The state 4-A indoor track and field championships took place Feb. 10 at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. Three War Eagles met the qualifying standards by virtue of their performances earlier in the season.

Senior Jared Dequenne qualified for the 500-meter event with a time of 1:07.46. That mark was the 16th-fastest time among the 21 state qualifiers. At the state meet, the 500 meters was contested in four sections with Dequenne competing in heat two. Winners were determined by the fastest times run in the four heats. After a slow first section, Dequenne blitzed the field in his heat to momentarily take the lead in the event.

The third section featured six runners with faster seed times than Dequenne, but only one was able to eclipse his time, dropping Dequenne to second place in the standings. The fourth and final section featured the six runners with the fastest seed times. Only two ran faster than Dequenne’s mark, resulting in a fourth-place finish for the War Eagle sprinter. Randolph Ross of Garner finished just over two seconds ahead of Dequenne to claim the gold medal.   

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Junior Clay Summers was the second Davie boy entered in the meet. A mere two weeks ago, it seemed unlikely that Summers would even be in the race. The 1600 meter state qualifying standard of 4:31 was seven seconds faster than Summers’ personal best time of 4:38. But a tremendous race in the last meet before the state championships saw Summers knock eight seconds off his best time. Even so, he entered the championships with the 18th and final qualifying mark. The 1600 meters was contested in one section, and after 400 meters, Summers was in next to last. But at that point the junior started to pick off the field and with 150 meters to go Summers had vaulted into fifth place. Two seniors from Green Hope’s cross country state championship team edged Summers in the final stretch as he settled for seventh place behind five seniors and one other junior. Summers’ time of 4:27.37 was a three-second PR and was seven seconds behind race winner Finn McBride of Green Hope.

As a result of their top-eight finishes, Dequenne and Summers were named all-state. The War Eagle duo produced seven team points as Davie finished 27th out of 42 in the team standings.             

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The lone representative for the Davie girls was junior Erin Cartner, who competed in the shot put. As the deadline for reaching the state qualifying standard approached, Cartner competed in what is known as a “Polar Bear” meet two days before the deadline for qualifying. The meet was held outdoors in cold temperatures at Reagan High. Cartner came through with a personal best effort of 33-plus feet in her event to join the list of elite athletes making it to the championship meet. Cartner finished the indoor season with a 17th place finish and gained valuable experience at the state meet.