East boys, West girls split 10th annual Eddie Reneau Invite

West Henderson's Hannah Owen, right, hands off to Kara Kilby in the 3200 meter relay during the 10th annual Eddie Reneau Invitational at East Henderson on Monday. (Photo by MIKE DIRKS/ TIMES-NEWS)

EAST FLAT ROCK — Among 11 boys and girls teams, two county teams took the wins in Monday's 10th annual Eddie Reneau Invitational at East Henderson, a meet put on in memory of East's former and beloved football coach that raises money to provide a scholarship for a deserving high school senior.

   East's boys easily took top place with 166 points to Franklin's 93 points and third-place West Henderson's 84. The Lady Falcons of West won the girls' portion of the meet with 136.66 points, and East's girls were second with 92 points.

   Former East football coach Brett Chappell, who knew Reneau well, made the trip from Pisgah to help run the meet alongside East track and field coaches Justin McKenzie and Sabrina Cairnes. Reneau's widow, Audrey, and daughter, Lauren, were also in attendance.

   The Eagles won nine of the 18 events, including three of the four relays. They were 21 seconds ahead of second place in the 4x800 meter relay for a time of 8:32.8 (Tanis Baldwin, Grant Smith, Logan Sewell, Chase Savage). East's boys also won the 4x100 with a time of 45.45 seconds (Steffon Hill, Quintan Hall, Nykeem Brooks, Josh Haskell) and the 4x400 (Hall, Savage, Drew Winn, Zach Standley).

   Hill was named the boys' field MVP for winning the high jump (5-10), long jump (19-11) and set a new meet record in the triple jump with 43-8 over the previous record of 42-5.

   Hendersonville's Hailey Cook was the girl's field MVP for her meet record-setting shot put and discus throws. She threw 133-3 in the discus to blast the former record of 111-8 out of the water, and followed that with a 43-9.25 throw in the shot put to beat the previous record of 38-7.5.

   West's girls had no first-place finishes but took nine second-place finishes (including the 4x800 and 4x100 meter relays), along with several other third-through-sixth-place marks to pack in the points.

   Melissa White took second in the 100-meter hurdles (17.1 seconds), Angela Gross was second in the 1,600-meter run (6:03) and the 3,200-meter run (13:21.6) and Heidi Brickhouse was second in the discus (86-1) and shot put (34-2). West's boys won the 4x200 meter relay (1:38.01) and had several second-place finishes a well.

   Smoky Mountain's Sara Spiro was voted girl's running MVP for her wins in the 1,600 (5:48.6) and 3,200 (12:43.5) , and Smoky's Cory Green was the boy's running MVP. He won both the 110 (16.4) and the 300 meter hurdles (42.51).

   East's Mariah Rock won the triple jump (32-1.5), placed second in the long jump (13-8.25) and ran a leg on the Lady Eagles' winning 4x200 meter relay team (1:54.57) along with Ashley Culbertson, Tristan McCrary and Brooke Smith. Culbertson won the high jump at 4-8.

   East's Corey Ginley won the boys' pole vault with a height of 13 feet, Baldwin won the 3,200 meter run (10:01.39) and Kyle Malone placed first in the discus throw (150-10).

   Brevard's Brittany Berkshire won the 200-meter dash (27.7), and the Lady Blue Devils won the 4x100 meter dash (52.73).