By David Rogers. ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Senior sprinter Nyle Peays was No. 1 in the men’s 100 meters, No. 1 in the 300m hurdles and No. 4 in the 200 meters, but it was the Pioneers’ roster depth that propelled the Watauga varsity track and field squad to a No. 2 team placing in the NCHSAA 6A West Regional Track & Field Championships, hosted by A.C. Reynolds High School on May 9.
The top 10 team scores:
- Phillip O. Berry (100)
- Watauga (83.50)
- T.C. Roberson (72.50)
- A.C. Reynolds (57)
- Mount Tabor (54)
- Olympic (49)
- Ashbrook (48)
- Statesville (44)
- Asheville (39)
- Central Cabarrus (26)
A total of 19 schools had enough athletes qualify for Regionals to earn a team score out of the 20 schools represented.
Watauga Performances (Finals Only)
- 100 Meters
- No. 1 Nyle Peays 10.57
- No. 3 Riley Ellison 10.86
- 200 Meters
- No. 4 Nyle Peays 21.72
- No. 10 Riley Ellison 22.62
- 400 Meters
- No. 2 Matthew Leon 49.50
- 800 Meters
- No. 13 Levi Anderson 2:02.55
- No. 14 Zeke Walker 2:13.60
- 1600 Meters
- No. 7 Grady Gates 4:35.51
- No. 8 Jonah Pearson 4:36.46
- No. 13 Zeke Walker 5:01.46
- 3200 Meters
- No. 13 Parker Williams 10:33.75
- 110m Hurdles
- No. 5 Eli Reed 16:12 (ran 16.02 in prelims)
- 300m Hurdles
- No. 1 Nyle Peays 38.78
- No. 2 Eli Reed 39.12
- 4×100 Relay
- Watauga No. 4, 43.04 (Mason Harris, Riley Ellison, Lucas Cash, Nyle Peays)
- 4×200 Relay (disputed result because of the meet’s photo and timing malfunctions; Watauga believed they were No. 4, but the contested result is not believed to have affected the team standings)
- No. 6 Watauga (Lucas Cash, Riley Ellison, Mason Harris, Matthew Leon)
- 4×400 Relay
- No. 12 Watauga 3:34.62 (Sawyer Blackburn, Derek Nix, Silas Powell, Matthew Leon)
- 4×800 Relay
- No. 3 Watauga 8:16.54 (Grady Gates, Brian Newmark, Zeke Walker, Levi Anderson)
- Pole Vault
- No. 8 Julian Miranda-Aponte 11-6
- Discus
- No. 4 Coy Johnson 138-11
- Shot Put
- No. 1 Coy Johnson 56-1
