BRANSON — Ozark freshman Bria Wright never had a preference between the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles because she had never ran the latter prior to making her high school debut Thursday.
Middle school meets do not include the 300 hurdles.
Wright found the 300 hurdles to her liking while breezing to first-place finishes in both hurdles events at the Branson Invitational.
She was clocked in 16.51 in the 100 hurdles and 50.58 in the 300 hurdles.
“I like the 100 hurdles. But after running the 300 hurdles, I might like it better,” Wright said. “It wasn’t as tiring as I thought it might be.”
Leading up to her debut, Wright heard horror stories regarding the physical and mental demands of the 300 hurdles.
“People were saying to me that it is the hardest event and I was going to die at the end and how people are always falling after the last hurdles,” she said. “I was pretty worried. I was tired at the end. But I wasn’t worried about falling. I was just worried about winning. I could feel people catching up to me.”
Wright edged Branson’s Larkin Currier by one-tenth of a second.
“I don’t know what (time) is good. But I’m fine with it,” she said.
Wright first competed in the 100 hurdles and naturally was battling butterflies.
“I was really nervous. I could feel the nerves,” she said. “But it went well. There’s definitely room for improvement. For my first race, I thought it was pretty good.”
Wright is following the lead of her mother, Alyssa, who was a hurdler as a prep in Illinois and in college at Southern Illinois.
Ozark also received firsts from Blair Pace in the 400 (1:00.82) and Abby Beets in the pole vault (10-6).
Runner-up finishes for the Lady Tigers included their 4 x 800 relay (10:25) and Izabella Rickard in the discus (94-4).
Koeplyn Delong was third in the 1,600 (5:35), as was Allie Muggenburg in the javelin (115-11 3/4) and the Lady Tigers’ 4 x 200 relay (1:51).
Mallory Beets was fourth in the pole vault (9-0 1/4).
Nixa received firsts from Faith Chepkondol in the 100 (12.90) and long jump (16-3) and Taylor Hopper in the 200 (27.18).
Chepkondol was second in the 200 (27.38), as was Rylee Eng in the triple jump (33-4 1/2) and Lauren Loney in the javelin (117-0 1/4).
Camila Figueroa was third in the 300 hurdles (51.45), as was Halle Hanna in the discus (92-10 1/2) and Christena Berry in the shot put (32-1 3/4).
Fourths went to Hopper in the 100 (13.17), Natalia Pharris in the javelin (110-6 1/2), Kathryn Larue in the shot put (31.81.4) and the Lady Eagles’ 4 x 100 relay (53.59) and 4 x 200 relay (1:53).
