Jackets win 2nd straight region crown; Calhoun girls second
points. The Sonoraville boys took third with 73 points, and LFO (53) and Adairsville (49) rounded out the top five.
Calhoun coach Brant Murry, who led his team to a region title for the 10th time in his career, said his athletes got things going with a strong showing in the field events and kept the momentum rolling on Wednesday to secure the top spot.
“We really did a good job competing the last two days,” said Murry. “We had some excellent performances in field events and were able to win four of the six of those to go with a few runner-up finishes. That set the tone for the whole meet, and we had a comfortable lead going into the running events. The boys decided they weren’t going to let up and dug deep to finish strong and win another region title.”
The Jackets had strong performances from several individuals who earned gold medals, including Tonocito Martha who won the long jump (21-06) and the triple jump (42-09). Other individual region champs for Calhoun were Drew Rutledge in the 400 meter dash (51.05), Ben Tow in the 800 meter (2:07.50), CJ Fuller in the shot put ( 48- 10.5), Carson Griffin in the discus (13501) and the 4x400 meter relay team of Clayton Long, Rutledge, Tow and Brody Blalock (3:37.88).
Other top-three finishes for medals for the Calhoun boys were achieved by Long in the 400 meter dash (third, 53.04), Brody Blalock in the 800 meter ( second, 2:07.75) and 1600 meter (third, 4:54.92), Felipe Barrios in the 1600 meter (second, 4:53.59) and 3200 meter (second, 11:06.55) Greg Carr in the 300 meter hurdles (third, 43.53), Luke Moseley in the long jump ( second, 21-02.5), Jonkell Tolbert in the triple jump (third, 41-06.5), Cole Griffin in the shot put (second, 44-01.75) and Rutledge in the discus (third, 12001). They had seven other scoring (top-eight) finishes.
The Calhoun Lady Jackets rallied to force a tight finish in the girls team standings but ultimately finished as Region 6-AAA runner-up with 118 points behind champion Bremen (126). Sonoraville compiled 97 points to finish third, and Coahulla Creek (59) and Ringgold (59) tied for fourth. Murry said his girls truly put together a team effort to earn a second-place finish despite none of his athletes earning first in an individual or relay event.
“Our girls definitely overachieved above all expectations we had for them,” said Murry. “We weren’t really sure at the start of the year what they would bring, but we just started finding girls that could score points for us in different events. For us to not have a single region champ and only finish eight points behind first place as a team, that’s the definition of a team. It was a total team effort from throws to jumps to relays, sprints and dis- tance. We got points in a lot of different places. Bremen was a really strong team so hats off to them, but our girls made them sweat a little bit. Our seniors led the way and the young girls stepped up. I’m excited to have this young group back next year and see what we can do.”