Jacket boys take third meet of the season
The Calhoun High boys track and field team won its third meet of the year last week, placing first in a triangular team competition at the high school.
There is still construction around the track and still a lot of building going on on the track for head coach Brant Murry’s Yellow Jackets, with athletes being moved around and trying different events as the team continues preparing for the upcoming Region 7-5A meet.
The Jackets scored 78 points to outlast Fannin County, which was second with 53. The Sonoraville boys were third with 38.5 points.
Sophomore Kamryn Penny had the hat trick for Calhoun, winning three events on the day with junior Jaden Thomason, who had been running in the hurdles races, winning two gold medals in the sprints.
Besides that, the Yellow Jackets were also first in two of the relay races, giving them 12 gold medals overall.
Of Penny’s three firsts, he won the 200-meter dash along with the long jump and the triple jump.
In the 200-m, Penny led a 1-3 Calhoun finish in the team standings, winning the race with a 23.62 and teammate Matthew Streete was third for the bronze, running a 24.76. In between the two, a Fannin County representative was second with a 23.89.
Penny won the long jump in an event that saw three of the top five finishers come from Calhoun.
Penny’s winning distance was a 2007.75 or nearly five inches longer than the second place 20-03. Senior Cam Curtis was fourth overall and second for Calhoun at 19-06 and freshman Hunter White came in fifth at 19-01.75.
Led by Penny, the Yellow Jackets also had three of the first four places in the triple jump.
Penny won with a 40-09.5 distance and he was ahead of junior teammate Jaquan McClary, who had a 40-06 for
second and they were the only pair to travel beyond 40 feet. Streete just missed giving the Jackets the 1-23 sweep, coming in fourth at 37-07.
Thomason had been undefeated in the hurdles races so far this year, but he was in the sprints and still thrived, winning the 100-meter race and the 400-meters. He set the pace for Calhoun to finish first and third in both events.
He won the 100-meters with a fast 11.17 and Curtis was third with an 11.68, just a half-step behind the second place time of 11.67.
Thomason also staked out gold in the 400-meters, winning with a 52.40 time that was nearly three seconds faster than the second place 55.34 from Fannin County. Calhoun junior Caden Williams earned the bronze for third, running a 55.35, meaning he missed second place with by onehundredth of a second.
Senior half-miler Enders Cinto gave Calhoun a sweep in the sprint events, winning the 800-meter race by nearly 30 seconds. Cinto ran a 2:13.77 and the second place runner from Fannin County had a 2:39.89.
Junior Stover Morgan had a good day in the hurdles for the Jackets, winning the 300-meter race and placing second in the 110s.
The 300 was a close one at the end with Stover running a 43.08 while
Fannin was second with a 43.10. White was fourth in the event with a 43.76.
In the 110s, Stover was second with a 16.58 and a Fannin hurdler won it with a 15.78.
Calhoun’s two other individual victories came in the field events.
Senior Braxton Medders was the high jump champ, going a height of 5-10 with second place a 5-08.
Sophomore Max Richardson won the wheelchair shot put competition, coming in first at five feet even.
The two relay races Calhoun won were the 4-x-800 and the 4-x-400. The won the mile with a time of 4:04 even and they were 19 seconds faster than the second place showing of 4:23.
In the 3,200-meter relay, they ran a 10:04.52 and were 23 seconds ahead of Fannin County’s runner-up time of 10:27.31.
Calhoun came in third in the other two relays, collecting the bronze in the 4-x-100 with a 46.91 and in the 4-x-200 with a 1:43.86.
The home team also had a strong effort in the 1,600-meter run with three of the first five finishes. That also included a second place with freshman Xvier Hinojosa setting a personal record with a 5:02.55 mile.
Cinto was fourth for Calhoun with a 5:06.62 and junior Israel Lopez came in fifth.
Junior Christian Bell had two top five finishes, including a third place in the shot put at 42 feet, nine inches. While there may have been just three teams in the field, the shot put event had a lot of throwers with 19 in the
competition and Calhoun had eight themselves.
And Bell helped Calhoun to a 4-5 finish in the discus as junior Kristyane Gregory was fourth with a distance of 112 feet, five inches and Bell was fifth with a 110-08. In all, 17 throwers competed and Calhoun had seven of them.
Senior Dustin Kerns tied for fourth place in the pole vault, registering a best of nine feet, six inches. The winning height was a 12-06 and second was an 11-06.