WATERFORD - The race for the team titles went down to the wire as Waterford and Southern battled for the top crown, but for the Frontier Cougars simply taking the first step on a real track was prize enough.
Waterford's Lady Wildcats scored 15 points in the final two events to secure the girls' team standings 93-79 over Southern while the Tornadoes' boys returned the favor, scoring 16 points in the last two events to defeat Waterford 101-91.
And then there were the Cougars, who after more than 20 years without a track team competed in their first official track meet as part of the quad meet at Waterford High School Thursday night.
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Waterford track meet
Take away the 30 degree weather and the rain showers, and it was quite the night on the track.
"We had some good performances tonight. I was pleased with some of our times," said Waterford track coach Steve Littler.
In the end the meet may have come down to Waterford and Southern, but it was also a celebration of rebirth for Frontier.
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Waterford's Matt West
After spending the preseason making laps around the high school, the Cougars may have needed to ask how many laps around the track they needed to make, but the Frontier athletes were quick to learn.
"First time they've seen lanes, arrows and a finish line instead of spray paint," joked Frontier track coach Adam Olson.
"None of them had ever been to a track meet, except one girl," Olson continued.
Fact Box
Quad meet
At Waterford Elementary School
Girls team standings: 1 Waterford 93, 2 Southern 79, 3 Frontier 35, 4 Wood County Christian 33
Boys team standings: 1 Southern 101, 2 Waterford 91; 3 Wood County Christian 34; 4 Frontier 9
Girls individual results:
High jump: 1 Alyssa Miller, Wat, 4-8; 2 Eynon, S, 4-6; 3 Adria Herridge, WCCS, 4-4; 4 Sydney Crawford, Wat, 3-10; 5 Pickens, S, no height
Discus: 1 Powell, S, 70-3; 2 Bethany Brown, WCCS, 68-2; 3 Morris, WCCS, 67-11; 4 Dowell, S, 64-6; 5 Cameron Wolfe, Front, 63-6
Shot put: 1 Cameron Wolfe, Frontier, 29-9; 2 Eynon, S, 29-8; 3 Bethany Brown, WCCS, 24-7; 4 Hayman, S, 24-4; 5 Powell, S, 23-6
100 hurdles: 1 Pickens, S, 19.68; 2 Marissa Melem, Wat, 21.11; 3 Micaela Cochran, Front, 21.44; 4 Kaitlin Schott, Wat, 22.98; 5 Kelsea Daugherty, Front, 27.11
100: 1 Ally Rohrer, Wat, 13.36; 2 Adria Herridge, WCCS, 14.51; 3 McMillan, S, 15.13; 4 Cogar, S, 15.33; 5 Marissa Melem, Wat, 15.5
4x200 relay: 1 Southern (Eynon, McMillan, Ash, Cogar) 2:10.12; 2 Wood County Christian 2:12.45; 3 Waterford 2:18.7; 4 Frontier 2:19.79
1600: 1 McCoy, S, 6:56.63; 2 Maggie Kroll, Wat, 6:57.29; 3 Samantha Farley, Wat, 6:59.31; 4 Megan Smith, Wat, 7:08.89; 5 Jessie Crosby, Front, 7:28.25
Long jump: 1 Maggie Kroll, Wat, 13-7; 2 Alyssa Miller, Wat, 12-4.25; 3 Pickens, S, 9-2.25; 4 Kaitlyn Hickey, WCCS, 11-1; 5 Kenna Reynolds, Wat, 10-8
4x100 relay: 1 Southern (Eynon, McMillan, Linkous, Cogar) 59.24; 2 Wood County Christian 1:01.22; 3 Waterford 1:03.24; 4 Frontier 1:06.96
400: 1 Ally Rohrer, Wat, 1:04.83; 2 Linkous, S, 1:09.99; 3 Micaela Cochran, Front, 1:16.27; 4 Weddle, S, 1:16.94; 5 Aleigha Matson, 1:18.1
