Sarah Pearson clears a hurdle on Monday at the TSSAA State Pentathlon
Finishing with personal bests in the final 2 events was not enough on Monday as Sarah Pearson opened up the TSSAA Spring Fling for Coffee County finishing in 11th place in the pentathlon. Pearson, who stepped on her right hand after landing in the high jump pit on her first jump, braved a nasty spike wound and a very competitive field to finish more than 200 points above last year’s 8th place finish.
Pearson started a little slow as she finished in 10th place in the 100M hurdles with a time 16.8 seconds which was almost ¼ of a second slower than her sectional qualifying run. In the shot put, Pearson had a toss of 26 feet, 3 ¾ inches which was 2 feet farther than her qualifying throw but still lost ground to the field as she ended that event in 11th place.
Sarah Pearson runs in the 800M run on Monday at the TSSAA State Pentathlon
That set up the disastrous long jump which featured a controversy over a charged scratch by Pearson on the jump where she injured herself. After a quick bandage job by the on-site trainers, Pearson was able to complete 3 jumps but her longest jump of 14 feet 5.25 inches was more than a half foot short of her qualifying jump leaving her with too much ground to make up in the final 2 events.
In those final 2 events, Pearson summoned up her courage and competitive spirit to tie her personal best in the high jump at 5 feet and set a new personal best in the 800M run at 2:36.24 to finish in 11th place, less than 200 points off the medal stand.
After the event, we interviewed Pearson and this is what she had to say:
Pearson and Karson Young have each qualified in 3 individual events as Young will compete in the triple jump, the long jump and the 100M hurdles. Pearson qualified for the high jump, the 100M hurdles and the 300M hurdles. Diana Davis also advanced to the state meet as she qualified in the pole vault.
The Spring Fling State Track Meet is taking place all this week at MTSU’s Dean A. Hays Stadium. Diana Davis will compete in the pole vault on Wednesday at 2 PM. Pearson and Young will compete on Thursday as Young will take part in the long jump at 9 AM. Young comes back for the triple jump at 10:15 and will compete in the 100M hurdles around 3:30 PM. Pearson takes part in the high jump at 12 PM, the 100M hurdles around 3:30 PM and the 300M hurdles sometime after 4 PM.
The complete schedule can be found at: http://tssaa.org/2016-tssaa-state-track-meet-schedule/
