Charleston – Greenbrier West’s Isaac Agee and Colton Dunbar will compete against each other for a 110-meter hurdle state championship on Saturday but Friday they shared their success.
The duo was part of a state championship quadruplet, featuring Randy Keener and McDaniel Benjamin, that combined to claim the Class A 4×110 meter shuttle hurdle state championship Friday at Laidley Field.
Coming into the event Agee felt good about his individual success and along with it that of his teammates such as Dunbar. Combining their efforts they won the event with a time of 1:01.38, nearly a full second better than Moorefield which finished runner-up.
“I mean, it’s just great to be here, a blessing to be here,” Dunbar said. “But I think it just really takes a team effort to be here. I mean, the personal relationships we have with everybody, and coming out and putting the work in to get here. And then the individual work and just working with each other, getting better every time we run in practice.”
“It’s the last meet of the season but, everybody, everybody improved today,” Agee added. “I mean, we did the best we could to win. And Dunbar PR’d in his high (hurdles) today, so I’m hoping he’ll get second, maybe first or both of us get first and second, bring it home to the school tomorrow. So that’ll be awesome!”
Agee and Keener were part of the shuttle hurdle team that finished 11th last year with a time of 1:07.22.
With two new pieces there was hope the squad could not just return to Charleston but make a push for a title. They did just that despite what they categorized as a rough start to the year.
“As far as the beginning of the season, we weren’t performing the way we should have,” Agee said. “And these past two, three meets, we just picked it up and started doing a lot better, a lot. We were just as good as we knew we can be. We finally just said, ‘You know, we want it, we want it more and we’re gonna do it.’ We did it. It’s a blessing that we have this medal.”
The good news for West and bad news for the rest of the state? The entire team should be back next with Keener and Isaac, both juniors, the elder statesmen.
“Everybody wants to say they came away with first place,” Agee luaghed. “I mean, how awesome would that be? Of course we already got one. Why not go get another another? I mean, just keep doing the best you can.”
