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Rolling at Regionals: Bassett, Ruhala, mile relay qualify for state meet
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
Without looking at results, it was still easy to glean that the Lovejoy track and field team had performed well over the weekend at the Region II-3A Meet in Commerce.
"I was very pleased with our performances," said Greg Christensen, Lovejoy head coach. "When you look at the results you'll see we did just about everything we needed to to get qualified into the finals on Friday and once in the finals, our kids performed great."
Those performances led to a fifth-place team finish for the Lady Leopards, a 22nd-place finish from their male counterparts and state qualifiers in Ashley Bassett, Katie Ruhala and the quartet of Shani Rainey, Kensey Berry, Sydney Prendergast and Cassie Conarty.
Bassett also placed seventh in the 100 hurdles (16.00).
"Ashley and Courtney gave us a 1-2 punch not seen in regional finals very often," Christensen said. "I was very pleased with the technical aspects of both their races. These girls have worked so hard all season long; it's cool to see such hard work be rewarded, as it usually is."
Bassett will be joined at state by Ruhala.
The multi-time state champion will have another opportunity at gold in Austin after placing second in the 3200 (11:44.68) behind Kaufman's Angela Dees. Ruhala was joined in the regional finals by teammate Abby Tedford, who placed fifth (12:21.66).
"Katie led basically the whole way, but was not able to hold off a late surge from Kaufman," Christensen said. "Abby had a good race as well; she has had a valuable experience from this spring and we'll see her racing at a much higher level in the fall."
Ruhala and Tedford were in the 1600 finals as well with the former placing third (5:19.97) and the latter 11th (5:47.85). Ruhala's placing wasn't enough to automatically push her through to state, but her time was as she was named the ninth qualifier Tuesday afternoon.
Also placing third at regionals was the Lovejoy mile relay of Rainey, Berry, Prendergast and Conarty (4:00.71).
"That was probably one of the most exciting races of the day," Christensen said. "Cassie ran one of the grittiest 400s I've seen in a long time to hold off a charge from Liberty-Eylau and give us the third spot."
That allowed the team to follow Ruhala's path to state as a non-automatic qualifier.
Though that relay capped Lovejoy's state bids, the Leopards still had several other top 10 finishers.
That string began Friday in the field.
Kasey Fagin tied for sixth in the pole vault (12-06), Abilene Christian-bound Jelani Rainey finished fifth in the discus (146-01) and, on the girls side, Lauren Sturm tied for fifth in the pole vault (9-06).
Not to be outdone, the track portion of the team more than held up its end.
Matthew Markert placed seventh (4:38.36) in the mile, just ahead of teammate Evan Harter (10th, 4:44.94). Markert, who is bound for UT-Tyler, also looked sharp in the 3200 by finishing sixth (10:10.89) and edging out teammate Grant Ballard (eighth, 10:21.52).
"Matthew and Grant were with the leaders for the majority of the race," Christensen said. "They ran smart races and I was proud of how the battled over the last 800."
Saturday held also held a plethora of top 10 finishes for Lovejoy.
Capitalizing on their momentum from the mile relay, Prendergast added a fifth-place finish in the 800 (2:29.48) while Conarty was fourth in the 400 (59.12).
Rounding out Lovejoy's top regional placers were AJ Srivastava in the 800 (fifth, 2:00.90), Grayson Williams in the 300 hurdles (eighth, 41.00) and Trey Carson in the 400 (fifth, 51.20). The lone senior in that trio is Carson, who will be attending Texas A&M in the fall.
"I'm encouraging Trey to walk on at A&M," Christensen said. "Trey is one of the best athletes to ever come through the doors at Lovejoy and I'd sure like to see him continue."
This was the final weekend of the season for the majority of Lovejoy's team, but for Bassett, Ruhala and the milers (Rainey, Berry, Prendergast and Conarty), the preparation continues until May 11 when the Class 3A Track and Field State Meet commences from Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
"It was a great weekend," Christensen said. "We have a great group of kids who gave every ounce of their being to competing well.
"Now we have two more weeks to get some work in and get healthy."
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