Deerfield-Windsor track & field teams in firm control

ALBANY — The Deerfield Windsor boys and girls track teams asserted their dominance on the track Wednesday in the abbreviated GISA Region 3-AAA meet at Hugh Mills Stadium.

Wednesday’s meet consisted of running events due to weather conditions. The field events, along with the 3200 meter run, will be completed next Wednesday at 3:30 at Deerfield-Windsor.

The Lady Knights won all nine events, while the DWS boys won five of the nine.

DWS girls coach Allen Lowe couldn’t be more pleased with his team’s performance considering the conditions.

“Actually, things went as well as we could hope for right now,” Lowe said. “The main thing you want to do is finish your races and hopefully improve your times. I think we did pretty well. It sets us up well when we get to state.”

Tarah Young and Chris Boswell had strong performances for Deerfield-Windsor. Young won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter events, as well as being a part of the Lady Knights’ 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay teams, who won both events.

“It’s about being in really good shape and working really, really hard,” Young said. “Honestly, winning state is everyone’s dream, so it’s really about coming out here and pushing until you just don’t have any more.”

Considering that Boswell came into the meet having a 102-degree fever Tuesday night, it didn’t hinder his performance on the track. Boswell won both the 200- and 400-meter events and was a member of the 4×100-meter relay team that placed fourth.

Aaron McNutt also had a solid day, winning both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles.

“I thought we had a good day,” DWS boys coach Craig Rhodes said. “We got a lot of people qualified for state. Our times were extremely good. I thought the team overall did a great job. Their effort was superior.”

Libby Greene also performed well for the Lady Knights as she finished first in the girls 100-meter hurdles.

“I’ve had a lot of competition this year, unlike last year,” Greene said. “Coming into this race, I hadn’t been doing so good at our track meets.”

Greene had extra motivation running against her friend, Tiftarea’s Marlee Marlowe, who finished third in the event.

“She’s been beating me at our home track meets, so I was coming into this like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve really got to run my best,’ ” she said. “It turns out, I guess, with everyone cheering for me, I ran my race pretty well.”

One race that produced a dominating performance was the boys 1600 meters won by Southland Academy’s Wright Calhoun with a time of 4:46.49. Though Calhoun was pleased with the win, he believes he needs to improve his time.

“I was going for 70 x 4,” Calhoun said. “I got a little too competitive and I didn’t want my teammate [Ridge Roland] in front of me, which was selfish on my part. I shouldn’t have been like that. I should have let him run his own race.”

According to Calhoun, he finished the first lap of the race in 65 seconds but couldn’t keep up the pace needed to reach his goal of running the race in 4:40. Calhoun also was able to win the boys 800 meter run with a time of 2:10.11.

GISA Region 3-AAA Track & Field Meet

Wednesday at Hugh Mills Stadium

GIRLS

4×100 Meter Relay: 1. Deerfield Windsor “A” (Samantha James, Libby Greene, Anna Eakes, Tarah Young), 52.29; 2. Tiftarea Academy “A” (Marlee Marlowe, Hannah Branch, Morgan Strenth, Abby Carswell), 55.09; 3. Tiftarea Academy “B” (Carson Bryan, Lindley Gibbs, Gracie Hall, Missy McKay), 56.28; 4. Westwood Academy “A” (Savana Robertson, Sydney Lamberth, Haley Marshall, Elizabeth Delk),56.43

100-meter hurdles: 1. Libby Greene, Deerfield Windsor, 16.84; 2. Erin Moss, Valwood, 17.23; 3. Marlee Marlowe, Tiftarea Academy, 17.32; 4. Hannah Branch, Tiftarea Academy, 18.33

400 meters: 1. Tarah Young, Deerfield-Windsor, 1:02.10; 2. Alex Exum, Southland, 1:06.30; 3. Missy McKay, Tiftarea, 1:07.14; 4. Olivia Bell, Deerfield-Windsor, 1:07.50

1600 meters: 1. Virginia Moore, Deerfield-Windsor, 5:29.18; 2. Riley O’Linn, Valwood, 5:58.88; 3. Flannery Daugherty, Deerfield-Windsor, 6:07.15; 4. Sydney Hayes, Southland, 6:13.70

