Hutton, Winston, Ferguson highlight Day 1 showings
Ƈ One state champion, two runner-up performances lead local athletes at Barron Stadium.
The opening day of the Class AAAAAA and Class A Division I state championships featured several standout individual performances Thursday in Rome, with one local athlete earning a state title and several others with medalstand finishes.
Darlington’s Grant Hutton had the top result of the locals competing on Day 1 as the Tigers senior leaped to a first-place finish in the Class A Division I triple jump with a distance of 22 feet, 8 inches to claim a state title. He also finished sixth in the high jump (6-0).
Rome junior Miya Winston had a stellar day as well, finishing as runner-up in the Class AAAAAA triple jump (39-10) and followed that up with a sixth-place effort in the long jump (17-11).
Another Darlington Tiger, Brock Ferguson, put together a strong run in the 3,200-meter run to claim state runner-up honors in Class A Division I with a time of 9 minutes, 39.02 seconds. Teammate Aiden Parsa finished seventh in the event (10:03.89).
Armuchee’s Marissa Kimple ran a time of 11:23.39 to take third in the Class A Division I girls 3,200, while Darlington’s Link Lignell also had a third-place finish in the Class A Division I boys pole vault (13-6). Darlington’s Noah Duggan was just a few places behind in sixth in
the pole vault (12-6).
Rome’s Jarvis Adams saved a strong performance for the big stage as he threw 53-2.5 to finish fourth in the Class AAAAAA boys shot put, while Pepperell’s Hayden Jones also took fourth in his event, clearing 6-4 in the Class A Division I boys high jump.
Rounding out the medalstand finishers on Day 1 for Rome in the Class AAAAAA championships was Xavier Villareal in the boys pole vault (seventh, 13-0).
In Class A Division I, the other medal-stand finishers on Day 1 included Darlington’s Callie Dempsey in the long jump (sixth, 16-11), Pepperell’s Eliot Goggans in the shot put (eighth, 44-4) and discus (fifth, 138-9), Darlington’s Joe Womack in the triple jump (seventh, 43-7), Darlington’s Presley Dixon in the triple jump (sixth, 341), Darlington’s Cora Fannin in the 3,200 (seventh, 11:54.97) and Coosa’s Sophia Cook in the 3,200 (eighth, 12:11.62).
The Darlington boys were near the top of the team standings, thanks to their strong performances on Day 1.
Both meets continued Friday with mostly prelims in running events and will wrap up Saturday with the running event finals for girls and boys in both classifications.