Gaines top Lady Hornet
By Jeremy Jacob
For the Fulton Sun
The Fulton track and field teams will be looking to replicate the success they had at the NCMC meet last week for today’s Class 4 District 5 meet in Union.
The Hornets and Lady Hornets combined for 15 top-4 finishes, including four first-place finishes, to wrap up their regular season.
Three of those first-place times were set by Lady Hornets senior Kayanna Gaines in the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. Gaines is no stranger to ranking at the top of these events as she holds the top conference time in all of them — two of them being set at the conference meet.
Gaines has appeared in the top three in these events in several meets in April and some first-place finishes in the first meet of the year at Montgomery County.
Gaines is the No. 1 seed in the 1,600, No. 2 seed in the 800 and No. 4 seed in the 3,200.
“She is one of the top distance sprinters in the entire state, especially Class 4,” Fulton head coach Patrick Knipe said.
Gaines is running at “the top of her game,” Knipe said.
Sophomore Quiara Walton has enjoyed similar success on the track and in field events. At the conference meet, Walton came in second in the 100-meter dash and third in the 200, and had the other first-place finish in the long jump and third-place mark in the triple jump. She holds the top conference mark in the long jump.
Walton has had three other first-place finishes in the long jump this season and has usually been in at least the top three. She also has some first-place finishes in the 100 and triple jump.
Walton is the No. 3 seed in the long jump and the No. 4 seed in the triple jump heading into districts.
“She has a lot of energy,” Knipe said. “She is hard on herself. She always wants to be out there doing her best jump all the time.”
Hornets sophomore Courtland Simmons had a couple fifth-place finishes in the conference meet but owns the top conference time in the 100. Simmons has three other first-place finishes in the 100, along with some in the 200 and 400-mter run this season.
Simmons is the No. 1 seed in the 100 and the No. 4 seed in the 200 for the district meet. Simmons has been Fulton’s top sprinter, Knipe said, and was undefeated in the 100 and 200 before the conference meet but slipped coming out of the blocks. Despite that, Knipe said Simmons has been great for them all year.
“He is very stoic and serious,” Knipe said. “He takes coaching well and is a consummate professional. He is always ready to do his job and do what it takes for the team and just to prepare himself.”
Rounding out the team is the boys 4x800-meter relay team, the No. 4 seed, that has been improving its time throughout the season. Senior Isaac Avery, junior Shaun Wolfe, junior Josh Bonnel and sophomore Carter Meyerhoff will be running on that team.
Freshman Christian Mahoro was second in the high jump at the conference meet and has been “growing leaps and bounds” in that event, Knipe said. Mahoro is the No. 5 seed.
Knipe said freshman Carly Foster will be “in the mix” in the shot put even though it will be a deep field. Knipe said he’s had Foster, who has team season bests in all three throwing events for the Lady Hornets, focus on her strongest event in the shot put to give her a good chance to move on to the state track and field championships.
Following a lost season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Knipe said he is excited to take his first team to districts after being hired before last season. He spent 12 years as an assistant coach at Waynesville before he was hired at Fulton.
“I’m excited to take this team to districts and try to get as many on to state as we possibly can,” Knipe said.