Habersham Central’s Audrey Hotard was the regional champion in three events as a freshman. RANDY CRUMP/Special
Habersham Central will take 19 track and field athletes to sectionals this weekend, one of the largest contingents the Raiders have mustered in recent years.
The girls and boys finished fifth in a tough region last week at home, and 11 girls and eight boys will continue competing at River Ridge High School in Woodstock on Saturday.
Audrey Hotard added 800-meter (2:25) and 1,600-meter regional championships (5:25) to her 3,200-meter title she won two days earlier. Abigail Hotard was third in the 1,600 (5:51) after taking second to her sister in the 3,200.
“I think the Hotards have a great chance to contend at state in the mile and the two-mile,” Raiders track coach Jonathan Long said. “We have a really solid group going. We had some nagging injuries this year or it could have been more.”
Habersham boasts two of the top throwers in the area in Brad Chosewood and Landrey Pike.
Chosewood, the region champion in discus, is ranked third in the state in discus and seventh in shot put, while Pike is sixth in shot put and seventh in discus.
“We always have strong field event contenders, but Brad and Landry are natural throwers and are both easy to coach,” Long said.
Sammy Guest (pole vault) and Heaton (long jump) will be field event athletes to watch as well.
The boys 4x800 meter relay team of Jose Queriapo, Aiden Thaxton, Ryan Martin, and Garrett Heaton is headed to sectionals after placing fourth in regionals and breaking the school record with a time of 8:33.
The state meet is May 12-14 at Carrollton.
TFS takes third in Area 6 meet
Tallulah Falls’ track and field team had a strong showing at the Area 6 championships.
Senior Berry College signee Macy Murdock initiated the championship day with a personal record, No. 2 TFS Legacy List and No. 4 Class A-Private 15.55 victory in the 100m hurdles, then later in the day won the gold in the 300m hurdles (45.93, No. 2 LL and No. 3 A-Pvt) to establish her as the 2022 Area 6 hurdle queen.
Sophomore Julianne Shirley sprinted to a three second PR (59.47), second place finish, class record, and No. 2 Legacy List performance in the 400m, surpassing Anna Davis’s sophomore record set at the 2016 state meet. That magnitude of improvement in the oval hasn’t been seen since Zatrick Pearce chopped off two seconds to win the 2017 state championship.
Molly Mitchell (5th, seven second PR - No. 6 LL, advances to state sectionals) and Caroline Ball (7th, No. 7 LL) had monumental races in the 800m.
The 400m relays, both girls (Dani Prince, Jace Ibemere, Allie Phasavang, Breelyn Wood) and boys (Nana Amankwah, Blair Moore, Nnamdi Ezunu, KC Respress), place timed fifth to advance to the first round of state, the boys with a season best.
The boys 4x4 (Moore, Zhighao Henrry Xiong, Jackson Cording, Tyler Brown) secured the final relay spot for the first week of state. TFS boys finished sixth in Area 6 in team points.
Other lifetime bests or scoring points include Cording (800m), Kailyn Neal (800m), Prince (100mh, 300mh), and Xiong (800m).
Going into the last race of the day – the 4x400 relay – TFS girls were in fourth place, eight points behind Athens Christian. The tetra ensemble of Ball, Mitchell, Shirley, and Murdock, though seeded second, were resolute in the goal to not only win, but get closer to the school record, a full seven seconds away. Ball (right at PR pace) and Mitchell (two seconds faster than her previous PR) both ran solid splits, yet the relay was a good 50 meters behind and in third place. Shirley grabbed the baton and emphatically made up 30 meters and filled the stadium with anticipation before passing off to Murdock. The excitement was intense, not just for TFS, but for all observing what seemed imminent.
Murdock not only resolutely pursued and passed the competition, but ran away from the field in convincing fashion (59.0 split) to give TFS the victory in 4:13.74 (No. 2 LL), and move the team into third place overall for the meet. Murdock scored 24.5 points in the meet.
The Indians will compete in A-Private Section II at Providence Christian on Saturday, May 7.
Matthew Osborne and Brian Neal contributed to this report.