When this week’s spring break wraps up, Jones County’s track & field teams will have just two meets to go before the all-important region meet to qualify for the sectionals.
Both teams did their best to put as much momentum in their corner last week.
The Greyhounds took a pair of overall first-place wins in a span of four days with the Lady Greyhounds claiming a finish of second in a meet hosted by Jasper County. The Greyhounds’ wins came at Jasper County on top of last Thursday’s Trojan Invitational in Peach County.
The Trojan Invitational win was another showcase of dominance by Zion Ragins and Tyler Stewart, who got another 1-2 finish in the 100-meter run. Ragins ran a 10:35 ahead of Stewart’s 10:39. Stewart got another win in the 200 meters, running a 21.87 in front of Ragins, finishing fourth with a time of 22:01.
Speaking of consistent results, the Greyhounds finished second through fourth in the 1600 meters with Tyler Marshall, Luke Thornton and Gavin Robinson running times of 4:33.55, 4:26.17 and 4:36.02, all of which at the time were season bests. In the 3200 meters, Andrew Marshall was third with a season-best 10:33.88 in front of Clay Lacy’s 10:47.53 in fifth, also a season best.
The Greyhounds claimed a pair of firsts in relay events, winning the 4x100 with a time of 42:01 and in the 4x800 at 9:09.12, with the 4x100 a season-best mark.
Two first places in field events came the way of Jones County. Jaivon Solomon’s jump of 46-5.5 won first in the triple jump with Austin Hanks doing the same with his throw of 50-10 in the shot put. JCHS got high finishes in the discus with Austin Hanks and Jayden Simmons being second and fourth with throws of 144-8 and 122-6. Derrick Cleveland was third in the shot put at 45-4.
All of that success was preceded by similar performances earlier in the week in a meet hosted by Jasper County.
Just one tenth of a second separated Ragins and Stewart in the 100 meters with Ragins taking first by running a 10.79. Bruno Hicks turned in an 11:35, a season-best time good for fifth.
Stewart won first in the 200 meters, running a 22.57 with Zacari Thomas sixth at 24.40. The 800 meter-run had three Greyhounds within the top six with Tyler Marshall, Andrew Marshall and Luke Thornton all running times that were season bests of 2:06.91, 2:07.70. and 2:08.34 to finish third, fifth and sixth.
Gavin Robinson’s time of 4:50.00 won the 1600 meters, a race in which four JCHS runners were in the top six. Those showing came from Clay Lacy’s 4:59.54 in third, Shaun Williams’ season-best of 5:01.50 in fourth and a 5:08.11 by Ian Borsahole in sixth place.
JCHS also swept the first two positions in the 3200 meters with Grady Newby and Rylan Fuller being first and second with times of 10:59.96 and 11:07.11 In addition to Jeremiah Edwards taking sixth in the 110-meter hurdles at 18:45, Jones County also took home top finishes in relay events by taking first in the 4x800 relay (8:42.26), second in the 4x200 (1:34.85) and third in the 4x400 (3:48.52).
Three first places were picked up by JCHS in field events with Jaivon Solomon in the triple jump (44:11) in a season best, Austin Hanks in the discus (141-7) and shot put (47-3). The Greyhounds also picked up second places from Jayden Simmons in the discus (125-0) and Derrick Cleveland in the shot put (41-11). The Lady Greyhounds enjoyed similar results en route to their finish of second overall.
Mya Anderson led the effort in field events with a 16-0.5 jump in the long jump. Diamond Sinclair was second in the shot put with a throw of 30-4 with Angel Dennis and Ka’Niya Shanks tying for fourth with a 28-9. Dennis was also third in the discus at 79-5.
To go with a second place in the 4x200 relay via a time of 1:58.22, JCHS also swept the first and second spots in the 1600 and 3200 events. Addison Robinson and Isabella Sanchez ran to season-best times of 11:59.23 and 12:22.43 in the 3200. In the 1600, Lilly Palmer’s 5:51.18 was a season-best and took first, one place ahead of Camryn Wommack’s 6:01.45.
Jones County picked up more season-best runs in the shorter events. That included Yariah Webb’s 13:47 that was fourth in the 100 meters, Mya Anderson’s 27:04 in the 200 meters and Mylan Ragins and Mariya Mims having times of 1:08.95 and 1:11.97 to finish sixth and eighth. Kemora Sydney also ran a 28:93 to come in sixth in the 200 meters.
