The girls state meet is over now and in looking back, it\'s been an amazing year of track and field in Georgia. Here are just a few of my thoughts from the state meet.
Freshman Emily Reese broke the women\'s record in the 3200 with a blazing 3200m at the state meet on Thursday. Going out in 5:12 for the first 1600, Emily wore down former state champion Shelly Taylor to caputre her first track title in impressive fashion!
A reminder to coaches! Remember the event specific uniform rule when bringing athletes to Albany. This rule will be enforced so please ensure that your athletes are outfitted properly. See you in Albany.
What an amazing day it must have been at Winder Barrow stadium. Three athletes over 15\' in the vault and two over 16\'. Unfortunately, unless you made the trip to Winder, you won\'t see a rematch of this classic match up at state. When number one all time, number 3 all time and number 5 all time, you expect a classic match up and these young men delivered. Region 8-AAA will be well represented in the vault at state.
These are the final girls rankings based on the top 10 performances in each event.
And the hits just keep on coming! Freshman Emily Reese of Chamblee has raised the bar once again after winning the Region 6-AAAA girls 3200 in an amazing 10:48.35. This ranks her fifth all time in the state behind former St. Pius great, Ashley LaBudde who went on to run well at the University of Alabama. And so another Georgia female has broken 11:00 in the 3200. Fortunately, all of those athletes reside in AAAA, making for a very interesting match up at the state meet. For those that are wondering, the girls AAAA 3200 will be run on Thursday night at 8:30.
Girls team rankings for the week of 4/24/2005. Redan and McEachern hold top spots.
Boys Team Rankings for the week of 4/24//2005. Things tighten up at the top!
The hypothetical situation has often been brought up in the past. Could you justify the system for qualifying for state if the three best competitors in their event all resided in the same region. Take that argument one step further. What if 3 of the top 10 all time in their event resided in the same region. The time for hypothetically thinking is over..it\'s happening and could have a big impact on what happens at state.
Marist\'s boys posted a narrow win over St. Pius at the Marist Invitational. On the girls side, St. PIus scores 116.5 to outpace runner up Sandy Creek.
Marietta posts two big wins at the Warrior Invitational. Boys post 130 point win over 2nd place Dalton while the girls post a 61 point win over 2nd place NW Whitfield.
Boys Team Rankings for the week of 4/17/2005. These rankings are corrected after finding an athlete that was included twice in the rankings because of a misspelled name.
McEachern Girls take the win at the 2005 McEachern Invitational while boys earn tough win over Hiram. McEachern girls run 46.66 for the 4x100 win while Emily Borsare, of McIntosh, goes 5:02 and 10:51.14 for the double!! On the boys side, Daniel Gormley doubles for the win in the 1600 and 3200 with a 4:23 and 9:42.
If you would have looked at the team rankings lately, you wouldn\'t have expected this one but SW Dekalb pulls out a big win over Stephenson and Redan at the Dekalb Co Championships 87-83-78.
Girls Team Rankings for the week of 4/11/2005. Redan holds down the top spot with McEachern #2 and Dacula #3.
Here are the team rankings based on scoring the top 10 performances in the traditional events.
Ena Leufroy, of Marist, posted a state best time of 2:10.09 in the 800m as she finished seconds behind Sarah Bowman, of Fauquier HS in Virginia, the nations number one 800m runner. It was a stellar performance in a field that had four Georgia athletes in the top 7 as Racquel Daly (SW Dekalb), Diaomond Marks (Redan) and Danielle Shaurette (North Gwinnett) all posted sub 2:22 times. Redans girls come off of their successful Mobile Challenge of Champions effort to finish 2nd in the team standings.
The Redan Boys took top honors at the Taco Bell Classic Saturday. Justin Oliver helped the effort with his nation leading 46.75 effort in the 400m and 21.68 effort in the 200m.
Scoring the top 10 from each event, the first Georgia Team Rankings have been compiled for the week of April 9,2005.
Care to see how your team compares if the top 10 from the elite rankings are scored 10-1st place, 9-2nd place...etc.? Georgia\'s first team rankings are presented for you and a reminder...these are only for the purpose of discussion!
The meet entry list reads like a who\'s who of Georgia Track and Field as some of the states top athletes make their way to South Carolina to compete in the Taco Bell Classic at Spring Valley HS.
Some would call this the year of the girls distance runners. Already this season, two girls have broken into the all time top 10 list in the 3200 and a freshman out of Dekalb County has posted a 5:01 1600m time. It takes a sub 11:13 to make it into the top 5 on the girls 3200 list and a sub 5:13 to make it into the top 5 in the 1600 rankings. Two freshman have already run 5:01.88 and 5:10.11 in the 1600m, a sophomore sits atop the leader board in the 800m with a 2:12.59 and two girls have broken 11:00 in the 3200. It appears that the future of girls distance running is very bright indeed!
Athletes from Georgia put on a show at the Mobile Meet of Champions. Brittany Hall of Meadowcreek. Justin Oliver of Redan, Emily Reese of Chamblee, Aleesha Barber of Redan, Collins Hill\'s women\'s 4x800 relay team, Stasia Kelly-Taylor of GACS, Emily Sanders, and Redan\'s boys 4x100 and 4x400 teams all brought home wins.
The Douglass boys ended an 8 year winning streak as they defeated Mays at the Atlanta Track Classic.
The Creekside boys had quite a week, winning both the Fulton Co. Championships and the Roswell Relays within 5 days of each other. \"After losing in the county last year to Banneker by a half of a point, we knew we would really have to cover all of the events well to return the favor this year,\" according to Coach Vaughan.
65 photographs are now online from the Gwinnett County Championships.
McEachern girls took home the team title over Marietta while the Marietta boys returned the favor. In a meet that featured 78 elite perfromances!
In a meet that was closer than some expected, the Collins Hill girls overcame a tough Parkview girls squad to win the Gwinnett Co. Championships. While on the boys side, Brookwoods boys used depth throughout their line up to overcome the Collins Hill boys. Brittany Hall, of Meadowcreek, posted some outstanding times in both the 400 (56.69) and 800m (2:14.39).
The Character Games are going to have to change venues from Lakewood Stadium to Panthersville Stadium due to renovation work being done at lakewood Stadium.