Despite their youth, intimidation is no longer a hurdle for two Notre Dame High School track and field athletes. Freshman Alex Mullin and sophomore Josh Evers are among the area athletes trying to qualify for next week’s Spring Fling state meet at today’s sectionals.

Despite a dominant middle school distance career, Mullin needed several races before she began to catch a deep local field that includes Chattanooga Christian’s Jessica Duble and Red Bank’s Claire Turner and Anita McClure, all of whom have solid state-meet experience.

“It was really intimidating when I first started running against older girls,” Mullin said. “In middle school there wasn’t much competition, but at this level I had to push myself a lot harder. The thing that makes me nervous now is not knowing what the girls from other schools are capable of in the sectional.”

Class A/AA teams, including Notre Dame, compete at Anderson County today, while the AAA East sectional is at Red Bank with the top four competitors in each event advancing to the Spring Fling. The Division II state qualifier for the East Region is at GPS, with field events today and running events Thursday.

Mullin already owns Lady Irish records in the 800- and 1600-meter runs and is the team’s fastest 400-meter runner. She ranks among the area’s top five in the 1600 and 3200 and today will try to qualify for the state in those as well as the 800 and 4x800 relay.

“She had a lot of hype from middle school because she won pretty much every event she ran, especially in the mile,” Notre Dame coach Howie Sompayrac said. “Despite being a freshman, she’s already a leader for the entire team. It’s a blessing for a coach when your best runner is such a great leader.

“Really, the sky is the limit for Alex, and she can set a lot of records before her career is over.”

Evers had never competed in track before this spring but has trimmed more than a second off his time in the 100-meter dash, with a personal best of 11.2 seconds. He qualified third for today’s sectional and will also compete today in the 4x200 and long jump.

“He has only competed in the long jump for about three weeks,” Sompayrac said. “We just decided to let him try it, and he has improved in that event by about two feet.

“We didn’t think we had any real burners, but he just kept working on his technique and has really made himself a good sprinter. He’s been a real surprise.”

Ooltewah’s boys are expected to dominate the sprint events in today’s AAA sectional with three qualifiers in the 100 and 200 events. The Owls’ Johnny Myricks, Brian Marshall and Tim Willliams in the 100 and Myricks, Williams and Sammy Seamster in the 200 have the fastest times of any qualifiers in the East. Those four also make up the Owls’ 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams that have the state’s best times of the season.

Comments