Gordon Lee secures third girls’ state team track title in eight years
Lady Trojans enjoy five wins, 11 top four finishes in Albany
Gordon Lee head track coach Dan Roberts said he still gets sharp stomach pains when he thinks about the 2020 season and what could have been for his Lady Trojans’ track team, had the season not been wiped out by COVID-19.
“We really could have been dominant,” he stated.
But as it turned out, the 2021 version of the Navyand-white wasn’t too shabby either.
They opened the year in early March by defeating Calhoun, Sonoraville and Woodland-cartersville in a four-team meet at Calhoun, broke some school records in a home meet a few days later and went on to place fourth at the 12-team Calhoun Invitational on the second Saturday of the season.
A win at a seven-team meet at Southeast would follow and Gordon Lee would go on to lap the field at the Region 6-A meet with nine event wins, 11 runner-up finishes and a whopping 252 points, nearly outscoring the other five teams in the field combined.
Then, after Gordon Lee won six events at the state sectionals, the Lady Trojans arrived in Albany this past Thursday ready to see if they had what it took to win a second straight state title and the program’s third since 2014.
They did.
A monster first day in the field events set the stage and the Lady Trojans navigated Friday’s running event preliminaries before holding off a Saturday challenge from Montgomery County to hoist the state title once more.
“We knew we were going to be a little short (at state) with (distance specialist) Gracie (O’neal) having graduated and we lost some other scorers,” Roberts said. “But we also knew we had a chance
to refuel with some of these younger girls and, of course, we still had those two seniors (Kaylee Brown and Addison Sturdivant), who were the main core of the whole deal and they were great leaders this weekend. They got everything they could out of the rest of the them, which was good to see. I can’t say enough about those two.”
Gordon Lee enjoyed one of its biggest opening days ever at a state meet, taking first place in four of the six field events, scoring points in two running events and seeing eight different athletes contribute points as they vaulted to the top of the team standings with 73 points and a 30-point lead over Montgomery County, who was widely believed to be the Lady Trojans’ main competition for the state crown.
Brown was personally responsible for 23 of those points as she won the state title in the high jump and in the pole vault. Her winning high jump of 5-6 matched her previous school record and the future Kennesaw State Owl broker her own GL mark in the pole vault at 11-feet. She also placed sixth in the long jump at 15-11.7.5
Gordon Lee also swept both throwing events.
Junior Arilyn Lee reached 36-11.25 on her second throw
in the shot put, which turned out to be good enough to take the state title, while in the discus, freshman Madolynn Loyd’s second throw of 105-7 turned out to be the longest throw of the day and gave her an individual state title. It was Loyd’s only throw over 100-feet in six attempts, while Lee finished second at 101-9.
“We got quite a surprise out of (Madolynn),” Roberts added. “She’s been improving every week, but it was still a surprise to see her win (state). When she did, it kind of set the tone for the rest of the weekend.”
Gordon Lee also picked up third-place points from Sturdivant on Day 1 as she cleared 4-10 on her second attempt in the high jump, while Ansley Dendy also set a new personal mark with a height of 8-6, which was good enough for fourth place in the pole vault.
Emma Phillips reached 32-4.75 with her best triple jump on Thursday, but it was not enough to make the top eight.
Thursday night on the track, Haley Hartman placed sixth in the finals of the 1600 with a time of 6:04.12, while she teamed with Dendy, Cora Fehr and M.K. Roberts to set a new school record in the finals of the 4x800 (11:38.23) and claim second place in the GHSA’S newest event.
Friday was mainly reserved for prelims in the remaining running events, although the Lady Trojans did add three more points to their team score as Hartman finished sixth in the 3200 finals with a time of 13:28.58.
M.K. Roberts finished 11th in the 800 on Friday with a time of 2:53.44, but it was not enough to make the top eight for the finals. Riley Shirley clocked in at 18:53 in the 100 hurdles, but finished 12th in qualifying.
Holding a 76-43 advantage over Montgomery County as the final day began on Saturday, the Lady Trojans could only watch as the Lady Eagles cut the gap to eight points (76-68) in the first three events. Montgomery won the 4x100, finished second and sixth in the 400, and took fifth in the 100, while Gordon Lee did not have any runners qualify in any of the three events.
However, it would be the Lady Eagles’ turn to be spectators as Sturdivant dominated the 100 hurdles to win the individual state title (15.69) and add 10 more points to the Lady Trojans’ tally.
Neither school had a finalist in the 800 and the Lady Eagles were able to pick up four additional team points with a fifth-place finish in the 200, closing to within 14
points of lead (86-72) with just two events remaining.
Montgomery had the fastest qualifying times in the final two events, the 300 hurdles and the 4x400. However, Gordon Lee qualified second-fastest in both events and things would not change in the finals.
Standout Marley Bell collected 10 points for the Lady Eagles as she ran a 44.63 to win the 300 hurdles, but
Sturdivant clocked in at 45.37 to finish second and pick up eight points for the Lady Trojans, giving them an insurmountable 12-point cushion (94-82) going into the final race.
Once again, the two schools turned in a 1- 2 finish. The Lady Eagles won the 4x400 in a time of 4:19.84, but the Lady Trojans’ team of Brown, Sturdivant, Dendy and Maclain Chrnalogar clocked a school-record 4:20.84 to close out their state title with 102 points.
Montgomery County
finished with 92 points and a 38-point cushion over their next closest competitor, while Greene County (54), Commerce (41) and Georgia Military College Prep (35) rounded out the top five spots.
“We set a few new school records and we had PR’S (personal records) everywhere,” Roberts added. “It was just a great weekend and it was nice to repeat.”
On the boys’ side, the Trojans were represented in three events on Friday with two athletes earning spots on the podium.
In the pole vault, an event the Trojans have had tremendous success in over the years, Conner Whitman cleared 12 feet to finish third overall, while Levi Helton set a personal record at 11 feet to finish fifth.
The team of Jackson Biggs, Walker Johnston, Carson Carpenter and Jackson Ellis placed 11th in the 4x800 relay, crossing the line in 9:41.17, while Brady Jacobs was 14th in the long jump with a distance of 18-11.5.
Gordon Lee’s boys finished 21st in the final team standings with 10 points.