FLOWERY BRANCH — The Gainesville boys and the Cherokee Bluff girls ran away with team titles on Saturday at the Hall County Track & Field Championships at Cherokee Bluff.
The Red Elephants accumulated 177 points to beat West Hall, who complied 116.5 points for second place. Flowery Branch was third with 108.5 points.
In the girls meet, the Lady Bears piled up 208 points with the Lady Red Elephants a distant second with 145.5 points on the day. The North Hall girls took third with 120 points.
(See below for full team standings.)
Both meets featured some outstanding performances.
In the boys meet:
The high jump was as close as could be, with the top six all finishing with two inches. Gainesville's Jeremiah Telander took the gold with the first jump of 5-10. East Hall's Cletus Agborsangaya and Justin Gilbert also finished at 5-10 to tie for second. Gainesville's Naim Cheeks, Branch's Joey Turner, and Chestatee's Cade Williams all jumped 5-8 with Cheeks awarded fourth, Turner fifth, and Williams sixth.
“I’ve been high jumping for about two years so this feels good,” Telander said. “I really just jump for fun but this was fun to compete with the other guys.”
In the long jump, Gainesville's JQ Drinkard jumped a personal-record 23-4 to hold off a pair of Spartans. West Hall's Jaylen Fagan took second at 21-7 and his teammate Jermaine Vincent was third at 20-5.
“It feels great. We’ve come a long way this season with them tearing up our track. I want to thank Chestatee for letting us use their pit to practice,” Drinkard said. “My goal right now is to try and break the school-record (23-10). I think I can get there.”
The Falcons' Turner rebounded to win the triple jump with a leap of 43-0. The Spartans' took second and North Hall's Clay Stover was third.
In discus, Johnson's Bryan Ayala won with a toss of 124-9 while East Hall's Isaiah McClary was second. West Hal's Riley Packard finished third.
In the shot put, West Hall's Tilil Blackwell beat Telander by nearly a foot with a heave of 43-10 for the win. Branch's Eric Garner took third.
In a marathon event, North Hall dominated the pole vault event placing three in the top five. The Trojans' Simon Seid won the event with a leap of 14-6. He outjumped Ian Mallard of Gainesville who posted a 13-0 leap. Matthew Wilbanks, also of North Hall, took third, Bluff's Nick Jakovatz was fourth, and the Trojans' Drew Dyer finished fifth.
In the 4x800 relay, Gainesville A ran away from the field to post an 8:24.95 time to beat Chestatee A by nearly 5 seconds. Cherokee Bluff A was third, Flowery Branch A took fourth, and North Hall A finished fifth.
Gainesville's Markelle Cheek swept the hurdles events. In the 110-meter hurdles, Cheek whipped the field with a 15.24 time to take gold. Micah Hunter of Cherokee Bluff was second and the Trojans' Stover was third. In the 300-meter hurdles, Cheek again routed the field finishing with a 42.55 time, more than 4 seconds ahead of second place Aboubakar Aliou of West Hall. Branch's Ricky Bailey was third, Levi Popham of Chestatee was fourth, and Stover finished fifth.
The only real controversy of the day took place during the 100-meter dash. A clock issue forced the event to be run twice, after which initial winner Jayquan Smith of Cherokee Bluff suffered an injury and could rerun it for what became a third time.
In the end, Temeris Morrison of East Hall held off Jordan Justice of Bluff with a winning time of 11.22. Gainesville's Chammarion Bush took third, West Hall's MiKyle Hemphill was fourth, and Riverside Military Academy's Jeremiah Shaw finished fifth.
Bush said it was a wild sequence.
“You could see there was a problem (with the clock) while we were running. They made us run it again and there was another issue and then that’s when people started having hamstring issues,” Bush said. “I just went ahead and ran it again but I didn't have much left for that one. Three runs messed me up.”
