Short distance, longer distance, relay and field events. Regardless of event type, the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds went to Saturday’s GHSA Region 2-AAAAA region meet and returned with 11 overall region titles in various events.
In addition to claiming some first-place hardware, Jones County also qualified multiple track athletes for Saturday’s sectionals that will serve as the qualifier for the AAAAA state meet set for May 9-11 in Carrollton.
Based on last Saturday, multiple Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds will have a strong chance to advance out of sectionals.
That includes being on the heels of a pair of recordbreaking performances. Austin Hanks’ throw of 152-7 set a personal record in the discus, and he also took first in the shot put with a throw of 49-09.00. The Greyhounds 4x100 relay team of Zion Ragins, Jaivon Solomon, Tyler Stewart and Bruno Hicks ran to first place and a school-record time of 41.36.
JCHS also got finishes of third in the shot put from Jayden Simmons at 123-06.00 and Derrick Cleveland’s throw of 42-10.50 being good for fourth in the shot put. Jaivon Solomon was also second in the triple jump with a leap of 44-04.00.
In the 100 meters, Ragins’ pursuit of his third state title continued with his first-place time of 10.60, just in front of Stewart’s 10.63. But there was more to Stewart’s day for the Greyhounds as his time of 21.79 won the 200 meters. JCHS was also second in the 4x800 relay with a time of 4:38.35.
The success in the longer-distance events hardly stopped there for the Greyhounds. In both the boys 1600- and 3200-meter events, Jones County swept the first three positions. Luke Thornton, Gavin Robinson and Tyler Marshall’s times of 4:37.79, 4:39.45 and 4:39.57 took the top three in the 1600. In the 3200 meters, Thornton, Marshall and Robinson went one, two and three with times of 9:46.55, 9:49.13 and 9:54.01.
For the Lady Greyhounds, Addison Robinson emerged as a region champion in the 800 and 1600 meters with Lilly Palmer doing so in the 3200. In the 800, Robinson’s first-place time of 2:24.34 was followed by Isabella Sanchez’s 2:25.87 to finish second. JCHS swept the top three in the 1600 meters with Robinson’s 5:27.94, Lilly Palmer’s run of 5:32.11 and Sanchez’s time of 5:45.59.
Palmer and Camryn Wommack ran first and second in the 3200 meters with times of 12:04.07 and 12:41.13. The Lady Greyhounds were also first in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:06.23. In the 200 and 400 meters, Mya Anderson was fifth with a time of 26.29 while Kemora Sydney’s 1:04.50 was good for fifth.
