2006 Girls State Meet
Class AAA State Meet
By Larry Williams - 4SHOT Sports
May 6, 2006, 05:03 EST

Carrollton wins back-to-back Championships

Cleckley, Dacus, Long & Therrell’s 2 relay teams break records

Class AAA - 2006 Georgia H.S. Track & Field Championships 

Hugh Mills Stadium – Albany, GA

The “Lady Trojans” from Carrollton knew going into this meet that they were going to have a tough time defending their Class AAA Championship, especially with Therrell and all of their speed breathing down their necks. But in the end the “Lady Trojans” prowess in the field events prevailed giving them the margin of victory they needed to claim their second consecutive Class AAA Track & Field Championship.

Carrollton outscored Therrell 35 points to 10 in the field events and finished the meet with 80 points to Therrell’s 67 points. 

Carrollton’s Emma Bussard has dominated the distance races the last couple of years and that dominance continued this past weekend when she defended her titles in the grueling 1600 (5:19.157) and 3200 (11:30.412) Meter races. Carrollton’s only other individual champion was Kristi Phillips who beat out three other performers who cleared 9’ 6.000” in the Pole Vault.

Class AAA may very well have had the most electrifying performers in the entire meet beginning with the states fastest young lady and defending 100 and 200 Meter Champion from Therrell High School, sophomore Brittany Long. Long electrified the crowd in defending both of her titles; in the 100 Meters she exploded out of the blocks and didn’t stop until she had eclipsed both the Class AAA and State records (11.5) with a time of 11.538 seconds. Later Long followed up that performance by blistering the track in a time of 23.990 to win the 200 Meters. She was only .500 seconds off of the Class AAA record of 23.49 set by Anita Howard from Butler in 1988.

Long also anchor both of Therrell’s victorious relay teams. In the 4x100 Relay; Long, Quaneshia Cleckley (Hurdle and Long Jump champion), Deanna Lee, Makiya Cargill, Santeria Moses and Ashley Buis combined to break the Class AAA record of 46.640 (set by Monroe, Albany in 2003) in a time of 46.582.

Then in the last event of the meet Therrell’s 4x400 Relay Team (Long, Cleckley, Lee, Jazmin Wright, Tiara Smith and Tiffany Ellis) gave the crowd something to look forward to next year when they ran a 3:50.539. Well in the prelims they broke the state record of 3:49.661set by Stephenson in 1998 with a time of 3:49.400.

The other young lady who made her mark was the comet from Westlake High School, Jasmine Dacus. Like Long, Dacus is a 2-time reining champion in the 300 Meter Hurdles and the 400 Meters. In the hurdles she came off of the curve and went pass Blessed Trinity’s Caroline Vaughn on her way to breaking her own Class AAA record in a time of 42.535, besting her old mark of 43.387. Vaughn finished second.

Earlier in the meet Dacus easily vanquished the 400 Meter field with a winning time of 55.743, M.L. King’s Qwanecia Johnson won the silver medal.

Therrell's record setting 4x100 Meter Relay Team (l-r: Makiya Cargill, Quaneshia Cleckley, Brittany Long and Deanna Lee).

M.L. King’s Ayesha Famble wasn’t about to let anyone take her 800 Meter title away from her after working so hard to win it last year. Famble quickly jumped out on the rest of the field and made everyone chase her in the heat of the day, but is was to no avail as she strolled across the finish line in a winning time of 2:20.165.

Oconee County’s Shaquita Young went 18’ 6.000” to capture the first of her two gold medals on the day in the Long Jump just ahead of silver medalist Naquita Rowe from Carrolton. Young then bested Westminster’s Andrea Klein in the High Jump going 5’ 4.000” to win her second gold of the meet.

In the Discus defending champion Thanithia Billings from Carrollton had to settle for the silver medal just loosing out to Winder-Barrow’s Ebony Moore, who tossed the Discus 122’ 4.000” to win. Billings also had to settle for the silver in the Shot Put just as she did last year, Monroe Area’s Jasmine Woods who finished with the bronze medal last year took home the gold with a heave of 38’ 5.000”.

The "Lady Trojans" from Carrollton High School

The "Lady Panthers" from Therrell finished second and like the Terminator said "I'll be back!"

Meet Results