JEFFERSON -- It was quality over quantity for northeast Georgia teams Saturday at the Georgia Olympics at Jefferson Memorial Stadium.
While not the biggest contingent ever sent by area teams, they made the most with what they had. Three area runners came home with state titles and Riverside Military Academy used a solid final day to finish in the top five in Class AA.
Lumpkin County’s Austin Pierce got things started bringing home a state title winning the Class AAA 100-meter with a time of 10.78 beating Cameron Greene of Decatur by 6-100ths of a second. Pierce had been working on his start and was able to get another great jump and then held off the field in the final 20 meters. Pierce later finished seventh in the 200-meters.
Riverside Military Academy’s Malik Faulk followed later winning the 300-hurdles with a new personal-best time of 39.18, beating his old personal mark set on Friday (39.39).
In the Class A 800-meter, Jose Rodriguez of Commerce shaved five seconds off his qualifying time to win the title. Rodriguez finished in 2:01.35 with second place Dewayne Smith of Twiggs County finishing in 2:04.52.
Riverside Military Academy had a solid day overall. Tucker Pearson finished fourth in the 300-hurdles for the Eagles. The 4x100-meter relay team of Ricky Jones, Dante Tate, Malik Faulk, and Alphonse Smith III finished sixth and Tate took third in the 400-meter with 50.62 time. In the 110-hurdles, Faulk took fifth and Pearson was eighth for the Eagles. The 4x400 team of JeJuan McCalston, Tate, Christian Postel, and Pearson finished fifth.
When it was over, the Eagles had secured a third-place finish overall in Class AA with 46 points. GAC took the team title with 81 points and Fitzgerald was second with 72.
In the Class AAA 4x100, West Hall 'A' (Jay Crawford, Jared Mathews, Patrick Hudson, and Darius Coleman-Blair) finished fifth with a time of 42.76
In the Class AAAA 4x100, Buford 'A' (Khalil Anderson, Brandon Mangram, Chee Anyanwu, and Xavier Gantt) finished third. The Wolves’ Justin McCray finished sixth in the 110-hurdles. McCray also finished fifth in the 300-hurdles shaving more than a second off his qualifying time.
In the Class AAA 400-meter, Jackson County’s Todd Woodring finished second with a time of 48.50.
In the Class A 110-hurdles, Jalen Walton of Commerce finished seventh.
In the Class AAA 800, Beau Rush of Banks County took third with a rime of 2:00.05. Jefferson’s Tradd Porter was fourth with a 2:00.16 while Jacob Poston of Dawson County took sixth. Chandler Kennedy of East Jackson finished eighth.
In the Class AAA 400, Jefferson’s Dalton Hill took fourth.
In the Class AA 4x400 relay, the Rabun County 'A' team of Tristan Huggins, Michael Thurmond, Trey Harrison, and Duncan Wheeler took sixth.
In the Class AAA 4x400, the West Hall ‘A’ team of Tommy Oliver, Darius Coleman-Blair, Crawford, and Mathews finished seventh. The finish pushed the Spartans into a tie for 29th with Dawson County with just six points each in the final AAA team standings. Jefferson finished fourth with 39.5 points, East Jackson was sixth with 31 points, Lumpkin County finished 15th with 12 points -- all scored by Pierce -- and Jackson County finished 24th in AAA with eight points. Cedar Grove won the AAA team title with 67 points.
In Class AAAAA, Flowery Branch took ninth with 21 points as the highest area finisher. Gainesville finished in a tie for 17th with LaGrange with 10 points. Southwest DeKalb won the AAAAA team title with 58 points.
In Class AAAA, Buford was the highest finisher in 15th with 13 points. North Hall finished 20th with 10 points, Johnson finished 29th with eight points, and White County was 32nd with six points. Sandy Creek, with a sixth-place finish in the 4x400, finished with 42 points to overtake both North Oconee and Marist, who finished tied for second with 40 each, on the final event.
In Class A, Commerce finished ninth with 31 points. Terrell County won the Class A title with 70 points.
