Allen places in two races at state
By Kendall Patterson
Editor
Three Chester County athletes finished their spring sports at Spring Fling this year.
Tennis players Carter Welch and Evan Eads left it all on the court, and Track runner Tucker Allen left it all on the track.
All of the boys competed on Thursday, May 27.
Welch and Eads were matched up against athletes from Maryville in the Division I Large Class Doubles State Championship Tournament.
Though they fought hard, they could not make it past the first round after losing 2-0 with game scores being 6-0 and 6-1.
Nonetheless, the boys are just proud that they made it that far and Head Coach Mike Showers is as well.
“I’m so proud of them,” Showers said. “The boys, like they always do, represented with class and dignity and played their hearts out.”
Showers and the boys are also glad that they were able to experience state-level tennis competition.
“This is our first time here (Spring Fling) since 2006 so we’re just excited to get to see where we need to go now and what we need to work on to get to this level. This was just a great experience for us,” Showers said.
“Even though we didn’t make it far into state, we learned more of what we need to improve upon to compete with the other players that made it to state too,” Eads said.
“We’ve been beating teams all year,” Welch said. “Then, we come out here with these teams that have years of experience… and have played higher level competition and it’s something we can look at to find out what we need to work on to be more successful next year.”
Welch and Eads just finished their junior years so they still have one more season to improve and go further next year.
Later in the day, Tucker Allen ran the 1600 meter race and the 3200 meter race in the the Division I Large Class Track and Field Chamipionship.
With each race having 16 runners, Allen managed to get himself on the podium and earn medals in each.
In the 1600 meter run he earned fifth place with a time of 4:25, and in the 3200 meter race he earned seventh place with a time of 9:36:73.
Any runner who made the top 8 placed and earned medals.
“Coming into today, I just wanted to podium at least one of the events, and I came out with a podium in two of the events. You can’t ask for much more in a day than that,” Allen said.
As a matter a fact, Allen’s 3200 meter time was a personal record so he proved that he gave it his all.
“Coming out here… Just being with these guys… It was pretty much all or nothing. I came out here and just ran my best, and I can say I left it all out on the track.”
Trent McManus, CCHS Track and Field Coach, was proud of Allen and his efforts at the state meet.
“I’m extremely proud of Tucker,” he said. He ran an incredibly smart race in both races, finished ahead of where they projected him and got on the podium for both races, so Tucker did an incredible job running.”
Like Welch and Eads, Allen still has one more year at CCHS with the chance to further develop his running endurance and place higher next year.
