NEW YORK STATE GIRLS TRACK & FIELD: NV'S MALARKEY LEARNS FROM PENTATHLON EXPERIENCE (2019-06-08)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — Newark Valley’s Kayla Malarkey was excited about her first experience in the pentathlon at the NYSPHSAA Track & Field Championships Friday and Saturday. She had some good performances and some not-as-good efforts, but she’s already looking forward to 2020 and, hopefully, a better overall showing.

“I didn’t do great, but now I know what I need to work on fro next year, so it’s like a stepping stone,” she said.

Malarkey would finish 12th overall in Division II with 2,042 points.

She closed out her state meet with the 800, the weakest of her five events. It was run under a hot sun, something the NV junior has seen very little of this spring. She placed 12th with a time of 2:58.64.

“It was brutal, but I felt like I could have done better, but I guess I always feel like that after a race,” she said.

Earlier in the day, she didn’t do as well in the long jump as she had hoped she would, rating her effort as “around average.” She landed a best jump of 13-6, good for the 11th spot.

Her best events, the 100 hurdles and shot put, were held Friday. She took fourth in the hurdles with a time of 17.55 seconds and fifth in the shot with a heave of 28-1 1/2. The high jump was also held Friday and she was 13th at 4-1 1/4.

Malarkey felt she could learn from an experience which she called “pretty good” overall and the 2020 meet at Cicero-North Syracuse is already on her calendar.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR