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Lady Hornets take second, third in relays
Louise competed in four events in the state track meet and finished sixth overall, earning medals in two relays. "I couldn't be pleased any more," Head Coach Bryan Branch said. "We ran our best times of the year and we competed hard. Everything went well. Everybody ran good legs and it was a neat experience. I think the kids that hadn't been to the state track meet before were in awe of the whole scene. I don't think they thought it was going to be quite like that, that big. There were a lot of people there." The track team took second in the 800-meter relay and third in the 400- meter relay. Both events were very close. Shelby Kotulek ran the first leg of Louise's 400-meter relay. The event started with a scare. "Right away, someone jumped," Branch said. "I knew it wasn't us because I was watching us. Shelby, after the race, said, 'Thank God it wasn't me.'"
"I got up and I was like, 'It's not me, it's not me,'" Kotulek said. "Then I saw lane one going away, but then that scared me because I had to go again and I didn't want to go again. I'm just thinking about going out of there and waiting for the gun." Up next for the Lady Hornets is Amber Bain, who admittedly gets a little stressed when she waits for the hand-off. "It's nerve wracking," Bain said. "You're just sitting there waiting and hoping nothing goes wrong." Bain passes to Kelsey Kutac for the third leg of the race. "They usually get us ahead pretty good and I just try to maintain it," Kutac said.
"Pretty much every day we work on it," she said. "We go through the relays twice just to see if our steps are right and if our hand-offs are good." Kierra Thornton, Louise's final runner, she focuses her attention on Kutac's shoes and makes her best guess. "It's all about reading feet," Thornton said. "You have some marks and you have to watch them. When their feet are in between the certain spot, we take off. It's hard to read Kelsey's. Hers are too fast for me to read so I just estimate when to take off." The final two legs helped Louise secure their finish on the event. "I thought in the sprint relay, Kelsey Kutac ran a great leg," Branch said. "She caught a lot of people in the curve when she came around. And when Kierra got it, we were sitting in second ... just us and Chilton. This girl from Seagraves just came out of nowhere and just beat everybody." Seagraves and Chilton beat out the Lady Hornets by less than a second. Louise's 49.72 time claimed third place. The Lady Hornets took the exact same order for the 800-meter relay and it worked again. This time, Louise took second at 1:46.43. The race staggers teams so it's difficult to tell who is in the lead and who has ground to make up. Branch had a hard time seeing from the stands, but could tell Thornton made a great push in the end. "We were probably in fourth or fifth when Kierra, our last leg, got the baton," he said. "When she came around the curve, she sucked everybody up and was in second when she got around the curve. Finishing the straight away, she was catching the first-place girl. She needed about five more meters and I think she would have caught her." Thornton's run came from a fire that built inside her when it seemed like her team was behind. "Actually, I was pretty mad," Thornton said. "When we started off, I guess it was just because of the lane we were in, everybody looked like they were ahead of us by a lot. I was kind of building up anger on the inside. Then Kelsey came around and I was so anxious to get it over with." Anna Martinez was the only Lady Hornet to compete in an individual race. She took on the 800-meter run and finished eighth with a 2:32.15 time. "She ran well," Branch said. "I think the scene got to her a little bit, but she ran well and she did a good job too." Kotulek faced Louise's first event of the meet - the triple jump. She finished sixth with a 34-09 3/4 distance. The event helped Kotulek shed some nerves and focus on the relays later in the day. "During triple jump, I thought Shelby was going to cry the whole time," Branch said. "I think that helped her (in the relays) being in triple jump first. It got that out of her system and kind of calmed her down a little bit. The rest of them, you could tell they were nervous. I told them all, 'You're not the only kids nervous here. Every single person here is nervous.'" Overall, Louise tried to take the meet with a light approach. The team just wanted to have fun. "We weren't going to worry about going to the state meet," Branch said. "I'm not saying we were going to just go there and go through the motions. We were going to compete. I wasn't trying to add more pressure than the state meet already gives them. "Our whole attitude was that we were going to go and enjoy our experience because it's not guaranteed that you're coming back. We're going to enjoy our time there and run our best. If we medal, great and if we get eighth, great." The following is a list of Louise's results from the Class A state track meet: Team Rankings (56 teams) 1. Rochelle, 42; 2. Seymour and Chilton, 36; 4. Hamlin and Seagraves, 34; 6. Louise, 29. Triple Jump 6. Kotulek, 34-09 3/4 400-Meter Relay 3. Louise (Kotulek, Bain, Kutac, Thornton), 49.72 800-Meter Run 8. Martinez, 2:32.15 800-Meter Relay 2. Louise1:46.43 |
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