Cedar Ridge Track and Field

Two Orange High swimmers competed in their respective individual championship meets during the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 3A State Swimming Championships.

In addition, Cedar Ridge’s Devin Bunner, who was named the Big 8 Male Swimmer of the Year last month at the Big 8 Conference Championships, finished eighth in the 100 yard breaststroke on Saturday afternoon at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary.

Orange junior Matthew Geib competed in the championship final individually and in a relay race. Geib finished 7th in the 100 yard butterfly at 53.11 seconds. Boyd Poelke of Marvin Ridge captured the championship at 49.26 seconds.

Geib joined senior Noah Jimison, Cross Roman and Owen Rasinske to come in 8th in the state in the 200 yard medley relay at 1:41.55. Earlier in the day, Geib, Jimison, Roman, and Rasinske qualified for the championship race with an eighth place finish in the preliminaries.

It was the last time that Jimison and Roman, both seniors, would race alongside junior teammates Geib and Rasinske.

“In my mind, I was just trying to do my best today,” Jimison said. “We were looking forward to the relays. My goal is this meet was to make the (championship) finals. So I just wanted to make everyone proud.”

In addition, Jimison qualified for the state championships in two individual events. He finished 12th in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:01.21. In the 100 yard backstroke, Jimison came in 14th at 55.65 seconds.

The previous week in the 3A Central Regionals in Greensboro , Jimison, Geib, Roman and Rasinske won the regional championship and broke the school record in the 200 medley with a time of 1:40.44.

“I just wanted to leave it all in the water,” Roman said. “I wanted to give it everything I had and make it the best meet I’ve ever had in my four years at Orange. That’s what I’ll remember about my time at Orange. Breaking the records with my boys right here and just really enjoying the entire four years.”

Bunner ended his Cedar Ridge career with a 10th place finish in the 200 yard individual medley. He touched the wall at 2:00.46.

Cedar Ridge’s 400 yard freestyle relay team of Bunner, Gabriel Castaneda, John Garcia and Grant Fox finished 17th in the preliminaries, ending up with a time of 3:35.39.

In the women’s ranks, Orange’s 200 yard medley team of Abby Dease, Ashley Behringer, Brooke Walker and Calla Walker finished 16th in the 200 yard relay at 1:59.14.

Dease, Calla Walker, Behringer and Melissa Campbell finished 16th in the 400 yard freestyle relay. They ended up with a time of 3:54.62. Campbell is a sophomore, while Walker, Dease and Behringer are all juniors.

Behringer also qualified for the state championships in two individual events. She finished 18th in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:21.45. In the 100 yard butterfly, Behringer came in 17th at 1:01.74.

Calla Walker, a junior, came in 18th in the 50 yard freestyle at 25.83 seconds.

Orange’s Brooke Walker came in 16th in the 100 yard backstroke at 1:13.28.

Chapel Hill won the men’s team state championship at 266 points. Marvin Ridge had 254. Orange finished 13th in the men’s standings with 75 points.

Charlotte Catholic won the women’s state championship.

(Editor’s note: this award is retroactive December 7).

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore pole vaulter Caroline Fowlkes. On Saturday, Fowlkes won her fourth indoor track & field meet of the year at the Apex Last Chance meet at Apex High School. Fowlkes cleared nine feet for the victory. Earlier this year, Fowlkes set her new personal best at the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2 in Mebane, when she vaulted nine feet, six inches. With that, Fowlkes qualified for the 3A State Indoor Track & Field Championships, which takes place next Saturday at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. This is the second year in a row that Fowlkes has qualified for the state indoor championships. Last year as a freshman, she finished 14th in the state when she finished at 8 feet, six inches. Last May, Fowlkes also qualified for the outdoor state championships in the pole vault at North Carolina A&T. She finished 9th in the state championships with a vault of ten feet. Fowlkes comes from a family of pole vaulters. Her father, who competed at the University of South Alabama, is her coach. Her mother competed at the University of Florida.

