Atlee’s 4x400 team races to states after St. Christopher’s meet

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

The 4x400 may traditionally be the last race of a meet, but when it concerns the Atlee Raiders, rarely does it fail to end the day on a high note.

That was especially true in Atlee’s appearance at St. Christopher’s indoor track on Jan. 28. The pairing of Shamar Heyward, Luke Konecony, Daniel Mudd and Connor Zachariasen took to the track to cap off a stellar day of competition for the Raiders and blazed past their opponents with a 3.33.65 time that not only won them the event, but punched their ticket to the Class 4 state championship on Feb. 27 at Liberty University.

The Raiders quartet had been hovering around the 3:35.06 state qualifying mark in their recent 4x400 runs, usually getting around two seconds above the mark, but at St. Christopher’s, they were able to finally get under that time and guarantee a spot in states.

Before their run, Konecony and Mudd also had more stellar results for the Raiders in other events. Konecony was fantastic in his triple jump, recording a 40-6.5 to win that contest while Mudd placed second in the 500-meter dash with a 38.32-second mark.

Beyond the combined efforts of Heyward, Konecony, Mudd and Zachariasen, Atlee also saw numerous personal records and state-qualifying athletes make strong impressions in the meet.

The Raiders were great in their team competitions, including winning the girls 4x400 (4:24.19), placing second in the boys 4x200 (1:36.23) and winning the junior varsity boys 4x200 (1:44.92) and 4x400 (3:50.31).

Atlee also had standout performances from athletes like Josie Rempe, Teagan Gilhooly and Zoe Curtis.

Rempe, a junior, placed within the top-3 in three events, including a second place finish in the 300-meter dash (43.82 seconds) and third place finishes in the 55-meter dash (7.65 seconds) and the 55-meter hurdles (9.69 seconds).

Her freshman teammate Cur- tis was right in front of her in the hurdles event, placing second with a time of 9.35 seconds. Curtis also won the high jump with a leap of 4 feet, 10 inches. Gilhooly claimed first in the 3200-meter run (12:06.48) with her teammate Ashley Bedford taking second in 12:32.35. Gilhooly later placed second in the 1600 with a 5:19.01 mark, while sophomore Addison Crow took home third place in 5:29.93.

Freshman Amelia Waggoner, one of Atlee’s most talented track athletes, was again at her very best, claiming first place in the 1000-meter run with a time of 3:06.81 while her teammates Courtney Mudd (3:09.67) and Sarah Bland (3:11.24) placed third and fourth.

In the boys events, first place finishes from Jalen Musgrove in the shot put (41-6.5), R.K. Gathje in the pole vault (12-0), Jake Stanley in the 3200-meter run (9:52.99) and Andre Chavez in the 1600-meter contest (4:34) helped Atlee end the day looking like a team fully prepared to make some noise in the regional and state championships.