The personal bests, qualifying marks and gilded hardware for the boys and girls track teams at Sedona Red Rock High School continue to accumulate in their final tests prior to the Division III state championships.

Seniors Travis Okie and Gabrielle Simon took home gold medals Tuesday, April 29, from the Last Knight Qualifier at Westview High School in Avondale, as did junior Natalie Cox, who PR’d along with Simon at the event, after the Scorpions took home the small-school boys and girls team trophies Friday, April 25, from the Yavapai County Championships at Bradshaw Mountain High School in Prescott Valley.

“I can’t complain too much with the Yavapai meet,” head track coach Harry Schneider said. “We only have, what, 460 kids in the whole school. So to just to be in the battle is great.”

The Scorpions were more than just “in the battle”: The girls team was the runner-up, finishing 19 points behind rival Mingus Union High School, who won the girls meet with 181 points, while the boys finished in third place with 115 points.

“That’s pretty neat,” Schneider said. “We won the small-school [title] pretty easily. I’m pretty happy with that – very good performance.”

Cox and her sister Sammie medaled in competition with 28 other schools – most of them with a considerably larger pool of athletes than SRRHS – four days later at the Last Knight Qualifier, along with Okie, Simon and fellow senior Krupa Bhakta.

“Usually, there’s more small schools involved, but it seems like more schools are dropping the programs,” Schneider said. “It’s tough to find coaches: The pay’s so lousy and the time is amazing. We got home at midnight [April 29].”

For the full story, please see the Friday, May 2, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.