McCallie, Baylor Winners Of Fast Break Track Meet

Tyner's Adajah Nixon & Hixson's Matthew Murphy Rewarded For Most Points

Saturday, April 5, 2025
John Hunt

McCallie has had one of the best boys track teams in the Chattanooga area for a long time, so it’s no surprise that they won the 2025 Fast Break Invitational at Chattanooga Christian Saturday with 130.5 points.

The Baylor girls also had a great day as they won their division with 103.5 points.

While the Blue Tornado won this meet for the umpteenth time, Baylor was second with 105 points. Cleveland and Franklin County tied for third with 53 points while Chattanooga Christian was fifth in the 24-team field with 47.

The Baylor girls had a substantial lead midway through the meet, but the GPS Bruisers had a strong second half to finish as the runner-up with 85.5 points. Defending champ Signal Mountain was third with 77 while Ooltewah and Walker Valley claimed fourth and fifth with 69 and 49 points, respectively.

McCallie coach Rodney Stoker knows that Baylor has a much-improved team, but he also knows that he has some talented young men on his team and he was fully confident they would take care of business on Saturday.

“I told you it would be close,” he said midway through the events when his team’s lead was only nine and a half points.

“Today is just about getting some good competition and that’s been our experience so far. We’re making progress. We have a bunch of new guys who have really stepped up today and also some veterans we can always count on, but I was just interested in seeing what some of the new guys could do.

“I’m really proud of Henry Webb for winning the 1600 as he just continues to get better. And Loia Valade Diasse is a new sophomore exchange student who was the anchor on our 400 relay team. And I was proud of Andrew Smith for winning the 400 as he’s the real deal.

“But we still have a lot of work to get ready for the next couple of months, but I like where we are today,” Stoker smiled.

Baylor coach Jeff Gaither was another happy fellow after watching his kids do well on both sides.

“I’m really excited about our girls as we had a number of events we scored well in. Really proud of Maddie Winchester for getting a school record in the discus and Maryl Ford did well in winning the pole vault. And I’m always proud of Addy Cotter, who just keeps getting faster and won the 1600 today.

“We really don’t have a superstar on our team, but this was just a chance to see where we stand midway through the season. We haven’t had that many meets, but have had some great practices. I feel pretty good for where we stand on April 5.

“It’s also been a great day for the boys. I’m especially proud of Marshall McConville, who set a personal record by some eight seconds in winning the 3200. But it’s been a good day for Baylor overall,” he added.

GPS coach Beverly Blackwell used Saturday’s meet as a chance to put some girls in events they normally might not be part of and she too was happy with the results.

“We put some girls in different events as we wanted to see what our options are,” she said before the meet ended.

“I thought all of our girls gave great effort. We know where we want to be at the end and we just want to make sure we don’t peak too early. But I’m really happy with Mariah Ivery winning the 400 and Gilly Shumate the 3200. And I was happy with Cullie Capecchi, who is brand new and finished second in the long jump,” Blackwell nodded.

There was also an award for the individual who scored the most points and those two winners included Tyner’s Adajah Nixon and Hixson’s Matthew Murphy.

Nixon totaled 24 points with a victory in the 300 hurdles with a time of 46.02 seconds, a second in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.59 and a third in the 100 dash with a time of 12.64 seconds

Murphy was the only individual double winner on the day as he finished first in the long jump with a winning leap of 20 feet, 7.5 inches and a winning triple jump of 43 feet, 6.5 inches. He also later finished fourth in the 100 with a time of 11.25 seconds.

INDIVIDUAL EVENT WINNERS

GIRLS 4 X 800 RELAY -- 1. Signal Mountain 9:58.96;

BOYS 4 X 800 RELAY – 1. Signal Mountain 8:09.31;

GIRLS 100 HIGH HURDLES – 1. Anria Vosloo (Ooltewah) 15.31;

BOYS 110 HIGH HURDLES – 1. Sawyer Boyd (Cleveland) 14.65;

GIRLS 100 DASH – 1. Danielle Dunning (Brainerd) 11.90;

BOYS 100 DASH – 1. Karontae Cunningham (Tyner) 10.62;

GIRLS 4 X 200 RELAY – 1. Walker Valley 1:47.90;

BOYS 4 X 200 RELAY – 1. Tyner 1:30.45;

GIRLS 1600 RUN – 1. Addy Cotter (Baylor) 5:06.18;

BOYS 1600 RUN – 1. Henry Webb (McCallie) 4:29.26;

GIRLS 4 X 100 RELAY – 1. Brainerd 48.06;