May 27—The Tuscola girls’ track and field team came away from the state meet with a seventh-place finish despite having a small team.
The meet was bookended by a pair of strong performances in the relay races. In the 4×800-meter race, Tuscola grabbed third. In the 4×400-meter, the Mountaineers finished second behind cross-county rivals Pisgah.
The team racked up strong state finishes in several individual contests, as well.
“The thing I’m most proud of with this team is the fact that every single kid we took to regionals qualified for state. I don’t know that too many teams can say that. That’s building a program, and then pretty much everybody lived up to expectations at state, too,” Tuscola Coach Mark Altimari said.
Both relay teams consisted of juniors Julia Wells and Katie Smith and seniors Elise Riera-Gomez and Olivia Arnold.
Arnold also grabbed a second-place finish in the 800-meter race.
“I thought it was phenomenal. I thought she had a great season. If I had told her a year ago, in a year, you’re going to be state runner-up, we would have been thrilled with that. Being the competitor she is, she obviously wanted to win, but sometimes you’re just the second-best runner in a race,” Altimari said.
Senior Georgia Crowder finished second in the discus. Altimari said Crowder had an up-and-down season with a handful of fouls throughout the year when she was trying too hard for the big throw.
“I don’t think anybody expected her to get second. That was just phenomenal. I’m so pleased that she capped off her four years like that,” Altimari said.
Riera-Gomez finished 10th in the 400-meter, Wells finished fourth in the 1600-meter and senior Cora Hogan finished 10th in the triple jump.
On the boys’ side, senior Easton Edwards finished ninth in the 300-meter hurdles.
The graduating seniors group played a big part in progressing the Tuscola program over the last few seasons.
“That’s the foundation group. I think we took a big step in laying down a foundation of what expectations there are going forward because now it’s just a matter of getting the next crew to buy into what they did,” Altimari said. “It’s about building a program, not a team. To me, it shows that the buy-in does have a payoff.”
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