The PCHS Track and Field Team Prepares for the Last Two Regular Season Meets Before Postseason

The Pulaski County Track and Field team prepares for their last two regular season meets before they move on to the postseason. The Cougars go to Liberty on Saturday, January 29th, to compete at the Bulldog invitational. This meet will feature teams from all around Virginia as it is one of the biggest meets in the nation. The Cougars are looking forward to continuing the progress that they’ve made so far at this meet. The team has featured some great performances so far; such as Armonte Hill-Lewis’s long jump of 23 feet, Garrett Kinder’s 4:35 mile, and Diego Turner’s shot put of 50 feet and 4.5 inches.

Head Coach Sirak Ogbagabir spoke about the meet. “I’m really excited for this meet, it’s going to be a long meet so it helps us out a lot. More time between events means the more events that we can run and set personal bests in,” Sirak said.

Garrett Kinder has expressed his excitement as well. “I think we will be able to put together good races,” Garrett said. “Our training has been great so we should perform well.”

The PCHS team won’t be the only group competing at a meet on the 29th, however. For the first time ever, runners from the Pulaski County Middle School team will also be competing at Heritage High School, which is near Liberty University in Lynchburg. Assistant Coach for the PCHS track team Hannah Alexander will be coaching the middle school team at this meet. “I’m really happy that we finally get an indoor meet for the middle schoolers,” Hannah said. “They’ve been attending practices since the summer so they deserve a chance to compete.”

One of the key competitors for the middle school is Cole Boone, he will be competing in a tough triple: the 500m dash, 1000m run, and 300m dash. Cole said, “I’m looking forward to racing again, it’ll definitely be a tough triple but I’m ready.”

After the Bulldog Invitational, the Cougars travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the first time ever to race at the Southwestern Virginia Invitational. This is the first Virginia sanctioned out-of-state indoor track meet ever for the Cougars and it will take place at the JDL fast track. The meet will take place on Tuesday, February 8th and will be the last chance that the Cougars will have to qualify for the VHSL 4A Region D championship on February 19th.

All the athletes are excited for the postseason, Coach Sirak said, “I think we have a great shot to achieve some great things this season, we just have to work hard and stay diligent.”