FAIRHOPE, Alabama — Fairhope High took a small contingent of athletes to compete in the Class 6A Alabama State Indoor Track and Field Championships at Birmingham’s CrossPlex Feb. 1-2. No state titles or records were posted by the Pirates, but some major improvements in time were noted including personal bests.

Fairhope’s Hannah Evans finished 11th in the girls 1600-meter (mile-run) as did Fairhope teammate Thomas Grace in the boys race. Both are the reigning county champions in cross county.

Braxton Loper made significant progress in his shot-put with a 16th-place throw. Shelby Pitts competed in the triple jump and the 400 meters and set personal records in each event.

Shot-put and discus specialist Jessica Dailey made the trip but was unable to compete in the finals.

“What a great state meet,” Fairhope head coach Tim Yahr said. “The athletes worked very hard from mid-November to the state meet. It is a great time to get better and work on the skills required for excellence in track and field. I appreciate everyone who participated and came to the extra workouts. They will really make our team better as we head into the county championships and the outdoor state meet.”

Yahr added the following summaries on the Pirates’ and Lady Pirates’ performance at the indoor state meet.

“What an amazing race Thomas ran. He started the race at the back of the pack, but running a 35-second 200-meter (4:40 mile pace, exactly what he had set out as his plan)—a very tough thing to run pace when the pack is leaving you. He moved quickly into second place by the third or fourth lap and kept pounding out the 35-second laps. As he headed into the last lap he kept pounding the nails and turned it up to a 32-plus second lap for an amazing 4:37 shaving 14 seconds off his time from earlier in the season and moving from 14th in his heat to 3rd which is 11th in state 6A.”

“Hannah also did an amazing job of pacing the first few laps of her (1600) race. Again, it is a very difficult thing to pace the first few laps of a race when the other competitors are running away from you. She was focused and determined. By the third or fourth lap Hannah had moved into first place in her heat by a wide margin. She stayed out in front of the pack and put in a very fast final lap to hold off not only the surging girl from second place but a girl from further back who really kicked it in and competed for 2nd place. Hannah went from a fourth seed in her heat to 1st place in her heat. Her time of 5:31 beat her earlier time from this season by 13 seconds and was good enough to place 11th over all in the state meet.

“Braxton just started throwing the shot put in December when we had tryouts. He comes to us with a lot of strength from football as one of the starting offensive lineman in the 2012 season. He liked shot put and has put in a lot of time practicing and working on his form in these last couple of months. In his first meet in January, Braxton muscled out a 36-foot, 2-inch mark and earned a spot on the state indoor team. This time around, with the experience from last meet and the form work after school, Braxton threw 39-05.75, placing 16th in 6A in only his second meet.”

“Shelby was our only athlete to compete in two events. Shelby has been working hard from the summer amassing the most hours of any of our ‘track only’ athletes. Shelby has also competed in the most meets of any of our athletes. At the state meet she competed in the triple jump and the 400. In the 400 she was very focused and paced very well, passing people in the final 50 meters straight-away and posting a 1:06.94 PR (personal record). In the triple jump we had to share the runway with so many girls that her first jump I had her a little too far forward and she fouled by a small amount. Moving her back she jumped fair and I left her there. Her final jump was 28-10.5, another PR, but if I had been smarter and moved her forward just a bit on the last jump it would have been 29-Plus.”