Girl's Track - Carolina Forest High

2008 Season Review
The Lady Panthers Track and Field Team had a great 2008 season. We won our 4th consecutive Horry County Championship!

Three athletes made it to the SC State Championships at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, SC. Those three athletes scored enough to finished 10th in the state out of 36 schools in Class AAA. Here are their individual results:

Courtney Kinlaw- STATE CHAMPION IN THE 400M HURDLES (1:04.85)
7th in the Triple Jump (34’05); 8th in the 200m Dash (26.29)
Lakeitha Alston- 3rd in the Discus (107’5)
Nneka Ekechukwu- 6th in the High Jump (5’0)

2009 Season Outlook
We are moving up to Class 4A, Region VI. This class consists of Carolina Forest, Conway, Hartsville, South Florence, Sumter, and West Florence. We look forward to competing on the 4A level even though it means further travel.
Only losing three seniors, we have many returning athletes who are vital contributors to the team. However, we have many young and newcoming athletes that we must train in the different events.

Sprinters/Jumpers: Courtney Kinlaw and Nneka Ekechukwu dominated the region in the sprints and jumps. Therefore, we are looking for young ladies to take their spots in these areas. Courtney Kinlaw is now running track at Campbell University in North Carolina and Nneka Ekechukwu is attending the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Distance: We only graduated one distance runner, Kaitlin Napier. Sarah Robbins is our current senior who has been on the team for many years. We expect her to lead the young and newcoming runners to become serious competitors in the region. Emily Schassler is also returning and she is only a freshman! She competed at the State Qualifying meet last season in the 3200 meter run. The distance team normally consists of cross country runners.

Hurdlers- Courtney Kinlaw became a 400m hurdler almost five weeks left in the season! Therefore, we know we can train our athletes well. We are returning junior Gabrielle Marshall. We look forward to any young ladies who want to learn how to hurdle.

Throwers- Lakeitha Alston and Donna Meryanos are seniors this year. Donna looks to throw her personal bests. We are looking for another year of state competition from Lakeitha and hope that she finishes her senior year with big throws!