Girls rule! Six going to state

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By Tracy McGinnis

(Published May 07, 2008)

Fort Mill's Ceci Kryst participates in the long jump Saturday.

The Fort Mill girls track team traveled to Columbia Saturday for the state qualifier and returned home with an impressive list of athletes that are moving on to state competition.

Senior Ashley Potts qualified in all four of her events including the 4x400 relay, high jump and hurdles. Potts had her personal record in the high jump Saturday and head girls coach Steve Mullinax expects only good things from her at the state level.
"She jumped an impressive 5'4" in the high jump and dominated in both hurdles," Mullinax said.
Potts finished with a 15.24 in the 100-meter hurdles and 1:04.24 in the 400-meter hurdles.
The Yellow Jackets' relay teams will also be hard to beat. The 4x100 team (Naomi Burrell, Natalie Harris, Brittney Neely, Mickayla Page, Ceci Kryst, Lisa Nichols) finished in 52.34 and the girls 4x400 team (Tiayonna Blackmon, Lisa Nichols, Taylor Miller, Ashley Potts, Mickayla Page, Abby Lewis) finished in 4:04.10. The 4x800 relay team (Blackmon, Lewis, Owen, Miller, Q. Blackmon, Nichols) finished with a time of 10:17.40. Both the 400 and 800-team qualified for the state meet.
"The relay teams were outstanding," Mullinax said. "Everyone did well and I feel we have a good chance of winning."
Senior Tiayonna Blackmon also qualified in the 800-meters and 1,600-meters.
"We won't be able to replace Tiayonna and Potts when they graduate, but I'm also impressed with how many freshman made it this year" Mullinax said.
Included in the list of ninth graders who qualified are Abby Lewis in the relay and 800-meter, Sarah Owen in the 3,200m and Taylor Miller in the relay.	"For any freshman to qualify for state is a great accomplishment," Mullinax said. "Sarah Owen is competing in track for the first time this year and qualified in the two mile with a PR of 11:56 - athletes like her have only been getting better all year."
Other qualifiers for the Yellow Jackets include Ceci Kryst in the long jump, Quanika Blackmon in mile and Abby Lewis in the half mile.
Mullinax and the team are feeling confident going into state competition Saturday and feel they could place anywhere from first to fifth.
"We could win it or we could end up in third or fourth place, it all depends on who has a great day," Mullinax said. "If everyone performs beyond their capabilities we could end up in the top spot."
The team will start competing Friday afternoon at Spring Valley with their first event being the 4x800 relay.
"We'll know what kind of meet we'll have after that event," Mullinax added.
The team will also compete in the long and triple jumps Friday night before moving on to competition in the remaining events Saturday morning.