300 hurdles: 1 Kelsea Daugherty, Front, 59.77; 2 Pickens, S, 1:03; 3 Kaitlin Schott, Wat, 1:04.77; 4 Katie Semon, Wat, 1:06.69; 5 Marissa Melem, Wat, 1:09.64
800: 1 Hannah Dailey, Wat, 2:50.51; 2 Linkous, S, 2:58.68; 3 Ash, S, 2:59.52; 4 Maggie Kroll, Wat, 3:05.61; 5 Abby Smith, Wat, 3:14.4
4x800 relay: 1 Waterford (Maggie Kroll, Samantha Farley, Abby Smith, Hannah Dailey) 11:56.03; 2 Southern 12:33.48; 3 Frontier 13:16.23
3200: 1 Samantha Farley, Wat, 14:53.5; 2 McCoy, S, 15:00.1; 3 Megan Smith, Wat, 15:31.7; 4 Jesie Crosby, Front, 18:28.4; 5 Ashley Harris, Front, 18:28.9
4x400 relay: 1 Waterford (Sydney Crawford, Hannah Dailey, Aleigha Matson, Ally Rohrer) 5:04.33; 2 Southern 5:15.38; 3 Frontier 5:38.88; 4 Wood County Christian 6:30.62
Boys individual results:
High jump: 1 Austin Shriver, Wat, 5-6; 2 Braden Burer, Wat, 5-6; 3 Warden, S, 5-4; 4 Roberts, S, 5-4; 5 M. Luke, WCCS, 4-10
Discus: 1 Warden, S, 110-8; 2 Sean Hickman, Wat, 103-3; 3 Hill, S, 102-4; 4 Grueser, S, 86-5; 5 Devan Benjamin, Wat, 83-5
Shot put: 1 Blakenship, S, 34-3; 2 Grueser, S, 33-0; 3 Hill, S, 31-7; 4 Moore, S, 30-6; 5 Austin Kimble, Front, 30-5
110 hurdles: 1 Austin Shriver, Wat, 16.46; 2 Marcinko, S, 19.77; 3 Lamar, S, 21.12; 4 Tyler Gutberlet, Front, 24.14
100: 1 Hunter Munjas, Wat, 11.98; 2 Jake Herridge, WCCS, 12.13; 3 Gray, S, 12.17; 4 Todd Kratzer, WCCS, 12.33; 5 Trevor Lang, Wat, 12.66
4x200 relay: 1 Wood County Christian (Jake Herridge, Todd Kratzer, Danny Garrett, Jacob Robinson) 1:45.03; 2 Southern 1:49.94
1600: 1 Kody Wolfe, S, 4:52.02; 2 Logan Eckels, WCCS, 5:22.6; 3 Yeater, S, 5:59.28; 4 Luke Michael, WCCS, 6:07.53; 5 Blake Campbell, Wat, 6:50.68
Long jump: 1 Matt West, Wat, 18-2.25; 2 Braden Burer, Wat, 17-5; 3 Jacob McCutcheon, Wat, 17-0.75; 4 Jesse Cope, S, 16-7; 5 Trevor Lang, Wat, 16-4.25
4x100 relay: 1 Wood County Christian (Jake Herridge, Todd Krazter, Danny Garrett, Jacob Robinson) 50.97; 2 Waterford 51.17; 3 Southern 52.68; 4 Frontier 1:04.59
400: 1 Matt West, Wat, 55.33; 2 Hettinger, S, 1:03.85; 3 Logan Fouss, Wat, 1:04.4; 4 Alex Jones, 1:04.94; 5 Alex Melem, Wat, 1:05.05
300 hurdles: 1 Austin Shriver, Wat, 46.88; 2 Jacob McCutcheon, Wat, 52.03; 3 Marcinko, S, 53.11; 4 Lamar, S, 59.03; 5 Ledford, S, 1:09.82
800: 1 Kody Wolfe, S, 2:13.63; 2 Gray, S, 2:15.52; 3 Eli Strahler, Wat, 2:15.8; 4 Logan Eckels, WCCS, 2:21.96; 5 Manuel, S, 2:29.13
200: 1 Matt West, Wat, 24.99; 2 Hunter Munjas, Wat, 25.75; 3 Braden Burer, Wat, 26.24; 4 Jake Herridge, WCCS, 26.78; 5 Danny Garrett, WCCS, 27.02
3200: 1 Kody Wolfe, S, 12:05.33; 2 Eli Strahler, Wat, 12:05.87; 3 Hettinger, S, 12:19.16; 4 Tyler Gutberlet, Front, 13:22.21; 5 Yeater, S, 13:22.54
4x800 relay: 1 Southern (Graham, Yeater, Chaney, Hettinger) 11:03.11; 2 Frontier 13:05.32
4x400 relay: 1 Southern (Kody Wolfe, Ginther, Gray, Manuel) 4:03.07; 2 Waterford 4:08.0; 3 Wood County Christian 4:33.73; 4 Frontier 5:10.54
The Lady Cougars proved to be a bit of a surprise for the competition as they finished third, behind the Lady Wildcats and Lady Tornadoes with 35 points.
