By Tammy Dills
Guest Writer
Hayesville Middle School is proud of two of our own eighth grade track athletes, Johan Webb and Sydney Greenstone. These athletes chose to attend the North Carolina Runners Middle School Elite Invitational in Monroe, N.C. on Saturday, May 6.
This track meet is an invitational for all North Carolina middle schools who wish to attend. A school’s athletes are ranked by times, jumps and throws from their 2023 season track meets. This allows for athletes to see how they are compared to other athletes on a state level. We encourage those athletes who are respectfully ranked to consider going and competing in the invitational.
We are so proud of the athletes who chose to compete against private schools, charter schools and other classification middle schools.
Webb saw the podium twice out of the three events he competed in.
He jumped his way to a first place podium finish with a 19’ 1” long jump score. He out jumped 31 other jumpers and his closest competition by 6 inches. Webb went on to see the podium with a third place finish in the triple jump with a 36’ 7” jump where he again competed against 31 other athletes. Webb later competed against 79 runners in the 400 meter run where he barely missed the podium with a 4th place finish with a time of 56:24. We are very proud of Webb and his accomplishments. If he decides to compete at the national level in Greensboro, N.C. mid June we wish him the best of luck in representing the Hayesville Yellow Jackets.
Greenstone competed and represented Hayesville in two running events. First, she competed in the 800 meter run, half a mile, where she had a personal record with a time of 2:40.96. Greenstone ended up being 19 out of 70 runners. Later she competed in the 1600 meter run, one mile where she went up against 75 other runners. Greenstone finished again with a personal record by breaking under six minutes with a time of 5:56.46 and placing 28 out of those 75 runners. We are very proud of Greenstone, her self personal records and overall North Carolina middle school rankings. We wish her the best of luck in the upcoming HHS Cross Country Season.
Hayesville Middle School would like to commend these athletes for traveling and competing against other top athletes in North Carolina.