Deerfield-Windsor girls surge to GISA Class AAA state title

ALBANY — Deerfield-Windsor’s Tarah Young rounded the final turn of the Hugh Mills Stadium track Saturday afternoon, and in front of her was her main competition for most of the day — Stratford Academy’s Katie Stone.

Young and Stone, a University of Georgia track & field signee, had battled throughout several of Saturday’s GISA state track & field meet events.

Young, running the final leg of the 4×400-meter relay, chased Stone on the back straightaway and finally caught her about 30 feet from the finish line. She surged ahead, helping her team win its third state title event of the afternoon.

But more importantly, it helped the Lady Knights capture the team championship. Deerfield-Windsor finished with 125 points, Stratford was second with 113, while Bulloch Academy, who led coming into Saturday’s finals, finished with 102.5 points.

The Lady Knights led by nine heading into the final event. They needed at least a seventh-place finish in the 4×400 relay to win the title. But the DWS “A” team of Kendall Freeman, Mary Crisp, Virginia Moore and Young didn’t just want to win the team title.

“We wanted to finish strong,” Young said. “We only have one senior and that’s Mary Crisp, and she was literally in tears before the race. I knew how much she wanted to win this race, so I basically ran it for her.”

Deerfield’s boys entered Saturday’s finals in first place but could not hold off Stratford as the meet progressed. Stratford, which captured its fourth straight state title, caught the Knights midway through the finals, then surged ahead. The Eagles finished with 124 points, while Deerfield-Windsor finished second with 110.

But the day clearly belonged to the Deerfield girls.

“Going into (Saturday), we knew we were going to battle Stratford all day,” Deerfield girls coach Allen Lowe said. “Then that 4×400 relay win was a good exclamation point. I thought the girls performed about as well as they could have performed.”

The day started out promising for the Lady Knights. Moore’s third-place finish in the 3200 (12:05.24) helped DWS earn six points, then the team took its first title in the 4×100 relay. Samatha James, Libby Greene, Danielle Teemer and Young put DWS within striking distance of the lead.

They pulled ahead of Bulloch when Greene won the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.63. Greene’s finish gave the Lady Knights 78 points to Bulloch’s 76.50.

Then Young helped DWS pad its lead when she took titles in the 100 (12.77) and 400. She surged ahead of Stone on the final stretch of the 400. She finished at 56.58, breaking a 14-year state mark of 57.49 set by Athens Christian’s Lindsay Daniel in 2000.

Young also finished second (26.08) in the 200 when she was edged by Stone.

“We just came in to do our best and work as a team,” Greene said. “There was no way any of us could have done what we did without our team and our coaches who have been their for us.”

The Deerfield-Windsor boys didn’t produce a single state champion on Saturday, and it kept them from winning its first team title since 2012. They did produce several second-place finishes, including a pair from Aaron McNutt.

McNutt finished second in the 110 hurdles (15.96), then added another runner-up finish in the 300 hurdles (42.16).

The Knights’ 4×100 relay team of Chris Boswell, Jay Barber, McNutt and Donavan Ellison took third with a time of 44.86. Boswell finished fourth in the 400 (52.23), while Barber added a fourth-place finish in the 200 (23.45).

Sherwood Christian’s Samatha Pappas came in third in the Class AA girls 3200, finishing with a time of 12:54.40.

In Class AA, Westwood boys also surged into second place midway through the meet on Saturday and finished as the state runner-up. Trinity Christian of Dublin took top honors with 118.5 points, while the Wildcats finished with 92. Brentwood finished third with 73.

The Wildcats’ 4×100 relay team of JT Edore, Collier Baggett, Ridge Collins and Dylan Smith earned a state runner-up finish with a time of 45.10.

Then the Westwood 4×400 relay team of Reid Ford, Ralph Collins, Baggett and Ridge Collins finished second with a time of 3:38.65.

Smith earned a pair of top finishes himself, winning the state championship in the 100 (11.40), a second-place finish in the 110 hurdles (11.40) and a third-place finish in the 200 (23.53).

Ridge Collins helped the Wildcats contend for the team title when he finished fourth in the 110 hurdles (17.82).

Perra Harrell took a fourth-place finish in the Class AA girls 3200 meters with a time of 12:56.40.

Southwest Georgia Academy’s Will Warren earned a fourth-place finish in the 100, finishing with a time of 11.61. He also took fourth in the 200 (23.56).

In girls Class A, Crisp Academy closed strong with a state championship in the 4×400 relay to earn a third-place finish in the team standings. Thomas Jefferson won the state championship with 119 points, Robert Toombs came in second with 99, while Crisp Academy finished with 72.

The 4×400 team of Kara White, Sidney Folsom, Amanda Foster and Morgan Wells took top honors, finishing with a time of 4:27.99.

Crisp Academy’s Parker Krause earned a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles (18.79), while teammate Katherine McGarr also earned third in the 3200 (13:52.03).

On Friday, Southwest Georgia Academy’s Madison Ragan won Class AA state titles in the girls discus (117-feet, 7-inches) and the shot put (33-5 1/2).

Ragan, who competed at Randolph Southern last season before the school closed, still holds the Class A discus state record of 112-6. She achieved a personal best in the event on Friday, her seventh and eighth state titles in her career.