Knights primed to conquer conference, state championships
* Robbinsville indoor track season preview
Robbinsville
W
ith success come widespread intrigue.
To say the least, the Robbinsville indoor track program made quite the splash during the first indoor track season in the history of the Smoky Mountain Conference last year. The banner campaign included Zoie Shuler winning the school’s first state indoor track championship in the long jump.
Additionally, Shuler, Kensley Phillips and Delaney Brooms clinched All-State recognition. Thus, the roster has more than doubled in size, from 11 last year to 25 on the team this season.
“This year, we have a lot of talented returners, but also a huge increase in numbers, which makes us very excited to see how our teams do this year,” Robbinsville head coach Kaitlyn Carringer-Adams said. “I believe that our numbers have increased due to our stats from last year, outdoor track athletes wanting to get better, more people learning that this is a sport in the conference, and our athletes from last year going out and recruiting their friends, and other athletes at our school, in hopes of having more numbers to score for the team.
“Kensley and Delaney are both key athletes for our team when it comes to points, and both should be strong competitors in the conference and state qualifiers this year as well.”
Indoor track gives runners a head start. Should you wish to brave the harsh elements of December-January track, you will be well in shape and can only get better for the outdoor season, which begins working out in mid-February.
Robbinsville already has shown how strong it will be this year, entering the first track meet at Swain County High School in recent memory on Nov. 16.
Shuler wasted little time solidifying her spot, qualifying for the high, long and triple jumps, as well as the 55-meter dash. Her leap of 5 feet, 2 inches in the high jump broke a school record set by Lanie Stewart in 2017.
She reset her school benchmark in the triple jump at the meet with a launch of 36 feet, 9 ¾ inches.
Senior William Cable also knocked down Sully Shanahan’s 2019 threshold in the 1,000-meter run, etching his name in the record books with a finish of 3:00.95.
“Due to sickness and early injuries, we were not ready to enter everyone in all the events that they would eventually be competing in, so our goal was to be extremely competitive in the events we entered, break school records and qualify for state,” Carringer-Adams said. “Our athletes did all of those things at the meet. In all, we had 17 PRs (personal records).
“We had a few more athletes who just barely missed the state qualifying standards and school records, but should achieve those goals soon.”
Seven Robbinsville athletes are already ranked in the top 5 of the state’s 1A/2A rankings (the state indoor track meet is 1A vs. 2A), across 15 events.
There’s more to come. Carringer-Adams was quick to note other talented members within the program that either have already – or soon will – be turning heads.
“Claire Barlow has a lot of talent on the track and in field events, and should also be one of our state qualifiers," Carringer-Adams said. “Both Donovin Hall and Fala Welch are both new to track, but have already shown a lot of strength and talent in shot put. Once they both learn more about technique, they will be ones to watch.
“Plus, Eden Orr and Taelyr Jackson have both spent a lot of time helping brainstorm fundraisers, recruit athletes, lead stretches and do whatever they can to help this team.”
That just leaves one question: with all this talent, how could anything except state gold be a very real possibility for Robbinsville’s athletes? Carringer-Adams believes unity and persistency will get the Knights where they need to be.
“My goal before the season started was to bring this group of athletes together as a team,” she said. “Often, track is seen as an individual sport, but when I was in school, the whole girls team always kept up with the points, stayed to watch others compete even after their events were finished and would do whatever we could to get more points – and that’s how all the Robbinsville teams that won conference and regionals were.
“At the first practice, I mentioned this to the team, and some of the leaders on the team have really stepped up and our athletes are encouraging each other, trying new events to try to get more points for the team – and some are putting in extra work to get better.
“We are just at the beginning of the season, when our athletes are barely in shape and have quite a few new athletes, but have already either broken records and qualified for state or barely missed. As the season progresses, we should have a few more records broken, a few more athletes qualify for state, higher points at the conference meet and more All-State awards. Zoie also has great potential to be a returning state champion in multiple events.
“This team is aiming high with their goals, and with their continued hard work and growth as working as a team, I think they can achieve them.”
The school’s lone home meet of the season was held Tuesday. Finalized results were not available by Wednesday’s press deadline. Robbinsville next competes at Murphy on Wednesday, Dec. 7.