However, Bush was part of the Red Elephants’ a win in the 4x100 relay finishing with a 44.29 time. Flowery Branch A was second, West Hall A took third, North Hall A fourth, and Chestatee A fifth.
“We felt like we could win the relay,” Bush said. “We have a young team overall but I think we think we can do some good things."
The 200-meter was one of the better races of the day as the top three finished within half-a-second of each other. Branch's Ryan Gruss finished in 22.50 to beat Jermaine Vincent of West Hall (22.72) and fellow Falcons Drake Smitherman (23.09) who took third. North Hall's Hunter Riley was fourth and West Hall's Jaylen Fagan finished fifth.
In the 4x200 relay, West Hall A nipped Cherokee Bluff A to win with a time of 1:37.42. North Hall A finished third, Chestatee A fourth, and Flowery Branch A took fifth.
West Hall’s Stephen Clark won a pair of races. In the 1,600, Clark finished in 4:26.93, which was good enough to hold off John Jessup of Gainesville. But the Red Elephants had three in the top five. Danial Gallagher finished third and Conner Proffitt was fifth for the Red Elephants. Chestaee's Garrett Grater was fourth.
In the 800-meters, Clark beat Jessup to the finish in a sprint with a 2:02.49 time. Jessup finished in 2:02.87 for second. Grater took third, Gainesville's Graylon Allgood was fourth, and Proffitt fifth.
The Red Elephants got a win in the 4x100 relay finishing with a 44.29 time. Flowery Branch A was second, West Hall A took third, North Hall A fourth, and Chestatee A fifth.
The 200-meter was one of the better races of the day as the top three finished within half-a-second of each other. Branch's Ryan Gruss finished in 22.50 to beat Jermaine Vincent of West Hall (22.72) and fellow Falcons Drake Smitherman (23.09) who took third. North Hall's Hunter Riley was fourth and West Hall's Jaylen Fagan finished fifth.
In the 3,200, Austin Click of Bluff ran away from the field for the win finishing in a 10:14.12 to beat Chestatee's Noah Peters (10:21.10). A pair of Gainesville runners, Danial Gallagher and Aiden Ayala, took third and fourth, respectively. Branch's Carlos Rodriguez finished fifth.
In the 4x400 relay, Flowery Branch A sprinted past Gainesville A to win with a 3:39.06 time to a 3:41.53 for the Red Elephants. Chestatee A took third, Cherokee Bluff A was fourth, and West Hall A finished fifth.
In the girls meet:
In the high jump, Chestatee dominated taking three of the top four spots. Emalee Foreman won the event with a jump of 5-feet. Kaya Snow was second and Riley Allison fourth.
In the pole vault, North Hall's Evelyn Forrester outlasted Kathleen Sikes of Flowery Branch to win the event with a leap of 9-6. Sikes jumped 9-feet and no other competitor reached 7-feet.
“This is my senior year so to win this as a senior is really exciting,”Forrester said.
In the long jump, Olivia Owens of Cherokee Bluff High had a 15-8 jump to beat Branch's Kenya Periche, who finished with a leap of 14-11.
“That was exciting,” Owens said. “But I also set a new PR in the 100 [she finished second]. There’s a lot of pressure at these meets but that also makes you run better I think.
“As far as the team, we’re very close and we compete in practice but we always care about each other and how we’re doing. I think that’s what makes us run so well as a group.”
The triple jump was a close affair. Gainesville's Zoe Finelli took gold with a 33-foot, 2-inch jump but the next three spots were decided by just three total inches. North Hall's Kaithlyn Silos took second at 31-2, with Mia Williams (31-1) and Carson DeMars (30-11) of Cherokee Bluff taking third and fourth.
In the discus, Janelle Elizarraraz of West Hall won with a throw of 92-feet. Stephanie Condland of Bluff was second and East Hall's Ileana Colon-Rodriguez was third.
In the shot put, Bluff's Avery Jones's throw of 35-8 was good enough to hold Colon-Rodriguez, who took second for Eats Hall.
