Five Penguins Heading to State; LaBrie, Wasson Earn Titles At Eastern C

The Whitewater Penguins will be sending five athletes to the 2023 State C Track Meet in Laurel, which starts on Thursday, May 25, and will end on Saturday, May 27.

The Lady Penguins were fifth as a team in the Womens' meet with a total of 39 points.

The following is a statement from Whitewater Head Coach Charlene Wasson.

"To say this year is average is such an understatement," Coach Wasson said. "The Penguins traveled to Sidney Wednesday to spend the night before heading to Lambert Thursday morning to start the Divisional Track meet.

We got a notification at 8:30 p.m. that we would have to postpone the start time to 2 p.m. because of the air quality being so poor or cancel our meet and move it to Monday," She continued. "Waking up Thursday morning and seeing less smoke was a blessing. A 2 p.m. start time was a little out of the ordinary but the Penguins didn't let it phase them. I was proud to be one of the four amazing coaches we have for these Penguins. They all showed up, competed, and gave it their all. We had a great experience under the lights finishing the meet and waiting for our 4 x 400 medals till 9:07 pm. We left the track at 9:30 pm and headed home to arrive at 1:30 am. The time spent with these kids is priceless and I can say we got a whole lot of it in the last two days."

Two Penguins broke Divisional Meet Records.

Shelbi LaBrie broke the 800-meter and 1600 meter records, as well as the school 800-meter record.

She took first place in the 800 with a time of 2:22.20 and first in the 1600 with a time of 5:17.53.

Paige Wasson broke the javelin record with a new personal best of 128-6.

The long relay team consisting of Kora LaBrie, Kendall Scheffelmear, S. LaBrie, and Paige Wasson took second place with a time of 4:21.68.

Scheffelmear took sixth place in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 18.56. She just missed qualifying in the 300 hurdles and triple jump, taking seventh in both events. She had a time of 53.20 in the 300 hurdles and a mark at 31-2.25 in triple jump.

Kennedy Simonson was seventh in javelin with a new best of 94-4, ninth in the 800 with a time of 2:55.62, and ninth in triple jump with a mark of 30-7.

The Penguin boys competed but were not able to qualify for state. Korbyn Skubinna was eighth in pole vault after clearing 8-6 and thirteenth in the 400 with a time of 1:05.72.

Austin Hanley was eighth in the 110 with a personal record of 19.68 and 12th in the 300 hurdles with a new best of 52.09.

Tyler Scheffelmear was fifteenth in javelin with a throw of 85-5.