Lady Warriors run past Region rivals
The Gordon Central High School girls track team defeated three Region 7-2A opponents last week at a quadrangular meet at Ratner Stadium.
The Lady Warriors notched 91 points to finish 30 points ahead of secondplace Chattooga, which had 61. Model and Coosa had a real fight for third place, before the Lady Blue Devils ended with 33 points and Coosa had 26.
The Gordon Central Girls finished the meet with five gold medals — three individually and two in the relays. They also had quite a few second places in an impressive showing with the actual region meet not that far away.
In those relays, Gordon Central won the 4-x-200 in a close race and the 4-x-400 without any competition.
In the 800, the Gordon Central Girls ran a time of two minutes exactly while Model had a 2:01.89.
The Warriors won the mile relay with a 5:16.06.
The three individual first places came in different ways with one in the sprints, one in the long-distance races, and one in the field events.
Junior Cassie Chastain was first in the 200-meter race in a race in which the Warriors were first and third overall in.
Chastain won it with a 28.13 and freshman teammate Raniyah Ellis was third with a 30.25. Freshmen Nyah Sisson and Kazzi Rivera also ran for the host team.
Ellis was also third in the girls 100-meter dash with a 13.94 time in a race that was won by a Model freshman with a 13.28.
Sisson and Rivera also ran in the 100 for the Warriors.
Freshman Katerine Queju Hernandez was the two-mile run champ. Hernandez closed the 3,200-meter event in 16 minutes and 55.98 seconds.
Junior Arwen Boyle had the hosts’ other first place, winning the pole vault at 6 feet even.
Gordon Central was really fueled by seven second-places, which accounted for 56 of their points as each second is worth eight.
Six of those silver medals came in the individual events with junior Kayla Caudill winning two of them.
Caudill was the runner-up in two field events, placing second in the high hump at 4-04 and in the long jump with a distance of 13 feet, 10 inches.
In the high jump, both Caudill and the winner from Chattooga both reached the same height, but in the final official standings, Caudill was listed second.
In the long jump, Caudill was six inches off the winning length of 14-04 by Chattooga sophomore Kendra Herock. Caudill was also nearly a foot better than the third place distance of 13 feet even by a Coosa freshman.
Boyle and freshman Faith French were also in the field of jumpers for the Warriors.
Three of Gordon Central’s other four individual second places were provided by freshmen with Alicia Dela Cruz in the 400-meter run, Kaity Hames in the 800, and Jessica Gutierrez in the
1,600-meter run with all three just off the first place pace.
Gutierrez lead the Warriors’ strong showing in the mile as they went 2-3-4 in the race.
After Gutierrez (7:02.70), Hernandez was third (7:24.13) and sophomore Kaydance Garland was fourth for the hosting school.
Haimes was second in the 800 (2:43.18) and just five seconds away from the victorious (2:38.72) by a Coosa sophomore.
Gutierrez, Garland, and freshman Ana Organista ran for Gordon Central in the half-mile as well.
Dela Cruz was the runnerup in the 400-meters with a 1:16.81 and she prevailed over another Model racer (1:18.52) for that second place.
Junior Meredith Campuzano paced a GC 2-3 finish in the discus, with Campuzano second (99-02) and classmate Janya Trammell third. The winning throw was 110 feet, eight inches.
The Lady Warriors just missed winning the 400-meter relay, finishing just over two seconds away from Model. Gordon Central ran a 59.71 and the Blue Devils had a 57.31.
Junior Aden Victor had a third-place in the shot put with a 27-01. Chattooga senior Carole Hodges won it with a 32-10 distance and second place was a 28-04.