Warriors do well at first home meet
With six top three finishes, the Gordon Central track and field team ran well last Saturday at its own Nance Relays at Ratner Stadium.
Senior Ashton Henson, who was a state meet competitor last spring, had the Warriors’ top individual performances, placing second in the pole vault and then third in the 110-meter hurdles. Gordon Central’s other four top three finishes came in the relay races.
Henson was the runner-up in the pole vault at nine feet, six inches in an event the Warriors had two of the top four places. Zachary Wyman of Region 7-2A foe Model was the winner at 11 feet even. The third place height was nine feet even with Gordon Central senior Hayden Autry then tying for fourth place at 8-06.
Henson ran a 19.14 to finish third in the 110-meter hurdles with teammate Colton Banks running a 21.72 to place fifth for the Warriors. Keith Sprayberry of Model was first with a 16.50 and Cole Runion of Ringgold was second with an 18.50 time.
In the relays, Gordon Central was second in the 4-x-200, the 4-x-400, then 4-x-1,600, and the sprint medley 800. Altogether, seven relay races were held and Armuchee won three of them with Ringgold winning two.
In the 4-x-200, the Warriors actually finished with two of the top five places with the Gordon Central A team second with a 1:39.31 while their B team was fifth overall with a 1:44.34. Ringgold won it with a 1:36.60 and Sonoraville was third, running a 1:42.40.
In the mile relay, Gordon Central was second with a 3:48.06. Armuchee was the winner with a 3:45.81 and the Warriors were comfortably in second place with Model 15 seconds behind for third place at 4:03.02.
The Warriors were also the runnerup in the 1-x-1,600-meter run. Gordon Central ran a 23:38.11 and Armuchee won it with a 23:12 and while that time differential may sound like a lot, it really isn’t when one considers the teams ran a four-mile race. Ringgold placed third with a 24:33.
Gordon Central was third in the sprint medley relay 800, running a 1:45.69 to end up behind first place Model, which ran a 1:41.22 and less than a second behind them was second-place Calhoun, which had a 1:44.91. The event is made up of two of the relay’s four runners running 100 meters, with a third running 200 meters and the fourth runner going 400 meters for a full two laps around the track.
On top of those, Gordon Central did have a number of top five finishes individually and in a couple of other relays.
The Warriors would have three of the top six discus throwers in the meet, placing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively and just four inches separated the three. Lane Bailey led the way for the Warriors, coming in fourth at 96-10 while senior Matthew Burnette close to him at 96 feet,
eight inches while junior Cade Pearce was even close, taking seventh with a 96-07.
Jayden Daugherty was fourth in the long jump, which had a very dramatic finish with just five inches between the top four places. Daugherty had a distance of 18-02 and was not that far from the winning length of 18-07, which was reached by two Calhoun athletes, who tied for first. Daugherty was just an inch away from third place, which was an 18-03 and eight inches past the fifth place distance of 17-06.
The Warriors also came in fourth in the 4-x-800 relay, running a team time of 10:04.44. Armuchee won it by over a half-minute with an 8:52.95 while the Model A team was second at 9:26.78. Calhoun then ran a 10:04.44 for third.
Landon Pearson was fifth for the Warriors in the triple jump, going 31 feet, two inches. A Model jumper won it with a 37-04.5 length and a Ringgold athlete was second at 36-07.5.