CCHS Girls Track and Field wins Sectionals
Eagles Tennis win Region fourth year in a row
Chester County Eagles Baseball place second in region
By: Kendall Patterson, Sports Editor
Track has eight girls going to state, the most in CCHS Girls Track history after earning first place as a team during sectionals. Baseball advances to sectionals after clinching the regional runner-up trophy on Saturday when the team has not made it to sectionals since 2016. A young boys tennis team keeps the streak by winning their fourth region championship in a row. And boys soccer advances to region after being named runner-up in the region to Lexington.
Hannah Rich and Bella Lamb will be returning to Spring Fling this year for their events. Rich will be throwing discus after placing second in sectionals and Lamb will be running in the 3200-meter race and the 1600-meter race due to her first place victories of sectionals.
Lamb will also be joining her 4×800-meter race relay team of Daisy McManus, Alexis Rivers and Hanna Cherry. They earned first place in the event during sectionals.
Additionally, Cherry placed first in the 800-meter race and McManus placed second in the 3200m to advance both of them.
Another relay team representing CCHS at state is the 4×100-meter race runners of Ke’Shyiah Allen, Marissa Rivers, Alexis Rivers and Dallas Talley.
Allen will also be participating in the state long jump.
So, was all the success expected?
Track Coach Trent McManus did not even have it on his radar he said.
His daughter, Daisy McManus, pointed out to her dad that the girls team was in first place during the first day of a two day-event.
“She told me, ‘Did you realize we were in first place?’ Sure enough we were in first place and we actually held first place the entire meet. It’s amazing because we never won the sectional championship before. These girls have done something that’s never been done before. We were strong in every area. We were strong in our throwing. We were strong in our jumping. We were strong in our sprinting. We were strong in the middle distance and long distance. We really just dominated the entire meet.”
The boys track team will also be represented at state. During Sectionals they earned fourth place of 28 teams.
The athletes advancing to Spring Fling are Dillon Williams, Silas McManus and Garrett Robison.
To get to state, McManus placed first in the 1600m and 3200m, Robison placed second in the 1600m and 3200m, and Williams placed first in the 800m.
Though they are not going to Spring Fling in numbers like the girls, they remain making history by having the most event participants the boys team has ever had.
The CCHS Boys Tennis Team is closing in on a state appearance with a region championship win. With a player getting injured early in the match, the young tennis team was down a player. Nonetheless, the other players were resilient and continued to battle it out on the courts.
The team was up 2-1 with wins by Lane Paton and Clayton Austin and a loss by Gavin Johnson (injured). Luke Melton fell short in a tie-breaker putting the team match score at 2-2. Then Raiden Harvey clinched a tiebreaker giving the Eagles the upper edge going into doubles.
The first doubles team that finished were Austin and Harvey that lost 8-2 which tied the match.
It was then up to Melton and Paton. It was a roller coaster in scoring after having a 6-3 lead and then tied at 7, but by the end of it all, Melton an Harvey pulled it off with a 9-7 victory.
After the amazing finish, CCHS Tennis Coach Mike Showers shared his thoughts on this young team continuing the region championship streak and staying focused to do so amidst adversity.
“Three-fifths of the starters are brand new players…It’s been a ride. I didn’t expect this. This is just a cherry on a cake that just keeps on building,” he said. “Final match down 6-7 and win three state to win the match. That just takes mental toughness. It takes a belief in your partners. It’s one of the reasons here why we always stress the doubles, because you never know when those doubles are going to be the ones that matter.”
Showers also mentioned he was proud of fifth seed, Harvey, for his mental toughness.
“He lost his first set, and because of his mental toughness, he came back and won the next two. And because of that we were going [into doubles] 3-2. If it hadn’t been for Raiden, this doesn’t happen.”
Individually, Katie Lovelace, Austin, Melton and Paton are all still competing individually in region this week.
The Eagles Baseball team is close to getting to Spring Fling as well. They just need to win the best two out of three series versus Station Camp this week for sectionals.
Baseball Head Coach Mike Goff expressed how it feels to make it this far.
“It’s so hard. This tourney is so hard. They’re a really solid quality ball club (Station Camp), but we have one. Just to have the chance to participate at such a big event at sub-state… It’s a big deal. Chester County should be proud no doubt,” Goff said.
This past week in region play, Creekwood got the best of the Eagles in the first round on Friday. The Eagles got behind and during their last chance at bat and not giving up with the score at 9-2 the Eagles were at least able to score another three runs thanks to a homerun by Caleb Cole.
Needing to win two more games on Saturday, they defeated Montgomery Central 2-1 to start. Next, with the chance to advance to sectionals on the line, they faced off against district rival, Hardin County. The Tigers could not keep up with the Eagles though.
Chester County got on the scoreboard with a home run by Evan Schippers in the bottom of the third, then Hardin County helped the Eagles from the mound by pitching several balls that got Eagles on base in position to score runs. Jayden Weaver pitched a good game for the Eagles surrendering only two hits and two runs.
The final score that advanced The Eagles to sub-state was CCHS 6 – Hardin County 2.
Last but not least is CCHS Boys Soccer. After having an arguably bad called game that named Lexington the number one seed during regular season, the Eagles hoped to beat them in the district championship but were unable to do so.
The 3-0 loss can mostly be contributed to a questionable taunting red card the Eagles received early in the game that put them down a man the rest of it.
Goalkeeper Damien Mayo earned the District Goalkeeper Award, and Colston Callis earned the District Offensive MVP Award.
The team traveled to Fairview for the first round of region on Tuesday.
