The 18th Annual Germantown Track Classic started it's first day just as a storm front drove it's way through the mid-south area and dropped almost an inch of rain on the track. Germantown Track Coach Rob Thomas who spent most of his week preparing for the track meet while watching what the weather was going to do, was certainly optimistic during the early Coaches meeting. With the clearing skies, cooler Friday evening temperatures, and fantastic sunny skies on Saturday, the meet turned into a record breaking performance in itself. There were several meet records fell, two of which were by Rob Sorrell, Bolton Senior standout (who just signed a letter of intent to run at University of Oklahoma). Sorrel broke his own 3200 and 1600 meet records with times of 9:11.27 and 4:14.54 respectively, as well as running on the Bolton Distance Medley record breaking team with a time of 10:41.11.
Probably one of the biggest surprises was the upset win by Bartlett junior James Gilreath in the 800M, who beat Sorrel in a meet record time of 1:53.90. The previous meet record for the 800M was, not surprisingly, also held by Sorrel. Even though Rob Sorrel didn't repeat his triple win from last year, his performance still pegged him as the athlete of the meet for the boys and Cherice Robertson (Ridgeway) was female athlete of the meet.
Cherice, who will run for Vanderbilt next year, won the long jump and both the triple jump and 100 Hurdles in meet record performances. Rounding out the remaining record breaking performances for the boys was the Hamilton 400 relay team with a record 42.00 run.
Some of the other standout record performances came from Collierville's VanWhye who, even though not feeling well, ran a record 11:03 to win the 3200M race.
Jennifer Garner, Briarcrest pole vaulter, made yet another high flying vault to set a new meet record of 11' 0".
VanWhye and Garner both appear to be ready to add more thrills to what looks like an exciting upcoming State Championships at the end of May. Other multiple winners at the meet were from Hamilton High's Zack Allen in the 100, 200, 110 Hurdles and he also helped Hamilton clock a meet record 42 second 400 relay. Junior Sarah Creel of St. Benedict finished with another double first in the girls 100 and 200 with times of 12.33 and 25.65.
And earlier in the day, Buck Wakefield (Munford) was able to win both the Triple and Long jumps and score second in the open 100 and 200M dashes. And the Hamilton boys team dominated the relays – as they have been all season - with wins in the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200M Relays. Another elite overall performance, hidden behind some superb front runners, came from SBA Sophomore Elizabeth Altizer clocking elite performances in the 3200M (11:42.57), 1600M (winning in 5:25.25), and also in the 800M (2:24).
There were over 30 teams in this years' Classic, with Hamilton High School at the top of the boys' standings with 96 points, Memphis University School second with 77 points, and Fairley third with 69 points. For the girls, Ridgeway High School was in first with 131 points, St. Benedict at Aburndale second with 86.5 points and third was host Germantown with 72 points. This year, as is the case every year, the Germantown Classic brought out some of the best performances in the area's athletes so far this season. Again, Coach Thomas did a great job with the meet this year and it's likely this meet will continue to be one of the best competitions everyone looks forward to each year.
