TN State Pentathlon Recap

TN State Pentathlon Meet Recap

The Pentathlon consists of the 100 hurdles, long jump, high jump shot put and then a little pleasant 800 run.  The start of the TN State Track & Field Championships begins with the Pentathlon completion, the first event of the state track meet.  Just like every other event for this end of season championships, it's hard to get into and even harder when the competition comes! 

The D2 class had the Pentathlon favorite in Ensworth's Tyra Gittens.  She did not disappoint as she clearly took the top spot with 3770 points.  The only event of the day she didn't win was the grueling 800 meter run at the end of the day.   She started off the D2 Pentathlon by running a really fast 14.61 to take the hurdles with Brentwood Academy's Alayna Holbert (15.99) and Briarcrest Christian's Alyssa Neuberger (16.07) pretty close behind her.   That win gave Tyra a whopping 894 points to start the day.  Then she got into the almost matched her hurdle points getting 880 in the long jump with a 20-0.25 leap! 

As the girls got over to the high jump pit, the clear favorite again was Tyra but starting to gain some momentum was Harding Academy's Sarah Luttrell.  Tyra cleared another 891 point height of 5-8 but two girls pocketed 759 points by clearing 5-3.75.  Those two were Tyra's teammate Jenna Rolfe and Sarah Luttrell.  The shot was up next and Tyra took it again with a 35-1.25 toss.  Molly Martin of ECS was second in 32-9.75, Hutchison's Susan Morris was third with 30-1.5 and, still gaining momentum, was Sarah Luttrell with a 28-8.5 toss that gave her 448 points.  By this point, nobody was going to catch Tyra and her 7th place finish in the 800 was good enough for 530 points.  But the surprise was Alyssa Neuberger running a very fast 2:26.93 to jump into third overall spot with that run.  And with that momentum carrying her through, Sarah Luttrell ran a 2:28.12 to get 717 points with that second place finish.   Alyssa ended up with 2900 points for third and Sarah with 3091 points to get the runner up spot at this year's D2 Pentathlon.  Sometimes that 800 just might get you some points!

The A-AA 100 hurdles started out with two girls in the 14 second range.  Lennex Walker of Chattanooga School of Arts/Sciences and East Nashville's Grenetria Shell got 14.53 and 14.93 respectively.  That was a great start for the A-AA Pentathlon and it may have got some people thinking we're may be seeing a tight race in this class.  Once the high jump was finished, that saw Grenetria tallying some 759 points with a 5-3.75 jump that tied Creek Wood's Carline Edmondson.  Ok, two events down and this is a close race! 

Next up was the shot put.  Grenetria dropped down a bit and Lennex started gaining some ground with 548 point 33-9.25 win in that event.  Shelby Reynolds of Carter was second in 31-0 (494 points) and Brainerd's Ebony Calloway threw 30-4.75 and got 481 points for the effort.  At this point, I'm just wondering if Grenetria decided it was time to throw down the gauntlet.  She jumps 18-9.25 to get 765 points with East Nashville teammate, Micquana Webster right behind her with another 18 foot leap of 18-4.25.  So, we come down to the 800 and Grenetria takes third running 2:29.34 (701 points) and that basically put her standing above the number one on the podium.  That was Grenetria with 3485, Lennex second is 3280, Caroline Edmondson with 3179, and just three points from her was Shelby Reynolds with 3176.  That was close.  Really close.

Now, hang onto to your hats now because we've had some really close battles at this Pentathlon but the AAA class, well, close might be an understatement.   This division was going to be a tough event with just a slew of talented athletes making up the qualifying spots this year.  Go down the list of qualifiers and it's some rally gifted athletes lining up for the first race.  The 100 hurdles had the best in the state lined up in the first heat.  Kiara Rhodes (Whitehaven) took the top spot with a 13.89 that was good for a monster 994 points!  That was huge!  But in second was Southwind's Angelica Lightfoot running 14.28 that gave her another huge total of 939 points.  That's two girls that almost get the coveted 1000 point mark in just the first event of the day for them!  Yea, hang on. 

The next event for these girls was the shot put.  Ravenwood's Amber Tanner was the premier thrower today as she tossed 34-3 (558 points).  Oh yea, I forgot to mention that Amber was third in that super hurdle race earlier too!  Then the girls went to the long jump.  Angelica Lightfoot jump the only over 18 mark in the group getting 18-2.5.  And leading a huge group with 17' jumps was Bethany Rich of Rossview with her 17-8 second place leap.  Kiara was third with 17-6.75, Lindsey Roddy (William Blount) fourth with 17-4.25 and in a tie for fourth was Amber Tanner. 

Following the long was the high jump and Kiara took the win with a 5-1.75 leap that was worth another 701 points for her.  Lindsey Roddy (William Blount), Coffee County's Sarah Pearson and Angelica Lightfoot all earned 644 points with their 4-11.75 clearance.   Amber earned 534 points by cleaning 4-7.75 that dropped her behind just a bit.  So now the 800 comes up.  Nobody wants to run an 800 just after finishing four tough events.  The sun was out, the heat up a bit, and yea, everybody is tired.  But this is the Pentathlon and you have to get through all the events to rack up the points.  So, they line up to close out the day with two laps of the track.  The thing is, nobody told Amber Tanner that she was supposed to be tired, supposed to be worn out from the events leading up to this.  So she takes off in the first lap with a blistering pace.  Ok, at this point, you have to think... crash and burn!  But that's not what happened.  Amber kept going, kept stretching out her lead, kept you watching to see what she was doing!  She finishes in the fastest 800 of the day, and heck, could even be the fastest of the week - 2:15.54.  That was 885 points.  And guess what... Amber finishes with 3444 points.  Second place was Kiara Rhodes with 3443.  What???  Yep... that was a win by only one point! 

Now that is one heck of a way to start the TN State Track and Field Championships!!   

See you on the track... tomorrow!

Coach Ted

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