Baylor, Cleveland Optimist Track Champions At GPS

They had almost perfect weather at GPS Friday for the annual Optimist Club Championships for high school track and field, but nobody was any better than the Cleveland boys and the Baylor girls.

The Blue Raiders didn’t have their entire team present, but the ones they brought more than made up for what was lacking as they won eight events, including three of the four relays, to top the 15-team field with 154 points.

McCallie, behind several strong performances from Hakim McMorris, was a distant second with 107.5 while Baylor was third with 87.  Red Bank and Bradley tied for fourth with 55 points.

The Baylor girls only won three events, but they were runner-up in eight others, to win with 124 points.

GPS was second with 105 while Cleveland was third with 82.  Walker Valley and CSAS completed the top five girls teams with 64 and 53 points, respectively.

Cleveland’s second-year coach Adam Renshaw could only smile as his team kept winning and winning as they meet moved forward.

“We didn’t bring our entire team down here today, but was I was most proud of was the guts we showed in our performances.  We finished hard in every event.  These guys have really been working hard and it’s nice to see them being rewarded for their work.  Good things seem to happen when you give everything you’ve got,” he said while the 3200 run was underway.

“We came down here wanting to perform well and to compete to the best of our ability.  Perhaps the best thing about this is that we have a great group of kids and I feel like the sky’s the limit for them,” he added.

Baylor coach Bill McMahan loves to see his girls win first place, but he also knows the value of those secondary points and that was the key after only winning three of the 18 events.

“I don’t know what the scores are, but we did pretty well in the field events as well as the running events and that’s what you have to do to win a meet like this,” he expressed.

“These girls ran some really good times and some of our younger kids who have never been in a meet like this really came through.  We really had a good day in the pole vault as all three of our girls recorded personal bests, but everyone on the team contributed and it was overall a really good effort.

“It was another good day for the Baylor girls and just a little bit better than what we did last week,” he said in reference to winning the Mid-South Classic at McCallie.

Junior Keegan Jones was the only double winner for the Cleveland boys as he won the long jump and 200 dash.

Eric Parker won the 110 high hurdles while Benjedi Casseus was the 300 hurdles champ and Mel Obadiah the winner in the 800.  The Blue Raiders also won the 3200, 800 and 1600 relays.

McMorris personally scored 27 points in individual events as he won the triple jump while taking second in the high jump.  He was also the runner-up in the 110 high hurdles and rallied to finish eighth in the 300 intermediates despite tripping and falling midway through the race.

Patrick Ramey also took first place in the discus for the Blue Tornado.

Junior Rachel Smith was the leader for the Baylor girls as she won the pole vault while finishing second in both hurdle races.  Ironically, she cleared 11 feet, one inch to win the pole vault, which was an inch better than the boys’ pole vault winner.

Freshman Grace Pippin was the 800 run winner while the Baylor 800 relay team was also victorious.

Freshman Ruthie Burnette was second in the pole vault while JuToreyia Willis was second in the triple jump and high jump.

Catherine Parker was second in the shot put while Paris Buckner and Parker claimed second and third place, respectively, in the discus.

The Baylor 3200 relay team also finished second while Kayla Hayes was third in the 200 and the 400 relay was third as well. 

The CSAS Lady Patriots finished fifth with 53 points and that was mainly from the effort that Lennex Walker put forth in winning the triple jump and both hurdle events.  She also finished second in the long jump behind Red Bank’s Kimbra Dunning to personally finish with 38 of her team’s 53 points.

GPS won the 3200 and 1600 relays while Kate McVay was the winner in the 3200 run.

GIRLS TEAM SCORES: 1. Baylor 124; 2. GPS 105; 3. Cleveland 82; 4. Walker Valley 64; 5. CSAS 53; 6. McMinn Co. 48; 7. Red Bank 39; 8. Bradley 38; 9. Central 29; 10. Ooltewah 27; 11. Home-Schooled Patriots 25; 12. Tyner 14; 13. Rhea County and Brainerd tied with 13 and 15. Notre Dame 12.

POLE VAULT – 1. Rachel Smith (Baylor) 11-1;

HIGH JUMP – 1. Ashley Price (Ooltewah) 5-1;

TRIPLE JUMP – 1. Lennex Walker (CSAS) 36-10.5;

SHOT PUT – 1. Lauren Pate (Walker Valley) 37-7.5

LONG JUMP – 1. Kimbra Dunning (Red Bank) 17-4.5;

DISCUS – 1. Sophie Frederick (Walker Valley) 87-0;

3200 RELAY – 1. GPS 10:00.30;

100 HURDLES – 1. Lennex Walker (CSAS) 14.51;

100 DASH – 1. Tiyanna Johnson (Cleveland) 12.19;

800 RELAY – 1. Baylor 1:49.08;

1600 RUN – 1. Kathryn Vradenburgh (Patriots) 5:30.86;

400 RELAY – 1. Red Bank 50.24;

400 DASH – 1. Alayah Dozier (CSAS) 1:00.0;

300 HURDLES – 1. Lennex Walker (CSAS) 45.29;

800 RUN – 1. Grace Pippin (Baylor) 2:27.07;

200 DASH – 1. Tiyanna Johnson (Cleveland) 25.31;

3200 RUN – 1. Kate McVay (GPS) 12:04.30;

1600 RELAY – 1. GPS 4:10.53.

BOYS TEAM SCORES: 1. Cleveland 154; 2. McCallie 107.5; 3. Baylor 87; 4. Red Bank and Bradley tied with 55; 6. McMinn Co. 40; 7. Walker Valley 38; 8. Home-Schooled Patriots and Tyner tied with 32; 10. Central 26; 11. Ooltewah 21.5; 12. Rhea Co. 12; 13. CSAS 11; 14. Howard 7; 15. Notre Dame 6.

POLE VAULT – 1. Henry White (Baylor) 11-0;

HIGH JUMP – 1. Wiley Pippenger (Baylor) 6-2;

TRIPLE JUMP – 1. Hakim McMorris (McCallie) 43-7;

SHOT PUT – 1. Spencer Goode (Bradley) 55-7;

LONG JUMP – 1. Keegan Jones (Cleveland) 21-6.5;

DISCUS – 1. Patrick Ramey (McCallie) 136-4;

3200 RELAY – 1. Cleveland 8:28.40;

110 HURDLES – 1.  Eric Parker (Cleveland) 14.64;

100 DASH – 1. Kedrick Wilbanks (Red Bank) 11.07;

800 RELAY – 1. Cleveland 1:30.58;

1600 RUN – 1. Jonathan Boyd (Patriots) 4:38.92;

400 RELAY – 1. Bradley 43.10;

400 DASH – 1. Ka’ Saud Featherstone (Ooltewah) 51.61;

300 HURDLES – 1. Benjedi Casseus (Cleveland) 39.71;

800 RUN – 1. Mel Obadiah (Cleveland) 2:02.08;

200 DASH – 1. Keegan Jones (Cleveland) 22.66;

3200 RUN – 1. Chase Faudi (Patriots) 9:53.54;

1600 RELAY – 1. Cleveland 3:31.90.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)