The second day of the Georgia High School Association Track and Field championships produced a couple of area state champions on Friday.
It was a busy day for area competitors.
At Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany, Rabun County's Perryn Morgan captured the Class AA girls pole vault title with a jump of 9-feet 3-inches to best fellow Region 8-AA competitor Christina Fulcher by more than a foot. Later in the day at Hugh Mills, East Jackson's Chase Kennedy won a thrilling Class AAA boys 3,200 meter duel, nipping Will Wallace of Westminster in a spring to the finish by less than two seconds.Kennedy finished in a 9:40.45 time to 9:42.93 for Wallace.
Morgan's teammate Lindsay Caudell finished eighth in the Class AA pole vault with a leap of 6-0. In the Class AAA boys 3,200 meters, Cody Wood of Dawson County took seventh and East Jackson's Chandler Kennedy finished eighth.
In the Class AA boys 3,200 meters, Rabun County's Guy Gober came in fourth while Banks County teammates Samual Davidson and Hunter Cochran finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The two finishes by the Leopards runners moved Banks County into fourth place in the team standings after the second day.
In Class A, the Commerce girls got a pair of solid performances in the 1,600 meters with Kate Masseytaking third and Brittany Webb finishing eighth. The seven points pushed the Lady Tigers into first place in Class A Public heading into the final day of action.
In Carrollton, Flowery Branch's Erika Plummer finished sixth in the Class AAAAA girls 3,200 meters with a 11:35.26 time, nearly 45 seconds behind winner Erin Leonard of Jones County. Her Falcons teammate Ethan Hargrove took fourth in the boys 3,200 race with a 9:49.26 time.
Also in Albany, in Class AAA, East Hall's Shyla Anderson took seventh in a very tight high jump event. Anderson's jump 5-0 was just two inches off the gold medal leap. North Hall's Rebecca Bowen had a solid day finishing second in the discus with a heave of 116-2 feet and eighth in the shot put. Bowen was just four-inches off the winning throw n the discus and scratched on her final two attempts with a chance at gold. Ansleigh Ferguson took fourth in the discus for the Lady Trojans and Jackson County's Karis Harbin placed seventh in the discus. North Hall's Brooklyn Wilson tied for fifth in the pole vault with a jump of 8-6. In the girls triple jump, Gracie McBride of North Hall finished sixth with a 35-11.75 jump and Shiquita Sturdivant of East Jackson took eighth.
In Class AAAA at Valhalla Stadium at Berry College in Rome, Jefferson's Ellie Isaacs took fifth in the girls shot put with a 37-11.5 toss. In the boys pole vault, Jefferson placed two in the top five. Thomas Martin finished second with a jump of 12-6 behind winner Kyle Tidwell of Pickens, who jumped 13-0. Tripp Bullock took fifth for the Dragons with a leap of 11-0. In the girls pole vault, Taylor Love took fifth. Jefferson's Jonathan Paolozzi and Dontae Wilson finished fifth and sixth in the discus.
White County's Ashton Summerour finished eighth in the AAAA girls discus. The Lady Warriors also saw Rachel Lovell take sixth in the high jump while Kinsey Wilson of West Hall finished seventh. In the boys 1,600 meters, Jefferson's Max Higgins finished sixth. The girls AAAA long jump saw two area placers in White County's Rachel Gearing, who took third, and Jefferson's Akera Benton, who finished fourth. In the girls triple jump, Gearing finished second with a jump of 39-1 with Benton taking third with a 36-11.25 jump. In the boys triple jump, the Warriors' Noah Rapert took fifth.
Several individuals, and relay teams, qualified for Saturday's track finals.
In Carrollton in Class AAAAA, both the the Buford 'A' boys and girls 4x100 relay teams qualified for the finals. The Lady Wolves had a plethera of individual qualifiers for Saturday's finals. The Buford girls 4x400 team also advanced to the finals.
Kimberly Harris and Britiney Johnson advanced to the 400-meters finals and Alexa Rossum made both the 100 meters and 200 meters finals. Kimberly Harris also qualified for the 200 meters. Erin Marsh qualified for both the finals of the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. For the boys, Buford's Josh Blackwell made the boys 100 meter finals as well.
In Class AAAAAA, Gainesville's Jada Harrison advanced to the 100 hurdles and Devonte Mize advanced to the 300 hurdles finals.
In Class AAA, Jacob Poston of Dawson Countyand North Hall's Tommy Johnston both advanced to the 800 meters finals. The Trojans' Cutter Sanford also qualified for the 300 hurdles.
In Class AA boys, Banks County's Bryce Bennett qualified for the 400 meters and Rabun County's Justin Wilkes qualified for the 800 meters.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/5/535807/track-and-field-fridays-finals-results