BENTON — There was not an empty parking space to be found Saturday afternoon at Benton Middle School as the Runnin’ Rangers track and field team hosted their 18th annual Spring Fling event. Fourteen area schools braved the chilly weather and high winds to compete in the coed meet.
Both Benton coaches Andy Sloan and Rod Shurtz expressed gratitude for the amount of volunteers that showed up to donate their time and efforts at the concession stands and helping set up for the event. Shurtz said, “Our volunteer help was outstanding. It takes lots of help to run a track meet and our parents, former athletes, and community volunteers came through again.”
Star runner Jarrod Johns had another banner day for the Rangers, winning the 3200, 1600, and also running a leg on the winning 1600 relay team. Coach Shurtz spoke highly of Johns’ work ethic and physical ability after the meet, “Jarrod has worked hard in practice this past week and it showed today. He just runs hard.”
Gavin Hartley ran a personal best for Benton in the 800, coming in at 1:59.1 and also ran a leg on the 1600 relay team. Shurtz also singled out Hartley as having put in a lot of hard work toward that day’s event. Triston Summers, Avery Potter, Nick Freeman, and Payton Hallis teamed up for a big win in the 3200 relay event. In a very close finish, Hallis had to dig down deep to push himself past an Okawville runner who was right on his heels for the photo-finish victory.
The Rangers’ 1600 relay team of George Styles, Hartley, Johns, and Matt Williams also came away with another victory. Williams finished with the number two spot in the open 400, while finishing fourth in the long jump, and ran a leg on the winning 1600 relay. The 400 relay team of Styles, Hartley, Williams, and Bradley Phillips placed second.
Phillips also finished second in the 100 and 200 meter dashes to round out a respectable day for him. Eli Pemberton finished second in the 300 intermediate hurdles, and third in the 110 high hurdles. The Weigh Man relay of Hunter Shockley, Ben Schilli, Devon McKinney, and Andrew Motsinger finished fifth to round out a solid day of Ranger running.
Coach Sloan added that this year is a bit of a rebuilding process for the Rangerettes, as he said earlier that his girls’ numbers are “very bad” this year due to only having nine girls on the squad, and at this point only eight of them are healthy enough to compete.
Compete they did though, as Sloan noted that regardless of the team results he expects each of his girls to continue to grow and get better throughout the season. For the girls Alexis Abney placed fifth in the discus event and shot put events, while Freshman Macy Sanchez was sixth in the 400 meter dash.
The Runnin’ Rangers and Rangerettes will compete again on Wednesday, April 13, at the Herrin Invite.
