Republic finished second in both the boys and girls Republic Relays held Thursday night. The Lady Tigers earned 84 points as a team, behind the 144 points of Nixa. The boys had 98 points, behind only Willard (125).
One of the highlights for Republic was its girls 4×100 meter relay team. Just days after losing anchor Brooke Stanfield to an injury, the newly formed team of Autumn Garner, Haven Lander, Lauren O’Hara, and Avy Powell-Qualo ran a near-perfect race, finishing in 51.84 and blowing away the rest of the field. The nearest competitor, Marshfield, was more than two seconds back.
“It was like chaos in our heads because we know that any time something happens in our race, Brooke always comes up from behind and wins it for us every time,” says Garner. “So to not have her…that was really hard–especially being friends with her and seeing her not be a part of it. We really just wanted to prove that we could do it for her and for Olivia (Didway), too.”
“I was proud of them,” says Stanfield. “I wish I could have been in there with them, but to watch them still find that success, I thought it was pretty cool.”
Garner had success in the 100m hurdles, as well. She turned in a time of 17.00 to win the event, more than eight-tenths of a second ahead of second place.
O’Hara, Lander, and Powell-Qualo finished 2-3-4 in the 100m dash. And O’Hara turned in a personal best of 15′ 9 1/2″ on the long jump, finishing second.
Among the boys, Republic had two individual event winners. Jerney Jones won the long jump with a distance of 21′ 8″. Cody Frazier won the 300m hurdles with a time of 43.26.
Full results here: Republic Relays 2016
