Heritage girls, Ringgold boys claim NGAC track titles
Considering their performances all season, the Heritage girls and the Ringgold boys came into the 2019 North Georgia Athletic Conference Track Championships as the teams to beat.
And in the end, no one could.
The Lady Generals racked up 108.5 points to win the championship, while the Tigers ran away with 128 points in last Tuesday’s conference meet at LFO High School.
The Heritage girls won just four individual events, but had 10 total top-four finishes. Gordon Lee finished as runner-up with 85 points, while Chattanooga Valley (64.5) edged out Ringgold (63) for third place. The rest of the girls’ standings included Saddle Ridge (58.5), Rossville (38), Lakeview (36.5) and Lafayette (13).
Meanwhile the Ringgold boys took first place in six different events and had 15 separate top-four finishes. A close battle for the runner-up trophy saw Rossville (89) edge out Chattanooga Valley (88.5) by a half-point, while Gordon Lee (62) was fourth. Heritage (38), Lafayette (28), Saddle Ridge (19.5) and Lakeview (15) completed the standings.
The Lady Generals had just one double winner in distance specialist Zoie St. John. St. John swept both the 800 (2:37) and the 1600 (5:57), while Avah Morrison
earned first place in the discus (74-7). The other win for the Navy-and-red came in the 4x400 (4:41).
Individually, the day’s big winner was Saddle Ridge’s Auriyan Mcclure. Mcclure won the 200 (27.85), the 400 (1:03.33) and the long jump (15-4.5) for the Lady Mustangs. Ringgold standout Maddy Bacon took first place in both the 100 hurdles (17.52) and in the high jump (5-0).
Other first-place winners last Tuesday included Rossville’s Shayla Rosson in the 100 (13.90), Chattanooga Valley’s Alexis Wheeler in the shot put (28-7) and the Gordon Lee 4x100 relay team, who put last year’s disappointment behind them and set a new schoolrecord of 54.77.
Ringgold’s boys were led by Brent Bowman, who took first place in the 800 (2:26), the 1600 (5:26) and the high jump (5-4) as he defeated teammate O’reilly Matthews on a jump-off tiebreaker. Matthews also finished first in the 400 (57.16), while the Tigers swept the throwing events. Destin Troutman won the shot put (39-5) and Brady Gray took top honors in the discus (103-1).
Rossville, who enjoyed its best showing at the championships in several years, got wins by Darrian Burks in the 100 (12.54) and in the 200 (25.54). Zion Irvin was first in the 100 hurdles (15.34), while the Bulldogs also took the 4x100 crown (48.95).
The night’s other winners included Gordon Lee’s Josh Underwood in the long jump (17-10) and the Chattanooga Valley’s 4x400 team (4:02).