Calhoun competes Friday night at Barron Stadium in Rome
Some of the best athletes in Northwest Georgia will be on display Friday night at Rome High School when the annual Friday Nights Lights track and field meet is held at Barron Stadium.
And the long list of nearly 30 boys and girls teams that will be in attendance include both Calhoun clubs, which are still busy prepping for their respective upcoming Region meets, which are set to be held Monday, April 24 and Wednesday, April 26 on the Calhoun High School track.
For Calhoun, the Yellow Jackets will get another look at a few of the Region 7-5A teams they will soon be competing against with Cartersville, Woodland, and Dalton all in the field as well. Only Hiram and Cass will not be there and the Yellow Jackets have already competed against Cass this season.
The Calhoun boys have had an outstanding season to this point, having won five meets and the meets keep getting bigger and bigger with the team last competing in the Gordon County meet and coming in first over Sonoraville, Gordon Central, and Murray County.
Junior hurdler Jadon Thomason is one of several Calhoun athletes who have shined during the first six weeks of the season with several wins already in both the 110-meters and 300-meter races.
Thomason, who has also done very well in the sprints when he has competed in them, is running times consistently under 14.6 in the 110s and he recently eclipsed the 40-second mark in the 300s with a 39.47 at the prestigious Jefferson Invitational.
And senior Dustin Kerns has given Calhoun a powerful 1-2 duo in the 110s, recently running a 15.27 for third place at Jefferson.
Calhoun also has a number of sprinters that are looking strong heading into the stretch run of the season.
Junior Caden Williams, sophomore Kamryn Penny and senior Cam Curtis have ran fast times in both the 100 and 200-meter races.
Both Williams, who has verbally committed to play college football at Liberty University, and Penny are close to getting into the 10-second area for the 100s with Williams running an 11.01 in Calhoun’s last home meet while Penny had an 11.33 at that same meet and has ran an 11.13 time this year.
Williams has been running times of just over 23 seconds in the 200-meters and has won a couple of meets while Curtis won the 200 in Calhoun’s last home meet with a 23.71.
And those runners, along with a couple of others, have also allowed the Calhoun to put together some formidable relay teams, although the Friday Night Lights meet and the Region tune-up next week allow coach Brant Murry and his staff to do some final tinkering with their relays if they choose to do so.
In the field events, the Yellow Jackets also have some depth with a few different people having
been medal winners at different competitions this year.
Junior Kristyanne Gregory in the shot put; junior Christian Smith in the discus; Carter Cloer in the pole vault; Kerns and Penny in the long jump; senior Braxton Medders in the high jump; and Junior McConnell in the triple jump have all won a gold medal in each of those events in at least one of Calhoun’s meets this year.
For the Calhoun girls, they are a young team with not a lot of seniors on the roster, but they have had many girls experience success this year.
In the sprints, sophomore Mariah Anthony and freshman Maggy Abernathy in the 100-meter run have both done well in that event and Anthony, along with sophomore Libby Brannon, has also ran the 200 this year
Sophomore Carolynn Dooley was a big winner in the 400-meter run at the Jackets’ last home meet, taking the quarter-mile by five seconds with a 1:06.71 time.
Sophomore Kat Atha got off to a late start because she was playing basketball, but she has already given the Yellow Jackets a big threat in the hurdles, breaking the 18-second mark with a 17.75 to place first at Calhoun’s most recent meet.
All those athletes, along with a few others, give the coaches some options regarding exactly who will be running on what relay and also where they might be running on the team events.
Gracison Salyers was one of the top triple jumpers for Calhoun at the Jefferson Invitational, placing fifth in a field of nearly 30 jumpers. She had a personal record of 32-08 and was less than two feet away from the winning length of 34-08, held incidentally by a Rome athlete who will be in the field Friday night.
Abernathy and Saylors were two of the three girls who tied for first place in the high jump at Calhoun’s last home meet with both young ladies going over the bar at 4 feet, six inches.
Berkly Tallent also was a winner in the discus for the Lady Jackets in their last home meet with a throw of 77 feet and she, along with junior Ryan Wade, sophomore Drilona Prenku, junior Ayla Hiles and junior Ariez Hogan have provided depth in the discus and the shot put this year.