| Forrest’s 7th place finish puts UC gals on right path | By: By KENNETH COKER, Messenger Sports Reporter
| Posted: Friday, May 22, 2009 5:53 pm
| MURFREESBORO — Union City track coach Darren Bowling thinks Sharee Forrest’s seventh-place finish in the shot put at the Class A-AA State Track Meet is a stepping stone and not a stumbling block.
After all, Forrest already took the Lady Twisters’ team a step further than it had been in half a decade — becoming the first local girl to compete at state since 2003 (Kelli Maddox).
“It’s been a long time since Union City has gotten a girl up here so, hopefully, her younger teammates can build upon her success and I’m happy that she’s broken the ice for them,” Bowling said on Thursday. “In a perfect world, Sharee would have gone in and thrown her best and won the event or at least gotten in the top three, but I think she was intimidated by the experience of being up here.
“I could see it in her face and we had a time in getting her out of the car when we pulled into the parking lot. It all goes back to our goal of getting kids up here when they are freshmen, sophomores and juniors, so they’ll know what to expect if they are fortunate enough to compete as seniors.
“I think we are stepping in the right direction — for both the girls’ and boys’ teams — with the middle school program and the recent announcement of a cross country team.”
Forrest, a senior who claimed the Region 7A-AA title en route to her state berth, had a best throw of 32 feet, 101/2 inches — way short of her personal-best 38, 11/2 inch.
“I’m proud of Sharee today,” Union City girls’ track coach Mack Moore said. “She gave it her best but, for whatever reason, she just didn’t have it on this day. I hate it was her last chance to throw, but maybe, she’ll learn a lesson from this.”
Forrest’s best throw came on her third attempt on Thursday.
Still, it landed over four feet short of the Forrest’s state qualifying throw of 37 feet, 23/4 inches just a week earlier at the Class A West Sectional.
Her first toss appeared to slip off her finger tips, touching the ground 29 feet, five inches away from the starting point at the Middle Tennessee facility.
“She didn’t get all of the first throw,” Moore said. “I think that put her in a hole mentally and with the nerves she was fighting, it just put her deeper in a hole.”
Bowling agreed.
“She didn’t perform like the athlete we’ve known for the better part of two seasons.”
At the top of the heap, Austin-East’s Antreece Taylor came prepared for a battle. The junior upended defending champion Jessica Light of Dyersburg on the fourth and final throw with a winning mark of 38 feet, 2 1/4 inches.
Light, who won the discus on Thursday just prior to competing in the shot put, maxed out at 36 feet, 11 inches to gain the silver medal.
In third was Martin Luther King’s Chelsea Curry at a best throw of 34 feet, 7 inches.
Otherwise, Arin Anderson of Elizabethton came in fourth with a top throw of 34 feet, 1 3/4 inches, Hume-Fogg’s Karissa Hampton was fifth (33 feet, 8 inches) and Mitchell’s Shankirah Bedford earned sixth (33 inches, 4 3/4 inches.
George Washington Carver’s Janey Currin also qualified for the state finals, but did not compete.
Sports reporter Kenneth Coker can be contacted by e-mail at kcoker@ucmessenger.com. | | | | |
