Calhoun boys win first meet of the year
The Calhoun boys track and field squad began its 2023 campaign last Tuesday with a win.
The Yellow Jackets won seven events, including a relay, and scored 123 points to beat four other teams on its own track.
Region 7-5A mate Cass was second in the team listings with 95 points at the meet while Heritage came in third with 88.5. Southeast Whitfield was fourth with 64 and Coosa came in fifth.
Junior Jaden Thomason and sophomore Kamryn Penny each were strong in the team’s 2023 debut with two individual gold medals apiece as Thomason dominated both hurdles’ races and Penny won the 100-meter dash and the long jump.
Thomason’s wins paved the way for a strong showing in both hurdles’ races with Calhoun also having the third place runner in both events.
Thomason won the 110-meter race by nearly a full second with a 14.39 with the second place time a 15.20. Senior Dustin Kerns came in third overall at 15.60 as just four runners finished under 16 seconds.
And Thomason did win the 300-meters by over a second as well, running a 41.62 with the second place time a 42.64. Junior Stover Morgan was third for Calhoun, putting together a 43.53.
Penny was a two-time gold medalist in a very tough 100-meter dash that saw two of the top three finishers from Calhoun and the top nine racers all ran a time under 12 seconds He also won the long jump and that was an event in which three of the top four finishers were
Calhoun athletes.
Penny was first in the 100 with a fast 11.13 and senior teammate Cam Curtis came in third with a solid 11.61. A Heritage runner was between them in second place with an 11.51.
Penny’s other win came in the long jump with a distance of 22 feet even and only he and the second place finisher from Cass jumped longer than 20 feet.
Curtis brought home the bronze medal for Calhoun, coming in third with a 1906.75 distance and he was just ahead of senior teammate Braxton Medders, who was fourth with an official distance of 18-07.
Medders himself won the triple jump as Calhoun’s other individual first places all came in field events. Medders won with a 42-01 with
he and the second place finisher from Cass the only competitors to hop, skip, and jump past 40 feet.
Senior Dylan Faulkner is the defending 5A state champ in the high jump and he started this year right where he left off last with a gold medal to lead a strong showing by the Yellow Jackets in the event.
Faulkner finished in a tie for first with Heritage senior JD Black with both registering a 6-foot8 height for first, but Faulkner needed less jumps, so he was officially the winner.
Medders and junior Montaze Byrd came in third and fourth respectively in the event with Medders at
6-feet even while Byrd had a 5-8.
Junior Kristyanne Gregory won the shot put event as Calhoun was first and third in the field.
Gregory had a 44-03.5 distance for the win and junior Christian Bell was third with a 43-01. He was just five inches away from taking the silver medal with the second place distance officially being a 43-05.
Calhoun had a lot of competitors in the shot put with Christian Smith, Caden Wlliams, Blaze Hammett, Alec Upshaw, Veal Aiden and Talley Jackson also throwing.
Calhoun sophomore Max Richardson won the wheelchair shot put competition, finishing with a personal record of 4-10.25.
The Yellow Jackets other gold medal came in the 4-x-100-meter relay and Calhoun had both its A
team, which won it, and its B team, place in the top four.
The A team ran a 43.51 time to just edge out the Cass A team for first with the Colonels crossing the finish line with a 43.59. Calhoun’s B team had a 46.65 to place fourth, less than a second behind third place Heritage, which ran a 45.77.
In the other three relay races that were held, Calhoun was third in two of them and fifth in the other.
The hosts were third in the 4-x200 with a 1:40.40 time. Cass won the race with a 1:36.08 and Southeast Whitfield was second with a 1:39.01.
Calhoun was also third in the 4-x-800 relay, running a 9:50 even. The run for first was a tight one with just two seconds separating first and second place.
The Cass A team was first with
an 8:56 time and the Colonels just held off Southeast Whitfield, which was second with an 8:58 making for a very exciting finish to a long race.
The Yellow Jackets’ fifth-place came in the 4-x-400 relay, in which they ran a 4:03.80. The race itself was a fight for first with less than three seconds dividing the top three schools.
The Cass A team won the event with a 3:49.08 and the Colonels were just ahead of the Heritage A team, which officially had a 3:49.58. Southeast Whifield A was third with a 3:50.52.
Besides their gold medalists, the Yellow Jackets had two other top three individual finishes.
Junior Caden Williams was second in the 200-meter run and just missed winning the gold by five
one-hundredths of a second as he ran a 23.34 and the winning time was a 23.30.
Senior Enders Cinto was third in the 800-meter race, running a 2:15.42. The victorious mark was a 2:11.57 with a 2:11.81 the second place time.
Calhoun had two other top five showings.
Besides winning the shot put, Gregory placed fifth in the discus with an 111-03 and he led a parade of Calhoun competitors with Bell coming in sixth and Smith coming in seventh in a large group of throwers.
Kerns had the other fifth place, taking that spot in the pole vault with a height of 7-feet even. Faulkner is the 5A defending state champion in the pole vault but he did not compete in that event.