Pulaski County's Amber Church Wins Three Titles, Also Places Second and Seventh

Cody DaltonMar 29, 2010

LYNCHBURG — Senior Amber Church added to a storied career at Pulaski County High School with yet another impressive performance at the Virginia High School League Group AA State Indoor Track and Field Championships.

She captured the State Championship in the 55-meter hurdles, adding to her strong All-State performance a year ago in the same event. In the process, Church also set a new state record in the hurdles.

Also impressive were her performances in the high jump and long jump. At last year’s meet, Church finished 11th in both events. This year, she had an incredible leap and placed first in both, winning two additional championships.

“When I went in, I was just wanting to win the hurdles,” Church said. “I was seeded first in the hurdles, which was the only event I was seeded first in. My only goal in that was to break the state record, and I did. I was surprised to (get the) high jump and long jump.”

Said coach Jamie McCarty: “I knew she had a chance in those two events, but she had to work. There were some other girls out there who were pretty good. She wasn’t ranked No. 1 in the other two events that she won. She actually beat people that were ranked ahead of her in both of them.”

If not for an extremely tight finish in the 55-meter dash, Church may have picked up another championship. However, she was edged in a tight race and finished second. Church also improved on her 13th placing in the triple jump last year to finish seventh.

With that tremendous effort, Church was the only runner from any school at the meet to win more than one championship. Her 40 points earned individually also helped vault her team into fourth place overall.

“There aren’t a whole lot of words for that,” McCarty said. “It is a special performance with 40 points out of one girl. I’m sure if you had the time and could do the research and look back, you aren’t going to find a lot of girls at this level that can do that. It is pretty rare to see something like that.”

Church now owns four state championships total—the three from this year’s meet and a championship in the 100-meter hurdles at last year’s State Outdoor Track and Field meet. With these three championships now comes a huge opportunity as well. Church will turn her attention to nationals in Boston.

Many other Cougars also had great days at the meet as well. Picking up strong finishes for the boys was Ethan Barker in the 55-meter hurdles. He finished 20th.

After his shocking win at regionals in the 55-meter dash, senior Robert Cobbs finished 19th in the event and also placed 21st in the 300-meter dash. Matt Songer finished 19th in the shot put.

For the girls, Grace England finished 17th in the 3,200-meter run, and Pearl Meredith placed 23rd in the 500-meter dash.

“We were pretty pleased,” McCarty said. “We weren’t exactly where we wanted to be in a couple of people. Everybody ran pretty well. It shows how competitive our state is.

"We had a whole lot of state champions if you look at the River Ridge kids, especially from Blacksburg and Christiansburg. It is just tough. I don’t think everyone had a poor day, but there were some kids that I wished would have run better. All in all we were pretty happy across the board with our performances.”

All of these Cougars will now shift their sights to the outdoor track and field season, which is scheduled to kick off in just over three weeks, at the Knights Classic Invitational in Salem on March 27.