Ariana Rivera shocks girls 400m Hurdle field
Ariana Rivera of Providence won the girls 400m Hurdles out of lane 7 yesterday clocking a new PR in NC#1 and US#9 fashion. Rivera battled with two of the states best long hurdlers in Sierra Fletcher and Jessica Wright, who sat NC#1 and NC#2 this season in the 300m Hurdles while Rivera is NC#3.
Rivera came off the turn down the homestretch in the lead over Fletcher and Gabriela Garza (IMG Academy) and was able to hold off the two star hurdlers down the final 100 meters to win in 1:02.10. North Carolina runs the 300m Hurdles, but Rivera has posted strong times in the 400m Hurdles before. She was the runner up last summer as a sophomore at the AAU Junior Olympic Games running 1:03.50. Running almost a second and a half faster yesterday, two months earlier than her SB from 2017, indicates that Rivera has a lot more in store for this season.
| VARSITY GIRLS 400 METER HURDLES FINALS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLACE | ATHLETE | TEAM | RESULT | WIND | H# | |||
| 1 | Ariana Rivera | 11 | Providence | 1:02.10 | 9 | |||
| 2 | Sierra Fletcher | 11 | Southeast Raleigh | 1:02.99 | 9 | |||
| 3 | Gabriela Garza | 12 | IMG Academy | 1:03.36 | 9 | |||
| 4 | Anna Brewer | 12 | Fort Mill | 1:03.43 | 9 | |||
| 5 | Jessica Wright | 12 | Hillside | 1:04.55 | 9 | |||
| 6 | Olivia Cooney | 12 | South Iredell | 1:04.90 | 8 | |||
| 7 | Taylor Robinson | 11 | Westside | 1:05.31 | 9 | |||
| 8 | Eliza Cardwell | 9 | Providence Day School | 1:06.96 | 8 | |||
Rivera also anchored Providence's 4x400m Relay team to a Bojangles Classic title as they ran in heat 6 of 7 narrowly running faster than Cuthbertson in heat 7. The girls didn't find out until the awards that they ran a new NC#1 3:56.88 and that they edged Cuthbertson's time of 3:57.24. This team has a lot of potential and could be under 3:50 by the years end.