Gallery by Brad Davis
Beckley – The track at Beckley, named after Pete Culicerto, holds many special memories for his son and Shady Spring girls track coach Vince Culicerto.
“On this track – geez, I ran on this track,” Vince Culicerto laughed. ” It goes way back to being a little kid running around with my dad on this track. I’d always go to meets with him every weekend.”
Culicerto keeps adding to the memory bank at the venue.
After years of the Class AA Region 3 championships being held in Charleston, the event was held in Beckley for the second straight year and once again Culicerto’s girls squad defended their regional title with a team win in Region 3 meet Wednesday.
The victory came with the Tigers edging out Nicholas County and Bluefield.
Culicerto figured Nicholas would be Shady’s stiffest competition and the Grizzlies didn’t disappoint but a turning point came in the 800-meter run where Shady placed second through fourth, stealing a few points they thought they could lose.
“Today I knew it would be tough with Nicholas,” Culicerto said. “They had some girls load up on some other events and they have some good quality girls so we knew it was going to be real, real tight. There towards the end I was feeling we might have lost it but our open 800 was huge. Mattea Huffman got third and Charlotte McGinnis had a big run and got second where Nicholas was supposed to be first and second and they had kind of been all year. So we kind of broke that up and then Abigail Honaker had a nice finish at fourth in the 800 and we won by eight. Ryen Keffer third place in the 200 and long jump were big points and the shuttle and relays did what they’ve been doing and each girl contributed and that’s how we got by with winning it.”
While the Nicholas girls came up short, the boys won the Region 3 crown by one point.
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On the boys side Bluefield owned the 100-, 200- and 400-meter relay events, winning the 100 by two seconds, the 200 by seven seconds and the 400 by six seconds. Amir Hairston and Jacorian Green were the standouts for the Beavers with Hairston building a cushion in the middle leg spots of the 100 and 200 and Green expanding it as the anchor in both relays.
In the 100-meter relay the Beavers finished with a time of 44.47, following with a 1:32.03 mark in the 200. Both times top the squad’s times from last year’s state track meet and would’ve been good enough for the state championship.
As impressive as those times are, they both fall short of the state track meet records set by the 2017 100- and 200-meter Bluefield relay teams. That’s not lost on Hairston whose brother was on both of those championship squads.
“We’re trying to break records and go big,” Hairston said. “We basically have the same team as last year so we have some chemistry working together. We want that same record my brother Shemar and them have. We’re trying to chase records.”
As individuals several Beavers stood out as well. Green, the reigning 200-meter state champion, set a new personal record in the event with a 22.72 run, easily securing his spot in Charleston as he hopes to defend his title. He also finished first in the 100, edging out Hairston in both events.
“I just feel like I have to defend my championship and keep me going,” Green said. “I still feel like there are some things I want to work on like coming out of my blocks and I’ll start faster. I catch my speed about 50 meters in but if I can start better I can lower my time.”
Carter King rounded out the individual achievements for the Beavers with a narrow victory in the 400.
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There was a lot of change for the Wyoming East girls program this season.
Kerri Lookabill took over as the new head coach and the relay teams that went to the state meet last year lost two key components. It meant the Warriors had to reload and refocus if they wanted to return to Charleston.
They did just that, finishing third and in the 4×200 and 400, earning automatic trips to Charleston.
“We started out with some new runners that didn’t really know how to do this,” Lookabill said. “We focused the whole season on handoffs, handoffs, handoffs because that’s where you gain time. It just all came together and they’ve worked very hard all season and today they knew there was no tomorrow if they didn’t give it 110 percent and they did.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Full Results Class AA Region 3 Results. The top three finishers from each “Finals” event qualify for the state track meet. Full times will be unveiled after all regional results are verified and tallied.
