Story By Heath Hambrick
Fort Payne’s track and field teams traveled to Muscle Shoals High School on Friday and Saturday for the 6A sectional meet. Both teams were just incredibly tough this weekend. The varsity girls team won the sectional title for the eleventh straight year and the varsity boys team finished second overall.
With their performances, the team qualified 25 plus athletes for the state meet.
Fort Payne saw terrible weather on Friday which made for poor conditions on the track and in the field. The Wildcats didn’t let that stop them as they put up some excellent results in the rain.
The girls' team was the favorite coming into the event, and they made it known that they were the ones to beat. The girls overperformed in several events, even breaking school records and hitting their stride right before the state meet this week in Gulf Shores.
One of the gutsiest performances of the weekend came from Lydie Varnadore in the 100 Hurdles. Varnadore came from behind to win the event with a time of 14.97.
Cooper Garrett had a great weekend, winning the javelin and the discus. Garrett was dined a sweep in her events, finishing second in the shot put to her teammate Hadlee Powell who set a personal best in the event.
Ruthie Jones won gold in all four events she entered, posting season-best times in the 400, 4x400, and 4x800.
The Fort Payne girl's team won the meet scoring 200 points, and Decatur finished second with 100 points.
“Going into the meet we knew the boys had a shot at second place, but understood that it was going to take everyone’s best all weekend. Event after event, the boys showed incredible toughness and just kept finishing ahead of where they were seeded” said Cole Peters, Fort Payne head coach.
Mason Chandler was seeded 18th in discus, with a career-best throw of 132’ he placed third in the event. Connor Kinsley was seeded 12th in the triple jump where he posted a season-best jump of 42’10” that earned 6th in the event. Logan Bryant and Emerson Cartes ran career-best splits in the 4x800, assisting Pablo Rodriguez and Daniel Deleon to a 2nd place finish in the event.
Rodriguez won the 800, Deleon finished second in both the 1600 and 3200 and Kinsley finished second in the 400.
The boys 4x100 finished sixth after being seeded tenth.
The final event of the meet for both teams was the 4x400 the girl's team was safe on points in the overall standings but wanted to break the school's most prestigious record in the event. The team of Ruthie Jones, Sara Boatwright, Lydie Varnadore, and Gabby Vega set a new school record at 4:02:01 to win the event.
The boys' team entered the final event needing to stay close to the team from Buckhorn to keep their position at second overall in the meet, with a time of 3:23:69 which was good enough for second in the event behind Buckhorn. The time was six seconds faster than their previous best of the season. Conner Kinsley, Kingston Orr, Gavin Hall, and Pablo Rodriguez all posted season-best times in their respective splits.
The Fort Payne boys team finished second to Hazel Green who scored 149 points, the Wildcats scored 101 points beating Buckhorn who scored 100.5 points.
“Our leaders performed as well as expected, what made the difference this weekend was all the other performances that scored better than expected,” said Peters.
The team will leave for Gulf Shores on Wednesday and will compete Thursday through Saturday.
“If this last weekend was any indication, it could be a special state meet for the Wildcats,” said Peters.
Below Top five Results
1st Place
Ruthie Jones - 400 / 800
Lydie Varnadore - 100H (FP #2 all-time) / 300H (School record)
Hadlee Powell - Shot Put (FP #2 all-time)
Cooper Garrett - Javelin / Discus (school record)
Audrey Pacini - Pole Vault
Kyndal Hughes - 3200
Girls 4x400 (school record) - Varnadore / Boatwright / Vega / Jones
Girls 4x800 - Jones / Boatwright / Vega / Hughes
Pablo Rodriguez - 800
2nd Place
Lydie Varnadore - High Jump
Cooper Garrett - Shot Put
Kyndal Hughes - 1600
Austin Walker - Triple Jump
Kingston Orr - 110H
Connor Kinsley - 400
Daniel DeLeon - 3200
Boys 4x400 (FP #2 all-time) - Kinsley / Orr / Hall / Rodriguez
Boys 4x800 - Rodriguez / Cartes / Bryant / DeLeon
Barron Sanderson - Pole Vault
3rd Place
Sara Boatwright - 800
Kingston Orr - 300H
Daniel DeLeon - 800
Daniel DeLeon - 1600
Mason Chandler - Discus
4th Place
Alonna Baumgartner - Pole Vault
Kinsley Worthey - 300H
Girls 4x100 - Dorsett / Wells / Majano / Pasquill
Hadlee Powell - Discus
Alonna Baumgartner - Pole Vault
Kalani Parrom - Shot Put
Mason Chandler - Shot Put
5th Place
Kirby Tinker - Javelin
Aubree Majano - 200
Gabby Vega - 800
Libby Redden - Triple Jump
Colin Pugh - Pole Vault
