Decatur captures Track Championship
Bree, Wilson and Kolff win double gold
Class AA - 2006 Georgia H.S. Track & Field Championships
Hugh Mills Stadium – Albany, GA
The Lady Bulldogs from Decatur H.S. literally cleared several hurdles to win the schools first state Track & Field Championship this past weekend in Albany, GA. Led by their defending 100 Meter Hurdles Champion Bree Bennett who not only defended her 100 Meter Hurdles crown in a time of 14.60, she also captured the 300 Meter Hurdles gold with a time of 45.981 and finished third in the Triple Jump.
In all Bennett amassed 28 points and Decatur needed every one of them to hold off Lovett and Holy Innocents’ with 54 points to 41 and 38 respectively. For her efforts Bennett was named one of the Co-Top Point Performers in the meet along with Class 5A’s Nicole Okolo from Collins Hills.
At last years state meet Burford sprinter Shannon Wilson had to deal with Christy Brown, Holy Innocents’ 3-Time sprint champion and finished second and third in the 100 and 200 Meter races. Well Brown is now playing basketball for the Univ. of Clemson which left the door wide open for Wilson and she took full advantage of it winning gold in both events in times of 12.29 and 25.25 respectively.
Porcha Byrd who now runs for North Atlanta (Class 4A) set the Class AA record in the 400 Meters last year running for Cross Keys, Rockmart’s Chasity McPherson finished forth in that race. McPherson returned this year and captured the gold medal in a time of 58.20.
Haley Kolff from Holy Innocents’ defended her 1600 Meter title in a time of 5:10.914 and followed that up by holding off Buford’s Summer Nelson in the 800 Meters to win her second gold medal. Nelson also finished second at last years state meet. Kolff did not compete in the 3200 where she was the defending champion.
With Kolff relinquishing her 3200 Meter crown, Lovett’s Harriott Kelly gladly replaced her as the gold medal winner breaking Kolff’s Class AA record time of 11:10.570 with a time of 11:04.310. Kelly finished second to Kolff last year.
After finishing forth at last year’s state meet in the Triple Jump, Manchester’s Demetrise Anthony returned this year and leaped 36’-11.000” to take home the gold. In the Long Jump, Kendra Sol from Early County was just .5” off the state record in winning the Long Jump with a leap of 18’ 10.000”.
Holy Innocents’ highly touted freshman hoops star Alexis Rogers captured the Shot Put in her first state championships with a toss of 39’-1.000”. Rogers was recently named to the 4SHOT Sports All-Freshman Team in basketball. Grady’s Teannah Holland easily won the Discus, outdistancing the field by 20 feet with a throw covering 124’-9.000”.
The duel in the High Jump boiled down to the same two competitors from last year’s meet and the results were the same as Shaneka Lee from Screven County soared 5’ 6.000” to defend her title, Calhoun’s Amanda Smith once again had to settle for the silver medal.
GAC’s Chanler Phelps was looking forward to taking home a gold medal to sit next to the silver medal she won in the Pole Vault at last years state meet; but her teammate Annalise Peters had other ideals as she took home the gold. Both cleared 10’ 0.000” however Peters did it in fewer attempts giving her the title.
Decatur’s 4x400 Meter Relay returned three runners (Bree Bennett, Ericia Walker, Tierra Small) from last years winning quartet and added Alexia Wynn, Laura-Claire Whatley and Jen Holloway as they retained their title in a time of 4:02.723.
East Laurens 4x100 Meter Relay team (Tamika Jones, Shareeta Evans, Martina Johnson, Brittany Lewis and Ashley Lowe) ran a 49.85 to win the gold medal.
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| Decatur wins 1st State Track & Field Championship. |
