DAYTON — The Coal Grove Lady Hornets have been chasing a state championship in track for four years. On Friday, they finally grabbed the gold ring.
The Lady Hornets 4x200 meter relay team of Kylie Montgomery, Olivia Kingrey, Laura Hamm and Madison McDaniel captured first place with a 1:42.25 clocking at the Division 3 state track meet at the University of Dayton’s Welcome Stadium.
The group had the best preliminary time of 1:42.93 but ran an even faster time in the finals as they finished just ahead of Margaretta which ran a 1:42.71 time in an exciting finish.
All four Lady Hornets runners are seniors and they continued to break the school record in the race each time they ran in the tournament.
Montgomery said she was nervous before the race but went back into normal mode once the starter gun sounded.
“I’m feeling great,” said Montgomery who ran the leadoff leg. “It was a very nerve-racking experience. I was kind of dazed out getting set in my blocks. After the gun shot off it was like it always is. I just focus on trying to catch the girl in front of my.
“It was very exciting and it was close, but we had a pretty strong team put together so it came out real well.”
Montgomery added to her day as she placed in the 400 meter dash. Montgomery had a time of 59.04 seconds to finish seventh after she had ran in the 4x200 relay.
“My legs felt real heavy today. It wasn’t my best time. I feel happy that I was able to PR (personal record) at the region this year,” said Montgomery.
The winning time was by Olivia Hudson of Oberlin with a time of 56.38 seconds.
Montgomery wasn’t the only one on the team with another race to run. Hamm pushed her way through the 800 meters and came away with a fourth place finish as she posted a clocking of 2:17.28 which is one of the top 50 times in the state this season.
Rock Hill Redmen junior Izaak Cox finished third in the 200 meters with a time of 22.35 seconds. Cox — who won the state long jump title on Thursday — finished just behind Evan Hudson of Oberlin at 22.02 seconds and Gabe Oppong of Tree of Life Christian who had a 22.13 clocking.
Cox was fifth in the preliminaries on Thursday with a near-identical time of 22.36 seconds.
Comments