By Jenny Wolfe

Months of preparation and high expectations culminated into making history, records falling and hearts filling with joy on the eve of Valentine’s Day. The Polk County Wolverine Indoor Track teams brought home three state championship titles and six State Champions from the NCHSAA 1A/2A State Championships held at the JDL FastTrack in Winston-Salem. From the first race to the last of the competition, Polk would reign gold medals around some well-deserving student-athletes.

 

A season began, and as the cold, hard days of practice accumulated, Polk’s 1,600 and 3,200- meter relay teams were getting more than noticed across the state. Polk would enter the championships with two number one ranked relay squads and one ranked second in 1A/2A competition. Polk would take the most athletes in history to the state meet, a total of 17. Among them was Hanna O’Brien who would become the first female athlete in NCHSAA history to compete and win a state championship in the women’s 55-meter adaptive. O’Brien won the event in 9.27.

 

The men’s 3,200-meter relay held the coveted first place seed all season and the women’s 3,200- meter relay moved into the first place seed at the Last Chance Meet just a week before the state championships. The men’s team (Sean Doyle, Mitchell Brown, Caleb Brown, Jacob Wolfe) would secure the victory in championship fashion. Decked out in “stars and stripes” running shorts, the Wolverine state record-breaking performance was a margin of victory of over 22 seconds ahead of second place and lowered the state all-time performance mark in the event from 8:22 to 8:15.

 

The women’s 3,200-meter relay team (Emily Kocher, Emma Wagoner, Savannah Robbins, Alli Swope) would run within one second of their season best time to secure a second place, down-to-the-wire photo finish. The team anchor Swope moved up from a fourth place position to pass two competitors, the last a staggering Croatan runner who mistakenly pulled up prior to the finish line. Swope ran through the line edging Croatan by just .23 of a second securing the Polk team a state runner up title.

 

The men’s 1,600-meter relay was the state’s second place seed and would pit the Wolverines three seconds behind the leader. Lead-off leg, C. Brown, handed off the baton to Eli Hall, who passed to Wolfe, who gave the final baton exchange to Doyle, who, with 150 meters to go, faced a five second deficit and two competitors out front. He would shift to a gear rarely displayed from an athlete who had already ran lead-off leg of the 4×800 and the 1,000-meter run to edge both leaders at the line. A stunned, disbelieving crowd of Polk supporters broke into pandemonium, a stellar performance by all team members gave Polk its third state indoor title of 2014-2015. The team ran 3:34.82 a season best performance, just .20 ahead of the second place team.

 

Doyle, C. Brown and Wolfe would become Polk County’s first male double state champions, as all three ran legs of the winning 1,600 and 3,200-meter relays. The relay victories were the first in the school’s history.

 

Competitors score points for their team for placing in the top eight in each event.  Points are earned on a descending scale from 1st to 8th (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1). Polk had several competitors post performances in state competition.

 

For the men, Jordan Smith placed 11th in long jump (18-7.5), C. Brown posted a personal record in the 500-meter, 1:09.38, to take 4th overall. Doyle and Wolfe ran 2:39.35 and 2:40.35, placing 3rd and 4th respectively in the 1,000-meter run. M. Brown placed 12th (10:51.07) in the 3,200-meter run. Nate Smart (DNF) participated in the 500-meter.

 

For the women, Michaela Nelon took 18^th with 28-6, and Tameeia Brown placed 22^nd with 26-9. Savannah Robbins placed 10th in the 500-meter with 1:29.5. Kocher would take 6th with 3:24.66 and Swope 7th with 3:26.21 in the 1,000-meter. In the 1,600-meter relay Kocher, Robbins, Swope and Addie Lynch placed 8th in 4:37.83.

 

Polk County men placed third overall, three points off state runner up and the Lady Wolverines placed ninth out of 45 schools competing.

 

 

PHOTOS:

 

EMILY

Emily Kocher (pictured) and teammates Emma Wagoner, Savannah Robbins and Alli Swope would run within one second of their season best time to secure a second place, down-to-the-wire photo finish in the 4×800 relay.

 

MEN’S 4X4

Caleb Brown, Eli Hall, Jacob Wolfe and Sean Doyle enjoy a lighthearted moment after winning the men’s 1,600-meter relay.

 

4X8 STATE PODIUM
The 4×800 meter relay team, Sean Doyle, Jacob Wolfe, Caleb Brown and Mitchell Brown, take their place on the winners’ podium.

 

SEAN DOYLE 4X4

After the final baton exchange, Sean Doyle shifts it into gear to finish to thundering applause in the 4×400 relay.