BUCKHANNON – The Buckhannon-Upshur High School track and field Lady Bucs were shut out of conference titles but tallied plenty of top-eight finishes on the way to a third-place overall showing at the Big 10 Championships last Friday.
Bridgeport dominated the meet, racking up 178.5 points. North Marion was second with 122, and the Lady Bucs finished third with 66.75 points.
Dezi Pugh and Chloe Cale paced B-U on the track. Pugh finished second in both the 400-meter dash (100.98) and 300 hurdles (48.69), third in the 200-meter dash (27.35) and fourth in the 100 meter hurdles (17.22).
Cale, meanwhile, finished just in front of her teammate in the 100-meter hurdles, nabbing third in 16.99 seconds. She also placed third in the long jump with a leap of 16-3 and seventh in the 300 hurdles (51.86).
Catherine Neely led the Lady Bucs in the field events, earning the silver medal in the discus with a throw of 98 feet, 5 inches, and bronze in the shot put with a heave of 32-1.75. In the latter event, B-U’s Quinlyn Russell finished fourth (32-1) and Olivia Shipley placed eighth (29-11.5).
Rounding out the B-U scoring in the field events were Jessica Williams in the high jump (tied for seventh, 4-6) and Kayden Monti in the long jump (eighth, 14-7.5).
The only B-U relays to finish among the top eight were the 4×400 and shuttle hurdle squads. The shuttle hurdle team of Allie Frye, Haley White, Abigail Hurst and Cale finished sixth in 1:17.27, while the 4×400 quintet of Maya Garcia, Monti, White and Chloe Blonn finished eighth with a time of 4:38.06.
Coach Jackie Zuliani’s Lady Bucs will now turn their attention to the Region I meet this Wednesday at John Marshall, which will determine which athletes qualify for the state meet later this month.