Chris Faries • Photo Bart Harrison 1500m and 5K power walk silver winner.
By Terence Faries
Guest Writer
The North Carolina Senior Games State Finals are underway in Raleigh, N.C. and 31 local competitors including 13 artists and 18 athletes who qualified at the local games earlier this year joined a record over 3,400 other participants from around the state for a chance at earning some state hardware. The 13 artists entered 18 pieces of artwork in 13 categories while the 18 sports participants will have competed in 38 events when all is said and done.
The first half of the events were completed on Saturday, Sept. 20 while the second half will be conducted later this month for seven of our athletes. A special mention goes out to nine of the 18 as this was the first time they competed at the state level. Already, five of the nine came away with medal winning performances while two are still to compete later.
In total, our participants have managed to pick up 39 medals so far including 11 gold, 20 silver and eight bronze. Congratulations to all the Clay and Cherokee representatives and good luck to those yet to compete.
Of the 13 artists whose artwork and literary pieces which were submitted, five finished in the medals this year. These were:
• Basket Weaving: Anne Hastie, gold; Chris Faries, silver.
• Jewelry: John Gibney, bronze.
• Stained Glass: Steve Reidel, bronze.
• Wood Carving: Terence Faries, silver.
On the sports side, here is the medal tally so far:
Track & Field
• 100m dash: Terence Faries, bronze.
• 200m dash: Terence Faries, silver.
• 400m run: Michele Preisser, silver.
• 800m run: Michele Preisser, silver.
• 1500m run: Michele Preisser, silver.
• 1500m power walk: Ruth Harrell, gold; Michele Preisser, gold; Bart Harrison, silver; Gary Preisser, silver.
• 5K power walk: Ruth Harrell,
See
MEDALS
B3
gold; Michele Preisser, gold; Bart Harrison, silver; Gary Preisser, silver.
• 10k Road Race: Michele Preisser, silver; Vann Estes, silver.
• Standing long jump: Terence Faries, gold.
• Running long jump: Terence Faries, gold.
• Discus: Lucy Lovins, silver; Gary Preisser, bronze.
Swimming
• 50 yard freestyle: Cathy McNeely, gold.
• 50 yard breaststroke: Jan Findley, bronze; Cathy McNeely, silver; Art Hubbard, silver.
• 100 yard breaststroke: Art Hubbard, Gold.
• 200 yard breaststroke: Art Hubbard, gold.
• 50 yard backstroke: Art Hubbard, silver.
• 100 yard backstroke: Art Hubbard, silver.
• 200 yard backstroke: Art Hubbard, silver.
• 100 yard IM: Cathy McNeely, silver.
Other events
• Badminton: Jon Jordan, gold.
• Table tennis: Jerry Leslie, silver.
• Softball throw: Lucy Lovins, bronze; Gary Preisser, bronze.
• Football throw: Gary Preisser, bronze.