Phoenix boys win Region 6-3A track meet
The Sonoraville High School boys track team are the 2022 Region 6-3A champions.
The Phoenix finished the Region competition at Rockmart High last Wednesday with five first places and a lot of top-four finishes, meaning they will have a large contingent on hand for Saturday’s Sectional B meet at Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross.
(The top four finishers in each event at Region automatically qualify for the Sectional, where the top finishers in each event advance to next week’s state meet).
The Big Red racked up a lot of points in both hurdles races, taking the top three spots in each to bolster their team point production.
Beside that, they also had a pair of victories in the field events and were first in one of the relays.
Senior Nick Beddington led the charge in the 110-meter hurdles, running a 15.80 with teammate Kyler Bonds a half-step behind at 15.82. Chase Bonds was third, running a 16.63.
Keegan Townsend paced the 1-23 finish in the longer 300s, winning with a 43.27 while Chaese Bond was the runner-up with a 43.62. And Beddington came in third with a 45.09.
Sonoraville other individual gold medals came in the high jump and the pole vault.
Senior Ethan Hibberts won the high jump in a competition that saw two Phoenix jumpers qualify for the Sectional. Hibberts had a height of 6-02 for first and freshman Jordan Carter was fourth with a jump of 5-10.
Senior Jesse Vess was the Region 6-3A winner in the pole vault and the Phoenix had three of the top five places in the league, but unfortunately only two will advance.
Vess won with a vault of 12-6 and the second-place height was 10 feet by a Rockmart vaulter. Three vaulters then went 9-6 and two of them were
from Sonoraville. When the results were finalized, sophomore Kayson Shaw was fourth to move on and freshman Braden Henry was fifth.
The Phoenix were also first in the boys 4-x-400 meter relay, coming in just in front of Rockmart, with those two teams more than 10 seconds ahead of third-place Adairsville. Sonoraville had a winning time of 3:39.69 and Rockmart ran a 3:40.90.
The Phoenix will be well-represented at sectional in the discus as well because while they didn’t win that event, they did place second, third and fourth to get a trio of throwers to the next round.
Senior Cayden Guy was second with a distance of 126-03 and senior T.J. Oliver was third at 12305. Sophomore Julian Aguilar was third at 119-10.
Rockmart junior Grant Lisk won it with a 153-05.
Senior Andrew Carey was the Region runner-up in the 800-meter run and that was the first of two top-three finishes he earned.
Carey had a 2:04.57 in the 800 as the Phoenix had two of the first four places. Freshman Evan Johnson was
fourth with a 2:13.22 to extend his season another week.
Carey won the preliminary 800 race on the first day of the 6-3A competition with a 2:08.72 and ran four seconds faster than that in the finals, but was still second.
He was also third in the 1,600-meter run with a 4:54.64, which was the final time below five minutes in a field of nearly 20 runners. A 4:48.61 won it with 4:51.98 the second-place time.
Senior Tanner Hicks was second in the 400 for the Phoenix’s fourth silver medal at Region.
Hicks had a 51.22 time and the first place effort was a 50.66. Hicks won the preliminary race on Monday with a 51.79 and ran a faster pace in the finals.
Sonoraville was also second in the 4-x-100 relay, just edging out Coahulla Creek to get in the top two. Rockmart won the relay with a 43.58 and Sonoraville had a 44.91 while the Creek was officially clocked at 44.92.
The Phoenix 800-meter relay team will run at the Sectional after a fourth place at Region. The team from Gordon County ran a time of 1:39.73.