Shuttle hurdles: Shady Spring; Shot put: Reagan Mann (Shady Spring); High jump: Adriene Truman (Nicholas County); Long jump: Adriene Truman (Nicholas County).

Boys

100: Amir Hairston (Bluefield); 200: Joseph White (Herbert Hoover); 400: Nate Cook (PikeView); 800: Tyler Huffman (PikeView); 1600: Tyler Huffman (PikeView); 3200: Tyler Huffman (PikeView); 110 hurdles: Christian Linksweiler (Independence); 300 hurdles: Nate Cook (PikeView); 4x100: Bluefield; 4x200: Bluefield; 4x400: Shady Spring; 4x800: PikeView; Shuttle hurdles: Independence; Shot put: Gabe Knoblet (Shady Spring); Discus: David Adkins (Liberty); High jump: Isaiah Miner (Nicholas County); Long jump: Gerrard Wade (Bluefield).