Kirkwood Finishes 8th at National Meet
The 2016 Track & Field season came to an end with a trip to Rome, Georgia for the National Track Meet. Other than a few downpours in the mountains of Tennessee on the way to the meet, we enjoyed beautiful sunny and warm weather. It was in the low 80's for most of the two days we were in Georgia, and we only had one sunburn casualty among our group. It's hard to remember to reapply sunscreen when you're watching a track meet!
Freshman Jacob Kirkwood and sophomore Rebecca Reinertson made the trip to Georgia to compete at Nationals for the Faith team. Both of them started the weekend off with events at 5:00 on Friday afternoon. The logistics weren't ideal for watching both running and throwing events, as the throws center was located a mile from the track stadium. Thankfully Jake's dad was there to watch him throw the discus, where Kirkwood had a throw of 38.61 meters on his first attempt. The next two attempts were scratched, so he was disappointed that his mark was nearly 6 meters shorter than his season best. Even so, he still ended up 16th in the event, which is quite a feat!
Reinertson ran the 100 meter dash in a season best 14.40 seconds, and followed that up an hour later with a season best 29.55 seconds in the 200 meter dash! It was quite a bit warmer than we were accustomed to for running weather, but Rebecca made the adjustment well.
Kirkwood was scheduled to throw the shot put at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon, but the officials were running about two hours behind due to an adjustment they had to make with the hammer throw boundary lines earlier in the morning. We enjoyed some sun for a few hours while we waited, and tried not to get sunburned! The shot put got underway at 3:00, and Jacob threw 13.43 meters on his third attempt, which qualified him for finals in the event. He extended his throw to 13.49 meters during finals, matching his season best and placing him 8th overall!
We are very thankful for all of the prayer support and encouragement from family and friends of the Faith track team! We were blessed with just a couple of minor injuries throughout the season, and safe travels to our meets. Be sure to stay tuned next year, as we will be adding a couple of new events for our team…the javelin throw and the heptathlon! We praise God for His lovingkindness to us and give Him all the glory!
