Sophomore jumpers Jesse Moore and Sam Rhein led Polk County’s contingent at the Western Highlands Conference Championship track and field meet, combining for two individual event titles and five top-four finishes in the meet at Montreat College.
Moore won the boys triple jump with a mark of 41 feet, 5 inches and added a runner-up finish in the long jump at 19-6. Rhein claimed the boys long jump title at 20 feet, 3 inches, edging Moore by nine inches, and also placed fourth in the high jump (5-6), sixth in the discus (116-1) and fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.89).
Sophomore Jayvin Clark contributed another first-place finish for the Wolverines, winning the boys pole vault at 9 feet, 6 inches.
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Those titles helped Polk County placed third overall in the team standings, finishing behind Hendersonville and Owen.
The boys 4×800-meter relay team – consisting of Benji Ballenger, Dean Holland, Liam Jackson and William Finch – finished third with a time of 9 minutes, 29.29 seconds.
Sophomore Logan Baird had a strong multi-event day, placing fourth in the boys 300-meter hurdles (49.93), fifth in the high jump (5-4) and seventh in the 110-meter hurdles (20.93).
Polk County’s boys sprint group saw Danny Bradley finish seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.96) and seventh in the 400 (53.59). Bradley and Rhein were part of the boys 4×100 relay that finished fifth (53.31). Moore added a seventh-place finish in the 200 meters (24.87) to his jumping double.
On the girls side, senior Leah Dotson tied for second in the pole vault at 7-6 and finished seventh in the high jump as the Polk girls placed seventh. Hendersonville also won the girls conference crown.
Freshman Sadie Schweitzer paced the girls distance corps, placing fourth in the 1,600 (6:58.18) and fifth in the 3,200 (16:13.76). Freshman Amberina Jenne finished fifth in the 1,600 at 6:58.56, while sophomore Khloe Kitchen took fifth in the 3,200 at 16:03.23. Katie Martin added an eighth-place showing in the 400-meter run.
Polk County will now wait to see which athletes qualified for the 3A West Regional. That event is set for May 9 at Polk County.
