Bluff's Hanna Blalock sets school record in debut

BONNE TERRE -- In her first high school track meet, Poplar Bluff freshman Hanna Blalock broke one record and challenged another winning two races Tuesday night at the North County Invitational.

Blalock broke the school record in the 3,200 meters with a time of 12 minutes 2.34 seconds breaking Shawna Starnes' 1986 mark by over half a second. In the 1600, Blalock ran a 5:30.57 just 4.47 seconds off Mary Kalich's mark also set in 1986.

The Mules finished second out of 17 teams while the Lady Mules were 11th.

"The kids really performed well for the amount of practice time we had because of the weather Mules coach Lance Bell said. "They all competed hard and it was a good start. We just need to keep building on this for the upcoming meets."

Austin Williams won both hurdle races taking the 110 in 15.53 and the 300 with a time of 40.87. Philip Klaproth won the shot with a throw of 51-feet 3-inches while Bill Turner's throw of 135-2 in the discus was second. Dylan Janes (43-3.5) was sixth in the shot.

Damon Bower and Greg Coble finished second and third in the 100 with times of 11.47 and 11.62. Matt Chatman and Kenyon Francis finished second and third in the pole vault, clearing 12-0 and 11-6.

Coble was third in the triple jump (41-2.5) and seventh in the long jump (18-11) while Kerey Smith was fifth in the high jump (5-8). Rebecca Piland placed third in the triple jump with a leap of 32-9.5 and was fourth in the high jump (4-10) and long jump (15-2) for the Lady Mules.

Travis Blalock was fifth in both the 1,600 at 4:48.83 and the 3,200 at 10:14.87.

The 800-relay of Bower Williams, Aaron Ellis and Zach Ferguson was second in 1:34.81 while Bower, Coble Ellis and Smith were third in the 400-relay at 45.06.

Josh Freeman finished sixth in the 800 at 2:13.16 while Ellis was seventh in the 200 at 24.25.

SOCCER: After trailing by two at halftime, Poplar Bluff's Morgan Allen cut the deficit in half with 25 minutes left Wednesday night, but Notre Dame scored twice in the final 8 minutes for a 4-1 win.

Lady Mules goalie Meagan Stucker made seven saves while Miranda Burroughs assisted Allen's second goal in as many days for Poplar Bluff (1-1).

Mindy Siebert scored two goals and added an assist for the Bulldogs (2-0). Anna Wren also scored twice for Notre Dame while Shelly Frank earned the win in goal.

In the junior varsity game, Poplar Bluff's Courtney Knuckles made eight saves in a 1-0 loss.