Sarah Pearson shows off her 7th place medal following Monday’s State Pentathlon
Tying a personal best on the high jump and setting new personal bests in the remaining 4 events was enough to earn Sarah Pearson a 7th place finish in the state pentathlon on Monday in the TSSAA Spring Fling. Pearson, the only freshman in the field of 12, came in as the 12th seeded qualifier but finished no lower than 9th place in any individual event. Her consistency proved to be the edge as she became the first freshman in Coffee County track history to finish with a medal in the pentathlon.
Sarah Pearson clears the bar in the high jump in Monday’s State Pentathlon
CHS track coach Stan Jarrell was impressed with Pearson’s composure as this was only her 2nd attempt in the pentathlon. “I thought Sarah handled the pressure extremely well. Our goal was to improve in every discipline from the sectional meet and she did that” said Jarrell. Pearson was happy with the 7th place finish, but was already making plans to return in 2016.
“I am very happy right now and proud of my improvements(over her sectional scores)” gushed Pearson as she stared at her medal. “I was very intimidated coming in(to the event) but now my goal is to come back. Today helped show me what I need to work on to get back here next year” added Pearson.
Sarah ran a personal best in the 100M hurdles at 17.73 seconds, jumped a personal best 14′ 9 1/4″ in the long jump, threw the shot a personal best 25′ 2 1/2″ and ran the 800M in a personal best 2:38. In the high jump,
Sarah Pearson poses with her CHS Track coaches following Monday’s State Pentathlon. From left: Phil Bonham, Pearson, Stan Jarrell and Samantha Amis
Pearson tied her meet best height of 4′ 8″ to tie her for 5th place in that event.
Taylor DeBerry and Kani Johnson have both qualified in the hurdles finals coming up on Thursday and Friday respectively. DeBerry will run the 100M hurdles final at 3:00 PM on Thursday at the Dean Hayes Track at MTSU. Johnson will compete on Friday as he qualified for the 110M hurdles along with the 300M hurdles. The boys running event finals get underway on Friday beginning at 4:00 PM.
