Seelinger’s nationally-ranked performance highlights Bryant track teams strong showing at indoor opener
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FAYETTEVILLE — The Bryant High School boys and girls track teams kicked off their 2010 season Saturday at the University of Arkansas High School Invitational held at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville. The meet has proven to be one of the premier high school indoor track events in the country. Bryant had seven boys and seven girls invited to compete.
For the Lady Hornets, the highlight of the meet came in the 60 meter hurdles, were senior Morgan Seelinger ran a career best 9.56 to take second place. Breeana Coleman from Illinois took first place with a time of 8.90. It was announced after the race that Coleman’s time was this season’s leading 60 meter hurdle time in the nation and that Seelinger’s time was the sixth best in the nation. Also making the finals in the hurdles, was senior Jordan Chadwick who finished seventh with a time of 10.2.
In the 400 meter dash, senior Andrea Savage ran 1:02.1 to take seventh place. Chadwick, despite winning her heat by a huge margin, had to settle for ninth place in time of 1:03.3.[more]
Bryant’s 4 x 800 meter relay team consisting of Kayla Randolph, Stacy Emmerling, Hannah Raney, and Lauren Rogers took 4th place with a time of 10:42.
“I thought our girls represented Bryant extremely well at such a huge meet that brings in athletes from all over the United States,” said coach Danny Westbrook. “Morgan Seelinger did a terrific job in the hurdles. She is the first Lady Hornet athlete to ever win one of the coveted top 3 medals given out at this meet. The fact that she ran the sixth fastest time in the nation proves she has huge potential in that event. All of our hurdlers have really improved their techniques under the direction of our new assistant coach Keith Dale. He is doing a great job with our hurdle group.”
For the Hornets, Tanner Tolbert had the best placing of the day, earning a sixth place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 43′ 7.75″. Troy Smith placed 7th in the high jump with a new personal record leap of 6′ 0″. In the 60 meter dash, Tanner Tolbert placed 10th in the preliminaries with a time of 7.20, missing the finals by two places. Dillion Winfrey placed 18th in the 60 meter dash in a time of 7.36 and then placed 16th out of 41 athletes in the 200 meter dash in a time of 23.71.
Stanley Oxner and James Glasper both competed in the 400 meter dash, with Oxner earning a 14th place finish in a time of 52.99 and Glasper placing 22nd in a time of 54.38. Oxner then competed in the 60m hurdles, placing 13th in a time of 9.33.
In the boys 800 meter run, Michael Smith placed 15th out of 36 in a time of 2:07.96. Luke Lindsley rounded out the evening for the Hornets, placing 13th in the 3000 meter run in a time of 9:43.53.
“I thought this was a great experience for us,” said Hornets coach Steve Oury. “The competition in this meet is national-class, so even though we didn’t have anyone earn a top-three medal, we did have some outstanding performances that would probably score good points at the meets later in the season.
“Tanner Tolbert got the year off to a strong start with his performances,” he added. “Our jumps coach, Brad Stroud, has been working a lot with Tanner on getting his steps ready for the long and triple jumps, and it showed in his performance.
“While all of the guys competed hard and posted some good times, there were still several places where we can improve,” Oury concluded. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we progress at the ATCA Indoor Meet on Feb. 6.”
