With the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Indoor Track & Field Championships only two weeks away, several Hillsborough athletes will be included in the festivities.
After qualifying for the NCHSAA 3A Outdoor Track & Field Championships last year, Cedar Ridge sophomore Caroline Fowlkes has qualified for the Indoor State Championships in the pole vault. In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #1 on December 3, Fowlkes clear nine feet. The NCHSAA standard is 8’6″ to qualify for the state championships.
Since then, Fowlkes has reestablished for career-high with an attempt of 9’6″ in the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2 on December 18. On Tuesday, Fowlkes peaked at nine feet, once again, at the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #3, which concluded the Red Wolves regular season.
Joining Fowlkes in the indoor state championships will be Cedar Ridge sprinter Elijah Horne. In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #1, Horne qualified for the 500 meters after he finished first with a time of 1:07.81. The NCHSAA state qualifying standard is 1:08.5.
In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2, Horne won the 300 meters and barely missed qualifying for the state championships. He crossed the finish line at 37.85 seconds, just behind the state mandate of 36.4 seconds.
Meanwhile, Orange’s Keanu Mims attained a goal he had been shooting for throughout the winter: qualifying for the 300 meter state championships. Last Saturday at East Chapel Hill High School inside Dave Thaden Stadium, Mims finally qualified by winning the East Polar Bear #5. Mims competed the race in 35.94 seconds, finishing first.
The previous weekend at the East Polar Bear #4, Mims finished at 37.24 on the same track.
Mims narrowly missed qualifying in the 55 meter dash last Saturday. He finished fifth at 6.84 seconds, below the state mandate of 6.4 seconds.
Fowlkes’ has been a pole vaulter since the sixth grade. She started her career in Mobile, AL, where she was allowed to pole vault in middle school. Her mother and father were also pole vaulters at Tolland High School in Alabama. Her father went on to compete at the University of South Alabama, while her mother competed at the University of Florida.
Mims qualified for Orange’s 4×400 relay team in the state Outdoor Championships last May. In the final event of the day at North Carolina A&T’s Belk Track in Greensboro, Mims, Thomas Kaltenbach, Jose Torres and Cameron Michalski completed the race with a time of 3:28.63. They finished tenth in the state.
Running individually last outdoor season, Mims won two meets in the 100 meter dash. On March 7, 2019 he set a new personal best of 11.39 seconds in a meet against East Chapel Hill. He also finished first in a tri-meet against Chapel Hill and Southern Durham on March 14, 2019.
Last weekend at Eastern Alamance, Cedar Ridge’s Sarah Tucker won the women’s 1000 meter race, finishing at 3.24.60. Tucker, who ran cross country and outdoor track for the Red Wolves, just missed qualifying for the state championships.
The Red Wolves’ Kennedy Kelsey won the 55 meters hurdles at 10.47 seconds. The state mandate is 9.1 seconds.
Orange’s Erin Mink won the high jump at East Chapel Hill with a jump of 4’8″. Mink has captured the high jump in back-to-back weekends at East.
The 3A State Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held at JDL Fast Track indoor facility in Winston-Salem on February 14 and 15.
