Polk County’s track and field program won the team competition it most cared about at Wednesday’s eighth annual Reindeer Games.

And then added one more title just to make the night even better.

More than 600 athletes from 24 schools entered to compete in Polk County’s December tradition, a track and field meet all about the spirit of Christmas. At the heart of the event is a food drive, athletes and parents collecting canned food to help those less fortunate perhaps have a holiday meal or two where they might not have had one.

As they have every year, the Wolverines delivered the largest collection of cans of any school present Wednesday, donating more than 2,200 items to the stack that Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry Executive Director George Alley loaded for the organization’s pantry. In all, almost 3,300 cans of food were amassed for TBOM.

That alone made it a good day. Polk County’s girls team then made the day even better by taking first place in the event, finishing four points ahead of Hendersonville. Brevard, Murphy and Franklin rounded out the top five. The Franklin boys nipped North Henderson by a point to win that competition, with Hendersonville, West Henderson and A.C. Reynolds sharing third. Polk County finished a solid sixth in the 22-team field.

Retaining the title for can donation meant the most, though, to the Wolverines, especially assistant coach Amanda Simoncic, who originally thought up the idea for the Reindeer Games.

“It started because I thought there was a need, and it was something kind of fun for the kids to do and get involved and see what they could do for their community,” Simoncic said. “We just kind of took it and ran with it, and it’s grown from a few schools to today where we have 24.”

Reese Alley’s victory in the triple jump and the 4×400-meter relay’s team triumph were the lone individual wins for the Polk County girls, but the Wolverines had three of the top six finishers in the shot put, with Michaela Nelon leading the way with a third-place throw of 32-9 that also qualified her for February’s state championships. Reagan Waddell placed fourth and Kimberly Williams took sixth.

Lauren Ketwitz and Alley also placed in the top five in the pole vault and were part of the 4×200-meter relay team that placed sixth but did so in 1:58.09, qualifying for the state 2A/1A indoor meet. Also qualifying was India Godlock in the 1600-meter run, where she placed second in 5:47.40.

Izzy Jackson added a second-place showing in the 500 meters and a sixth in the 55-meter dash.

Polk County’s standout pole vault duo of Troy Lieberman and Jake Justice placed 1-2 in the event, with Lieberman clearing 12-6 to win.

– article submitted by PolkSports.com