Frontier senior Cameron Wolfe posted a first place finish in the shot put in her first ever track meet while Frontier freshman Kelsea Daugherty won the 300 hurdles.
Performing as well as they did is a tremendous confidence booster for Frontier track, as there were a host of questions entering the night.
"In their heads, they didn't think they'd score a point, not having a track," Olson said.
Well, not only did the Cougars score, they scored enough to make life interesting on a bitterly cold night.
It just wasn't enough to keep pace with Waterford and Southern.
The Lady Wildcats performed exceptionally well as they posted wins in the 100, 400, 800 and 3200 meter dashes as well as the high jump and long jump.
Just the same, it wasn't until the 4x400 relay that the meet was officially in the Lady Wildcats hands. And that took a dramatic turn around on the second lap as freshman Hannah Dailey took the baton trailing by nearly 50 meters and turned it into a roughly 50 meter lead.
Aleigha Matson and Ally Rohrer made certain that lead stood up, as the Waterford girls closed out the victory by finishing more than 11 seconds ahead of second place Southern while Frontier was third.
"We scored well tonight. Virtually just about every kid on our team scored," Littler said.
Samantha Farley gave the Waterford girls a victory in the 3200 with her time of 14:53.5 while Dailey won the 800 in 2:50.51, Rohrer won the 400 and 100 with times of 1:04.83 and 13.36 respectively. Alyssa Miller cleared 4-feet-8 inches to give the Lady 'Cats a win in high jump and Maggie Kroll won the long jump with a leap of 13-7.
While the Lady Wildcats were able to score the needed points down the stretch, the same wasn't quite true for the Waterford boys.
The Wildcat boys trailed just 85-83 with two events to go, the 3200 and 4x400 relay, but Waterford couldn't quite keep pace with the Southern distance standouts.
"We have some very talented kids. Some of them are still very young," Littler said.
Southern's Kody Wolfe outraced Waterford freshman Eli Strahler to the finish line in the 3200 as the Tornadoes scored 10 points in the event. A first place finish in the 4x400 relay, which also featured Wolfe, secured the win for Southern.
Wateford did pick up wins in high jump, 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles from Austin Shriver while Hunter Munjas won the 100 and Matt West won the long jump, 100 and 400.
Wood County Christian, which finished third in boys standings, claimed the 4x200 and 4x100 relays as the team of Jake Herridge, Todd Kratzer, Danny Garrett and Jacob Robinson outpaced the competition.
Frontier got a fifth place finish from Austin Kimble in the shot put while Tyler Gutberlet was fourth in the 110 hurdles and 3200.
"They (Frontier) have got a nice sized team. They have some kids, if they stay with it, they'll get better and better," Littler said.
In spite of the drizzling rain that greeted the area and the cool temperatures, there was still joy to be found on the track, particularly for those who were taking part in the sport for the very first time.
"It's not the best day to have fun, and they still made fun out of it," Olson said.
