Lady Phoenix 2nd at County Line meet
The Sonoraville High School girls track and field team was second last week at the County Line Championship meet at Gordon Central High School.
The Lady Phoenix had 123 points to nudge them past Calhoun, which was third with 121.
The Dalton girls were the champions, scoring 185 points in a competition that has the three high schools in Gordon County competing against the three high schools from Whitfield County.
Sonoraville had four first places in the meet, but racked up the points by having a lot of girls finish in the top five in most of the events.
Two of those gold medals were achieved in one event — the pole vault — with Chloe Parker and Kendel Whitehead tying for first place. Both went over the bar at 8 feet even and were a foot ahead of the third place height of seven feet, which two girls reached.
Junior Brynley Walraven was exceptional for her team in the sprints, winning the 400-meter race (1:04.09) while coming in second in the 100-meter dash (12.39) and third in the 200M (27.62).
In the 400, Walraven won by more than three seconds over a pair of Dalton runners, who each ran times just past 1:07.
The 200-meter race was a thriller with a tie for first at 27.40 and the first five girls all between that time and a fifthplace 27.72.
Walraven was third in the pack, but she held off a Calhoun runner who was fourth with a 27.67 and a Gordon Central runner who had the 27.72 for fifth.
The Phoenix had their other first place come in the 4-x-400 relay, which they won (4:33.21) by just a half-second over Dalton (4:33.74) in another close race.
In addition, the Big Red had three other individual second places.
Taylor Steele in the shot put, Lee-Ann Knaus in the long jump, and Janelle Lopez in the 1,600-meter run had those second place showings.
In the shot put, Steele threw it 35 feet even with the winning distance a 37-02. And the Phoenix had two girls in the top five with Ashley Fountain fifth at 29-11.
Only 14 inches separated the top four places in the long jump as the winning distance was 15-02 and Knaus had a 1408. She was one of three girls in the field who went 14-01.
In the 1,600-, Lopez had a number of girls right behind her at the end after the winner from Dalton ran a 6:20.39. Lopez ran a 6:44.27 for second and the sixth place
time was a 6:57.12.
Mattie Hibberts was third in the 300-meter hurdles (52.07) and just came up short of finishing second (52.01). The winning time was a 47.25 from a Dalton runner.
Sonoraville went 4-5 in both the shorter 100-meter hurdles and in the discus.
In the 100 hurdles, Kynlee Austin was fourth (18.68) and teammate Taylor Harris right there in fifth (18.81).
In the discus, Kacey Bradley was fourth (89-10) and Steele was fifth at 35 feet exactly.
The Lady Phoenix also had a fourth place in the 4-x-100
meter relay, running a 53.87,
Ella Kate Walraven and Tristan Bowen also had individual fifth places for the
Phoenix with Walraven fifth in the high jump at 4 feet, two inches and Bowen fifth in the 2-mile.