Cedar Ridge’s 4×800 meter relay team has qualified for next week’s 3A State Indoor Track & Field Championships. On Saturday, the team of Zoe Wade, Georgia Roney, Allison Musty and Sarah Tucker finished with a time of 10:33.70 at the Apex Last Chance meet at Apex High School on Saturday morning. The team will compete at the 3A State Championships next week at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. It’s another impressive item to the resume of Wade and Musty, who helped the Cedar Ridge women’s cross country team qualify as a squad for the 3A State Championships after finishing 2nd in the Mideast Regionals. Musty helped set the Cedar Ridge outdoor track and field record in the 4×800 relay in 2018 at the Mideast Regionals. Joining Wade, Roney, Tucker and Musty in the state championships next weekend will be Cedar Ridge senior sprinter Elijah Horne and sophomore pole vaulter Caroline Fowlkes.

With the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Indoor Track & Field Championships only two weeks away, several Hillsborough athletes will be included in the festivities.

After qualifying for the NCHSAA 3A Outdoor Track & Field Championships last year, Cedar Ridge sophomore Caroline Fowlkes has qualified for the Indoor State Championships in the pole vault. In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #1 on December 3, Fowlkes clear nine feet. The NCHSAA standard is 8’6″ to qualify for the state championships.

Since then, Fowlkes has reestablished for career-high with an attempt of 9’6″ in the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2 on December 18. On Tuesday, Fowlkes peaked at nine feet, once again, at the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #3, which concluded the Red Wolves regular season.

Joining Fowlkes in the indoor state championships will be Cedar Ridge sprinter Elijah Horne. In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #1, Horne qualified for the 500 meters after he finished first with a time of 1:07.81. The NCHSAA state qualifying standard is 1:08.5.

In the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2, Horne won the 300 meters and barely missed qualifying for the state championships. He crossed the finish line at 37.85 seconds, just behind the state mandate of 36.4 seconds.

Meanwhile, Orange’s Keanu Mims attained a goal he had been shooting for throughout the winter: qualifying for the 300 meter state championships. Last Saturday at East Chapel Hill High School inside Dave Thaden Stadium, Mims finally qualified by winning the East Polar Bear #5. Mims competed the race in 35.94 seconds, finishing first.

The previous weekend at the East Polar Bear #4, Mims finished at 37.24 on the same track.

Mims narrowly missed qualifying in the 55 meter dash last Saturday. He finished fifth at 6.84 seconds, below the state mandate of 6.4 seconds.

Fowlkes’ has been a pole vaulter since the sixth grade. She started her career in Mobile, AL, where she was allowed to pole vault in middle school. Her mother and father were also pole vaulters at Tolland High School in Alabama. Her father went on to compete at the University of South Alabama, while her mother competed at the University of Florida.

Mims qualified for Orange’s 4×400 relay team in the state Outdoor Championships last May. In the final event of the day at North Carolina A&T’s Belk Track in Greensboro, Mims, Thomas Kaltenbach, Jose Torres and Cameron Michalski completed the race with a time of 3:28.63. They finished tenth in the state.

Running individually last outdoor season, Mims won two meets in the 100 meter dash. On March 7, 2019 he set a new personal best of 11.39 seconds in a meet against East Chapel Hill. He also finished first in a tri-meet against Chapel Hill and Southern Durham on March 14, 2019.

Last weekend at Eastern Alamance, Cedar Ridge’s Sarah Tucker won the women’s 1000 meter race, finishing at 3.24.60. Tucker, who ran cross country and outdoor track for the Red Wolves, just missed qualifying for the state championships.

The Red Wolves’ Kennedy Kelsey won the 55 meters hurdles at 10.47 seconds. The state mandate is 9.1 seconds.

Orange’s Erin Mink won the high jump at East Chapel Hill with a jump of 4’8″. Mink has captured the high jump in back-to-back weekends at East.

The 3A State Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held at JDL Fast Track indoor facility in Winston-Salem on February 14 and 15.