Toney, the No. 2-rated vaulter in Class AA, had bested Hamrick, a junior and the top-rated vaulter in AA, the previous two meetings. And as expected, the state title went down to the final jump.
Hamrick cleared 14-06 on his first attempt and then watched as Tony narrowly missed on three straight attempts to earn his first state title. It was a moment both had waited a year for as Hamrick finished third in Class AA and Toney had finished second in Class A in the 2012 state meet.
"I told myself weeks ago that nothing was going to stop me this time," said Hamrick, who jumped into a pile of Jefferson supporters after Toney's final attempt failed. "It was a great battle. We both knew it would be."
Hamrick's winning jump came after he had missed at 14-00 on his first attempt and Toney cleared it with ease.
"When he hit 14 and I didn't that kind of brought me back to reality," Hamrick said. "I was a little nervous. But that got me going again."
Hamrick would go on to hit 15-00 on his next jump to set a new personal record. He missed on one attempt at 15-06 and called it off with a state title in hand.
For Toney, a senior who will be attending Virginia Military Institute next year, it was another tough close-call in the state finals.
"After last year I really wanted to win it my final year," Toney said after taking a few moments to reflect. "He came ready to jump. You have to give him credit."
The day wasn't a total loss for Toney, though. His jump of 14-00 set a new school-record and personal best at the same time.
"That was nice. It felt good. But it wasn't enough," he said.
Buford's David Curry also had his sights set on breaking records in the Class AAA pole vault. But a nearly 90-minute wait to start his event definitely seemed to affect the sophomore.
Curry won the event for the first time with a jump of 14-00 but fell far short of his personal best of 14-06 and thoughts of going for Best Performance status.
"I'm happy that I won and I feel good with what I did," he said. "The wait probably affected things. I wanted to break my (personal) best at state and I was going to try for Best Performance. But I had several pole issues and it just wasn't happening. I still feel good about things though."
Mitt Conerly of Central-Carroll was second with a leap of 13-06 and Hart County's Jared Scotland was third, also at 13-06.
Rabun County's Charlie Woerner nabbed the first medal for north Georgia athletes with a solid third place finish in the Class AA discus throw in the opening session of events. Woerner's toss of 135-03 in the preliminaries was good enough make the finals.
The freshman was hoping to post a personal best throw but cold, thick-air conditions hampered all the throws.
"I was pretty happy with where I finished," he said. "I was hoping for a little better throws but it was good overall. I'll take it."
Sebastian Willer of Calhoun won the event with a throw of 150-03 on his next to last attempt. Andrew Bartolomi of GAC was second at 143-08.
North Hall senior Patrick Chappell came into the Class AAA shot put with mixed feelings after a rough week of practice. But he's feeling much better now.
Chappell took a surprising third-place finish winning his flight with a heave of 52-04 on his first attempt and then was able to make that stand up.
"I definitely feel good with (third) especially after the week of practice I had," said Chappell, who came into the event with just the ninth-best throw in the field. "I wasn't expected to win so to finish that high is pretty good."
The event went down to the final throw. Hart County's Torace Sturgeon had the lead after a throw of 53-06 on his final attempt of the preliminaries. It stayed that way until Daniel Haugh of St. Pius, the favorite in the event, uncorked a toss of 54-09 1/2 on his final attempt. Sturgeon had one last chance and unleashed a tremendous throw but was off-balance and scratched out of the circle on the final throw of the event.
Habersham Central's Zach Rhyneer finished seventh in the Class AAAAAA shot put with a heave of 49-11 1/2 feet on his second attempt. Rhyneer came into the meet with the fourth best throw in the state's top classification. Jaylan Reid of Hillgrove won the event with a throw of 56-02.
Junior Layson Giles of Jackson County came in as a co-favorite in the Class AAA high jump but had a rough day scratching three times at 6-02 and finishing sixth.
Commerce's Dekerrio Ramsey had a strong showing in the Class A Public long jump taking second with a leap of 21-01. Ramsey had the lead after his second jump but Taylor Payne of GMC jumped 21-01 1/2 on his next-to-last attempt and held on to win the event.
Ramsey would rebound in the triple jump, however, bringing home the gold medal with a leap of 44-02 on his final attempt to edge Emanuel County's Michal Hudson, who jumped 42-11 1/2.
Host Jefferson finally earned some points when teammates Ethan Hix and Conner Nations qualified for the Class AA shot put finals. Hix finished fourth with a throw of 46-10 1/2 while Nations took eighth with a toss of 44-02 3/4. Calhoun's Willer would win his second event of the day with a heave of 51-02 1/2 on his final attempt.
Tyler Craig of Pickens County broke the Class AAAA pole vault record with a jump of 15-07. The old record had been held by Ebbetts of Lee County set in 2010. Julian Codina of Lumpkin County finished seventh with a jump of 11-feet.
Rabun's Josh McDaniel finished second in the Class AA high jump with a leap of 6-06. McDaniel came into the event as the favorite but was knocked off by Calhoun's Keyth Fightmaster, who jumped 6-08 to win it.
Tyree Rakestraw of East Jackson finished seventh in the Class AAA triple jump with a leap of 42-04.
Franklin County's Deonte Smith came away with the Class AAA high jump title clearing 6-06.
In the 1600-meter finals, Nahumn Mendozza of Commerce finished seventh in the Class A race.
North Hall's Patrick Chappell finished third in the Class AAA shot put at the Georgia Olympics Thursday in Jefferson.
Rabun
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/5/261155