McMinn Central’s Emilee Wampler finishes first in the girls 4 by 200 meter relay Wednesday in sub-sectional track meet action at Red Bank.For all practical purposes, the girls’ portion of the Class A/AA East Sub-Sectional track meet could have simply been called the Signal Mountain Invitational.
That’s how dominant the Lady Eagles were in winning Wednesday’s meet at Red Bank, where the top four finishers in each event advanced to next week’s sectional meet in Knoxville. Lady Eagles athletes won eight of the 18 events, and 12 more qualified for the sectional, leading the way to a 75-point win over second-place Chattanooga Christian.
“This really does help the girls’ confidence a lot, to come out and have so many run so well,” Signal Mountain coach Dustin Carpenter said. “The goal for today was to get as many through to next week as possible, because it’s probably tougher just to get qualified for the state meet than the state meet itself.”
The top two finishers in next week’s sectional will advance to the state meet. The Lady Eagles, looking to win their third consecutive state championship, will have state favorites in several events after the blistering times turned in Wednesday.
Topping that list is senior sprinter McKenzie Ethridge, a two-time state champion in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She cruised to easy wins in both events Wednesday, with times (11.92 in the 100 and 24.71 in the 200) that were just hundredths of a second behind the state-record times of former Howard standout LaQuisha Jackson, a high school All-American.