Five events for the Knoxville Track and Field Squad earned automatic bids to the State Track and Field Meet Thursday night at the State Qualifier at Saydel. Early on Ciara Heffron swept the throwing events winning both the shot put with a personal record of 38-5. She left no doubt in the discus as Heffron uncorked a throw of 139-3, nearly 33 feet farther than 2nd place. Heffron told KNIA/KRLS Sports she was happy to get through to state.
Heffron: “I’m happy with that throw because it seeds me well. I just need to work on more consistency and hopefully those big throws will come eventually.”
On the boys side, Cael Irving used an extra kick in the last 50 meters to take 2nd place and earn an automatic bid to State in the 800. Irving’s 2:04.12 was good enough and he told KNIA/KRLS Sports that unlike last year, he does not have to wait around to find out if he made it on an at-large.
Irving: “It just feels like a weight off my shoulders and not have to wait until noon tomorrow and I can focus on next week.”
Koby Higginbotham qualified in both the open hurdles races. He won the 110 high in a time of :14.89 and was 2nd in the 400 lows in a time of :56.65. He tells KNIA/KRLS Sports he got off to a bad start, but recovered to win the 110 high.
Higginbotham: “I’m not really sure what happened, my start was so bad, I tripped at the start, but I think I’m so good over the hurdles that I just made all of that up.”
At large bids will be announced today, stay tuned to KNIA/KRLS for details on State Track and Field Coverage.