In the high school track arena, this is the time of year where the primary goal is usually to qualify for sections and eventually, the state meet.
Last week was no different for Jones County at the region meet at Stockbridge, where anything on top of qualifying to compete further was icing on the cake.
There were certainly some sweet results for the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds, whose road ahead includes this week’s sectionals at Union Grove followed by the state meet the week after in Columbus.
Zion Ragins came within a razor-thin margin of sweeping a pair of events, winning the 200-meter run with a time of 21.69 with a time of 10.80 being seven-tenths away from winning first, placing him second.
Ragins was hardly alone in capturing region championship hardware. Austin Sullivan and Joshua Barber blazed the trail to a 1-2 finish in the 3,200 meters thanks to times of 10:44.84 and 10:51.84. In field events, Amaris Ridgeway took first for the Lady Greyhounds in the triple jump at 35-07.00.
The top showings were not limited to the high jump for the Lady Hounds, as second and third place finishes in the high jump went to Nya Warren and Tranasia Parker with jumps of 4-10.00.
The season has been marked by strong overall performances by Jones County in distance events, and the region meet was no exception to that. Kyle Whipple was fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:00.96 and fourth in the 1,600 meters at 4:42.38.
On the Lady Hounds side, Camryn Wommack was third in the 3,200 meters, running a time of 12:45.83 and fifth in the 1,600 meters with a time of 5:50.69.
Not to be outdone, the 4x800 relay team was of three third-place relay finishes, with Whipple, Justus Boyd, Barber and Austin Hutchison, taking a time of 8:37.11. Tyler Stewart, Ed Chester, Ragins and Javious Bond finished third in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays with times of 41.90 and 1:30.02.
