On May 20, the Russell County Track and Field team competed in the Class AA Region 4 regional.

The region has some of the toughest competition in the state in either class. If an athlete makes it to state in this region it is usually a pretty good predictor that they will place in state because it houses some of the best athletes.

Only the first and second place finishers make it to state, then they take the next 4 best times or marks across all the regions in that class.  The results for the girls are as follows:

100 Meter Dash: Whitney Grider-14.57; Sarah Bonner-15.91  

200 Meter Dash: Whitney Grider-30.31; Casey Keaton-31.26  

 400 Meter Dash: Ally Harris-1:04.97; Michelle Copley-1:06.46  

800 Meter Run: Ally Harris-2:39.45; Suzanne Grider- 2:52.50

100 Meter Hurdles: Michelle Copley- 18.51

300 Meter Hurdles: Michelle Copley- 53.72; Lindsay Ramage- 55.90

4x200 Meter Relay: 2:08.70  

4x400 Meter Relay: 4:51.48

High Jump: Michelle Copley- 4-08.00

Long Jump: Whitney Grider- 13-10.25 

Shot Put: Ashley Wilson- 31-07.00   

Discus: Ashley Wilson- 83-00 

The girls team gave great effort at regionals, but had only one walk away with the opportunity to compete at state.

Ashley Wilson placed second in the shot put which qualified her to compete.

It was unfortunate that Michelle Copley, Suzanne Grider and Sarah Bonner did not qualify as they are all seniors and their last opportunity to make it to state unless they pursue running at a collegiate level.

It is hard being a senior and remaining focused, especially when all senior festivities are at the same time as the main competitions for track and field.

The girls will hopefully ramain to grow stronger next year, with hopefully more girls coming out to participate, which will help the team scores and the chances on the team going to state.

The results for the boys are as follows:

100 Meter Dash: Chris Lawless-13.42

200 Meter Dash: Aaron Pierce- 25.60; Chris Lawless- 26.80  

400 Meter Dash: Aaron Pierce- 56.93

800 Meter Run: Taylor Ragle- 2:29.81 

4X400 Meter Relay:  4:06.44  

4x800 Meter Relay: 9:37.10   

High Jump: Derek Thomas- 6-02.00    

Shot Put: Logan Clark- 29-04.00; Daniel Black- 24-11.50 

Discus: Bryon Ellis- 130-08   

The boy’s team also gave great effort for the amount of boys on the team.

Like the girls, the more numbers we can get the better the chances that they will excel and make it to state as a complete team.

Bryon Ellis and Derek Thomas qualified for state. Bryon qualified in the discus with a second place finish by only two feet and Derek qualified in the high jump with the same height jumped by the first place finisher, but Derek had more scratches.

Chris Lawless was a senior, but as he completed his time on the track team hopefully his training will only prepare him for the service which he has enlisted in.