Photo Credit: Spencer Husen[/caption]On a cool night last Thursday, the men’s and women’s track and field team at Orange traveled to Chapel Hill High School to take on Chapel Hill and JF Webb in their first meet of the season. The Panthers’ guys team finished second out of the three in-conference foes, while the girls took third.
There were several great performances that arose, including victories in seven events, four girls and three guys. Freshman Joseph Pannachia won the 110 meter hurdles, while sophomore Montee Mitchell took first in the 300 meter hurdles. Another notable win emerged from senior qualifying-hopeful, Brandon Vanhook. Vanhook set his personal best in the long jump at the last winter track meet, jumping over 20 feet for the first time (20’4”), “inching” closer and closer to a regional meet berth.
Now for the girls. Senior De’ja Johnson won the triple jump, continuing her very successful high school career. Also continuing her in-conference dominance, junior Morgan Efland won the 300 meter hurdles, while also finishing runner-up in the 100 meter hurdles. With this victory, the Panthers secured a win in three out of the four hurdles events, boys and girls. Another win arose from senior Nycol Lyons, who won the long jump in 14’1”.
Despite all these great Panther wins, the first Performance of the Night award is going to freshman Adalyn Fleming, who won the 1600m in debatably the toughest conference in the state. Fleming ran a 5:44, her personal best, and also just under five seconds away from qualifying from the regional meet. Fleming also excelled in her freshman cross country campaign, as she was the only person who qualified for the state meet on the boys and girls team combined.
When asked about her individual performance and the performance of the (girls) team collectively on Thursday, Fleming said, “I think I did well, and our team also did pretty well considering we were missing two of our girls.” The girls are also under a new head coach, an experienced runner from South Africa, Hendrik Joubert. When the freshman star was asked about adapting to the new coach, Fleming responded, “[Joubert] works us hard, but I think that everyone is adapting to the new coaching style.” Fleming is also receiving a lot of attention this season, as she is leading the team as just a freshman. When asked about this extra attention she is receiving due to her leadership role, Fleming said, “It makes me have high hopes for the future of the team since we are so young. Most of the freshman girls are committed to running for the next three years.” Fleming is primarily referring to freshmen Claire Barger and Julianna Lester, who were number(s) two and three on the cross country team.
The Panthers will take on Southern Durham and Northern Vance this Thursday at home at 4:30, so come out and support your Panthers in their first home meet of 2014.
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