JEFFERSON — Several area athletes came home with state titles in field events Thursday after the opening day of the 2016 Georgia Olympics.
Flowery Branch's Jake Shewbert, who came in with the top time in the 1600-meter in Class AAAAA, solidified his top seeding by winning the state title with a 4:11.64 time. he beat second place Jonathan Myrthil of Northside Columbus by more than seven seconds. Shewbert's Falcons teammate Grant O'Callaghan took third. The two finishes also pushed Flowery Branch into second place in Class AAAAA after the first with 17.5 points.
Senior Charlie Woerner of Rabun County won the Class AA discus with a throw of 158-02 on his fifth attempt. He had already clinched the title with his fourth throw but bettered his mark by two inches. Hunter Sanek of Temple took second with a toss of 150-08. Woerner also took sixth in the shot put for the Wildcats.
Jefferson's Donte Wilson won the Class AAA discus with a heave of 153-0 on his second attempt. Wilson later finished seventh in the shot put.
Adrian Vaquera of Commerce brought home gold in the Class A Public shot put with a winning throw of 46-06.5 on his second attempt. He outdistanced second place finisher Richard Farley of Mt. Zion, Carroll by more than two feet. He also finished fourth in the discus.
Also for Commerce, Jay Acker took gold in the 1600 while Tigers teammate Jael Heredia finished sixth.
North Hall’s Mac Bennett finished fifth in the Class AAAA shot put with a throw of 50-7 and he took eighth in the Class AAAA discus. In the Class AAAA pole vault, Kenny Egerton of White County finished sixth while North Hall teammates Carson Ricketts took seventh and David Seid eighth for the Trojans.
Jamarion Knox of East Jackson was seventh in the Class AAA triple jump.
In the Class AAA pole vault, Kayne Berryhill of Banks County took third, Jefferson’s Jared Brown was fourth, and Bryce Bennett Banks County finished eighth.
In the Class A Public discus, Fernando Calderon of Commerce finished fifth, He also took sixth in the shot put.
In Class A Public high jump, TreTez Barksdale of Commerce was eighth while Riverside Military’s Prince James E. Story took fifth in the Class AA shot put.
North Hall’s Tommy Johnston took fifth in the Class AAAA 1600-meters with a time of 4:21.3. Frank Pittman of Marist won the gold with a time of 4:13.49. That put the Trojans into eighth place in the standings with 12 points after the first day. Monroe Albany and Whitewater led in the team standings with 23 points.
In Class AA, Rabun County was in sixth place with 19 points, 13 scored by Woerner.
In the Class AAA 1600, East Jackson's Chase Kennedy finished second while his brother, Chandler, took fourth. Jefferson’s Addison Cochran finished eighth.
(The meet was halted for several hours because of weather. More results will be posted as the become available throughout the night.)
