Claxton

Three-peat: Lady Tigers win region again

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            BROOKLET — For the third straight year, Claxton took home the Region 3-A girls track and field championship. This time around, CHS held off late-charging Calvary Day (93) and Bryan County (87.5) teams to win by 20 points to win the 2009 title on Wednesday morning at Southeast Bulloch.

            The Lady Tigers (113) clinched the meet before the running of the 1,600-meter relay — the day’s final event.

            “It feels great,” said CHS coach Joy Daughtry after posing for pictures with her team, the trophy and her graduating seniors. “I’ll tell you what — things were stacked against us from the beginning this year. We had a lot of kids that didn’t come out for track and we didn’t have that many kids. But we kids with big hearts, kids who were tough and kids who wanted it — they weren’t gonna let the other teams take it away from ‘em. I’m very proud of them.”

            Lacreasha Brewton took home high point honors, accumulating 30.5 points over the two event which began and Saturday, was scheduled to finish on Tuesday and had been postponed until Wednesday morning.

            Brewton won the triple jump with a mark of 34 feet, 43⁄4 inches and the 400m with a time of 1:00.34. She ran the anchor leg on the second-place 1,600m relay team, was third in the 800m and helped the 400-meter relay team to a region title.

            Claxton held a 14-point edge over Jenkins County coming into day two after seven events. Deondra Lewis of JCHS won the shot put with a 29-61⁄4 and the discus with a 102-5. Portal’s Megan Anderson was second in the discus with a throw of 94 feet.

            Zandra Lake was third in the triple jump for JCHS with a 33-71⁄4. Metter’s Kayla Lanier came in second in the high jump. In the pole vault, Claxton’s Kortni Ellis and Krystal Crosby both cleared 6 feet to finish 1-2, respectively.

            On Wednesday, Brewton, Danielle Ellis, Kortni Ellis and Dane’esha Grant Grant started the day off with a win over Bryan County in the 400m relay, edging out the Lady Redskins with a 52.44 — .024 seconds faster than BC.

            Brewton was uncatchable in the 400m while Kortni Ellis finished just behind Madelyn Kessler of Savannah Christian for second. Ellis came in third at 1:03.

            In the 100, Jenkins County’s Ayana Walker separated herself after the first 50 meters to win the region title with a 12.06. Walker also had a relatively easy win in the 200m with a 25.28.

            In the 100m hurdles, Veljulisa Canty pulled away after six hurdles to win the region title with a 17.25.

            Brewton sprinted down the final 100 meters in the 800m to finish third at 2:42.96 ahead of teammate Alejandra Ramirez in fourth at 2:43.81.

            In the 300m hurdles, Lake of JCHS pulled away late for a region title at a time of 49.03. Claxton’s Jade Ball was third with a 50.88.

            Finally, in the 1,600-meter relay, Bryan’s Tiffany Howard’s late sprint gave the Lady Redskins a win in a waxing-and-waning race which wasn’t decided until the final 50 meters.

            Calvary led Portal after the first leg and held that lead over BC after two laps. In the third leg, Claxton made its move, and the Lady Tigers and Lady Cavaliers made the final exchange at virtually the same time.

            On the anchor leg, Calvary faded, leaving Howard and Brewton on each others’ heels down the homestretch. Howard would overtake Brewton over the final 50 meters, winning with a 4:23.22 to Claxton’s 4:23.66.  Ramirez, Ball and Kortni Ellis joined Brewton on the state qualifying run.

            “The beginning of the track meet is our strongest part, then we had a little section where we didn’t know how many points we were gonna get,” said Daughtry. “But my kids stepped up there, too, and we got more than we thought. We knew we had a bunch of tough kids on that four-by-four and if we needed it — they were gonna step up and get it for us.”

            The top two finishers in each event qualified for the GHSA Class A state track and field meet on May 14 in Albany, Ga.

            Chad Bishop can be reached at (912) 489-9408.