The Plano East track and field team didn’t have many qualifiers at the area meet, but showed a strong performance overall.

The Panthers competed in the District 5-6 6A Area Track and Field meet at Coppell High School April 15 and finished fifth in the girls meet with 64 points and eighth overall in the boys meet with 44 points. Denton Guyer (96), Coppell (85), Flower Mound (81) and Allen (73) were the top four finishers in the girls meet ahead of the Lady Panthers.

In the boys meet, Marcus (138), McKinney (82), McKin­ney Boyd (63), Allen (59) and Hebron (52) were the top five schools.

With the top four runners qualifying for the regional meet, Plano East had strong perfor­mances for qualifications be­ginning in the 100-meter dash. Tiriah Kelley finished first over­all in the 100-meter for the girls team once again (12.13), while her teammate Ibukun Alausa finished fourth (12.56). Ismail Mahdi was the lone racer for Plano East, and sneaked out a qualification after a slow start to finish fourth (11.14).

As she has all season, Kel­ley finished first overall in the girls 200-meter dash (25.23). She has finished in first place in both events in every meet she has competed in this season.

For the full story, see the April 22 issue or subscribe online.

By Kyle Grondin • [email protected]