Chestatee's Lanie Richmond was third and Finelli took fourth for Gainesville.
In the 4x800 relay, North Hall A took the win with a time of 10:20.5, nearly 12 seconds faster than second place Gainesville A. Cherokee Bluff A was third, Chestatee A was fourth, and Johnson A finished fifth.
Bluff's Hannah Cheek swept the hurdles events on Saturday. In the 100-meter hurdles, Cheek rolled to the win in a time of 15.68 to beat Chestatee's Brooke Benna. Mckayla Walden of North Hall was third. In the 300-meter hurdles, Cheek beat Gainesville's Andrea Febles for her second title of the day. Benna took third, Jaretzy Silva of Gainesville was fourth, and Walden was fifth.
In the 100-meter dash, the Lady Bears got the trifecta taking the top three spots. M'Kaylah Jackson won in a time of 12.29, nipping teammates Olivia Owens and Nasiya Thomas. They did the same in the 200.
“It’s so cool to win this,” Jackson said. “We’ve worked so hard for this. This is one of the best teams we’ve had and everyone has a great attitude and just comes to work. I think we have a really good chance to do well beyond this.”
Jackson and Owens took the top two spots, with Jackson nipping Owens at the line. Lauryn Perry took third for Bluff with Gainesville's Shanise Newton taking fourth and Chestatee's Amanda Nunez finishing fifth.
In the 4x200 relay, Cherokee Bluff A posted a time of 1:51.40 to hold off Gainesville A for the win. Lakeview Academy A took third, East Hall A was fourth, and Chestatee A finished fifth.
The Lady Trojans picked up ground in the 1,600-meters with three of the top six placers. Clodagh O'Bryant won the event in a time of 5:14.06. That was good enough to hold off Gainesville's Ashley Thompson. North Hall’s other finishers were Abi Moore in third and Harleigh Smith in sixth. Bluff had two top finishers with Adison Myers in fourth and Annalise Black in fifth.
In the 3,200, Thompson dominated the field finishing nearly 18 seconds ahead of the Lady Bears' Myers. Tompson turned in an 11:57.82 time while Myers finished in 12:15.02. North Hall's Harleigh Smith and MaKalyla Jones took third and fourth, respectively, and Bluff's Annalise Black finished fifth.
North Hall added to its points total taking the top two spots in the 800-meter as well. Moore held off teammate O'Bryant in a sprint to the finish with a 2:28.85 time. O'Bryant posted a 2:29.39 for second. The Lady Falcons' Brick was third, Bluff's Myers fourth, and Gainesville's Josabeth Graciano finished fifth.
In the 400-meter, Gainesville's Shanise Newton nipped Branch's Bella Brick at the tape to get the win. Newton finished in 1:03.56 while Brick posted a 1:03.78 time. Bluff's Arianna Page-Dodoo and Lauryn Perry finished third and fourth, respectively, and Chestatee's Caroline Bull was fifth.
In the 4x100 relay, Cherokee Bluff High A routed the field in a winning time of 49.91, which was 4 seconds faster than second place Chestatee A. Gainesville A took third, East Hall A was fourth, and North Hall A finished fifth.
In the 4x400 relay, Gainesville A held off North Hall A for the win with a 4:27.74 time. Lakeview Academy A took third, Flowery Branch A was fourth, and Chestatee A finished fifth.
GIRLS FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1 Cherokee Bluff 208
2 Gainesville 145.5
3 North Hall 120
4 Chestatee 88.5
5 Flowery Branch 44
6 East Hall hs 39
7 Lakeview Academy 21
8 West Hall 15
9 Johnson 6
BOYS FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1 Gainesville 177
2 West Hall 116.5
3 Flowery Branch 108.5
4 Chestatee 76
5 Cherokee Bluff 73.5
6 North Hall 68.5
7 East Hall 44
8 Johnson 18
9 Riverside Military 10
