When Abby Casper received the handoff for the final leg of the 4×100 meter relay, her team was in second place. Houston was also trailing in the standings.
Things quickly changed.
Casper made up the five meter difference and overtook the Salem runner to catapult the eighth-grade girls to a first-place finish. They also leapt into the top spot in the standings. And they never left.
Energized by the relay team’s comeback victory –– they also set a school record with a time of 55.70 –– the Lady Tigers made history last week when they won the South Central Association eighth-grade girls’ track championship.
The title was the first in at least 18 years –– the length of time coach Jeri Welch has led the program –– and likely much longer.
“I’ve done this a long time, and we’ve been close before,” Welch said. “It was huge for me. And to do it with this group of girls made it even more special.”
The Lady Tigers won the championship with just eight members. But each contributed in a big way.
Casper, Emily Shea, Tori McCloud and Jaydin Ramsey teamed up to top Salem for the first time this season in the 4×100. Casper was first in the 100 and high jump and Shea won the shotput. The team also had seven top-three finishes to win the championship by 12 points.
Welch and coach Boulder McKinney said Stephanie Crewse’s second-place finish in the 800 –– her best of the season –– and Ramsey finishing fourth in the triple jump and running the relay despite battling knee tendinitis were key for the team.
“They won it as a team,” Welch said, “but there were some outstanding individual performances.”
McCloud was second in the 75 hurdles and fourth in the discus. Casper had a second-place finish in the 400. Crewse was third in the shotput and fifth in the triple jump. Destinee Ullom placed third in both the 200 and long jump. Alyssa Hayes finished fifth in the high jump.
Houston’s 4×200 and 4×400 relay teams both placed third. Jasmin Shelton was part of the 4×400.
Shea said the team was motivated by last year’s second-place conference finish. The Lady Tigers finished a single point behind Willow Springs.
“We knew we had the ability to do it,” Shea said. “We just had to make it happen.”
McKinney said the girls pushed each other to succeed. He said it was common for them to stay after practice to work on their individual events.
It paid off with a historic championship.
“They hate to lose,” McKinney said. “That’s something you don’t see much anymore. They’re a determined group.
“We used to have a quote in the Big Red Building that said, ‘You’ve got to hate to lose more than you like to win.’ That’s this group.”
We used to have a quote in the Big Red Building that said, ‘You’ve got to hate to lose more than you like to win.’ That’s this group.”