Cedartown and Rockmart boys win region team titles
Dominant individual and relay performances highlighted the efforts of both the Cedartown and Rockmart high school track and field teams last week at their respective region championship meets.
After two days of competition, the Cedartown boys’ team rolled to its second straight Region 7-4A title, while the Rockmart boys edged Model to win the Region 7-AA championship. Cedartown’s girls came in fourth in the 7-4A team standings, while Rockmart’s girls finished second at the 7-AA meet.
The Cedartown boys made a dominant stand at the Region 7-4A meet at Southeast Whitfield High School in Dalton on April 24-25 beginning with winning all four relay events — 4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800.
Senior Quan Dorsey swept the region hurdles events, winning the 110-meter hurdles in 14.84 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 41.46 seconds. Reonte Porter won both the long jump and triple jump events. The Junior had a leap of 21 feet, 10 inches in the long jump, and a winning leap of 43 feet, 1 and 1/2 inches in the triple jump.
Sophomore Tae Harris edged out teammate Harlem Diamond for the 100 and 200 titles at the region meet. Harris finished the 100 with a time of 11.03 seconds, while Diamond came in second at 11.04.
Diamond had set the school’s 100-meter record previously held by Nick Chubb just the week before with a time of 10.64 seconds.
Harris won the 200-meter dash in a time of 22.39 seconds, with Diamond right behind him at 22.66. Cedartown’s Demarcus Gardner finished third in the 100 meters with a time of 11.33 to give the Bulldogs three sectional qualifiers in the shortest race.
Other Cedartown athletes that won region championships were Drew Ledbetter in the 400 meters (51.96) and Uriel Guzman in the 800 meters (2:03.81).
Meanwhile, Rockmart’s boys won three of four relays at the Region 7-AA meet at Gordon Central high School from April 24-26 to finish with 215 points, just two points more than Model, to win the region title.
The 4x100-meters team of JoJo Haynes, Tyshawn Johnson, Rakaylin Glover and Cam Ferguson took first with a time of 43.21 seconds. Haynes, Ferguson, Dennis Sims and Ryan Mitchell combined to win the 4x200 in 1 minute, 32.38 seconds. Ferguson, Mitchell, Nyreon Cooper, and Mark Blalock captured the 4x400 victory in 3:34.01.
Johnson, a senior, gave Rockmart region titles in the long jump (21-7 1/2) and 200 (22.57), while Ferguson won the 400 (50.72), and Lanear McCrary finished first in the 300 hurdles (41.59).
Sophomore Trillion Banks sprinted to first in both the 100 and 200, finishing the former in 12.48 seconds while coming in at 26.98 for the 200. The Lady Jackets’ 4x100-meter relay team finished 0.72 seconds behind the Model team to come up just short of a region title.