300-meter hurdles: 1. Mary Warrington, Deerfield-Windsor, 55.18; 2. Sydney Lamberth, Westwood, 55.71; 3. Maeryn Reynolds, Deerfield-Windsor, 57.65; 4. Kirsten Murphy, Tiftarea, 1.00.11

800 meters: 1. Virginia Moore, Deerfield-Windsor, 2:27.53; 2. Riley O’Linn, Valwood, 2:34.61; 3. Lindsey Lewis, Deerfield-Windsor, 2:35.64; 4. Madison McPherson, Southland, 2:48.74

200 meters: 1. Tarah Young, Deerfield-Windsor, 26.47; 2. Samantha James, Deerfield-Windsor, 28.57; 3. Carson Bryan, Tiftarea, 28.58; 4. Natalie Tyler, Brookwood, 29.19

4 x400-Meter Relay: 1. Deerfield-Windsor “A” (Kendyll Freeman, Olivia Bell, Virginia Moore, Tarah Young), 4:26.81; 2. Southland Academy “A” (Alex Exum, Brandi Sellars, Sydney Payne, Madison McPherson), 4:37.00; 3. Deerfield Windsor “B” (Lexi Ruth Sells, Katerina Mathes, Maeryn Reynolds, Sarah Norton), 4:46.66; 4. Tiftarea “A” (Morgan Strenth, Abby Carswell, Missy McKay, Carson Bryan), 4:56.85

100 meters: 1. Tarah Young, Deerfield Windsor, 12.85; 2. Abby Carswell, Tiftarea, 13.70; 3. Samantha James, Deerfied-Windsor, 13.82; 4. Hannah Branch, Tiftarea, 13.87

BOYS

4×100 Meter Relay: 1. Tiftarea Academy “A” (Ethan Mims, Austin Stripling, Charlie Massey, Earlmondo West), 44.86; 2. Valwoood “A” (Seth Golden, Alex Jackson, Jake Parker, Luke Veuleman), 45.80; 3. Deerfield-Windsor “B” (Antonio Watts, Austin Fallaw, Howell Logan, Charles Crosby), 46.11; 4. Deerfield-Windsor “A” (Trey Young, Aaron McNutt, Dakari Cutts, Chris Boswell), 46.68

110-meter hurdles: 1. Aaron McNutt, Deerfield-Windsor, 16.03; 2. Ridge Collins, Westwood, 18.15; 3. Ellis Ivey, Southland, 18.48; 4. Bennett Carey, Southland, 19.28

100 meters: 1.Earlmondo West, Tiftarea, 11.50; 2. Charlie Massey, Tiftarea, 11.71; 3. Jake Parker, Valwood, 11.75; 4. Jamal Rice, Southland, 12.03

1600 meters: 1. Wright Calhoun, Southland, 4:46.49; 2. Ridge Roland, Southland, 5:02.15; 3. Ethan Merritt, Deerfield-Windsor, 5:02.53; 4. Parker Watt, Brookwood, 5:10.09

400 meters: 1. Chris Boswell, Deerfield-Windsor, 52.46; 2. Luke Veuleman, Valwood, 52.89; 3. Charlie Massey, Tiftarea, 53.09; 4. Logan Carswell, Tiftarea, 55.68

300-meter hurdles: 1. Aaron McNutt, Deerfield-Windsor, 42.27; 2. Collier Baggett, Westwood, 45.31; 3. Bailey Cunningham, Tiftarea, 47.33; 4. Ellis Ivey, Southland Academy, 47.35

800 meters: 1. Wright Calhoun, Southland Academy, 2:10.11; 2. Zeb Waters, Terrell Academy, 2:11.79; 3. Ridge Roland, Southland Academy, 2:12.03; 4. Conner Smith, Valwood, 2:13.84

200 meters: 1. Chris Boswell, Deerfield-Windsor, 23.81; 2. Austin Stripling, Tiftarea, 24.15; 3. Jake Parker, Valwood, 24.28; 4. Jamal Rice, Southland, 24.46

4×400-Meter Relay: 1. Deerfield Windsor “A” (Ryan Toole, Aaron McNutt, Chandler Matthews, Dakari Cutts), 3:42.17; 2. Tiftarea “A” (Nathan Carswell, Logan Carswell, Spence Massey, Cam Baker), 3:45.96; 3. Southland Academy “A” (Wright Calhoun, Ridge Roland, Ellis Ivey, Ray Townsend), 3:47.88; 4. Valwood “A” (Conner Smith, Anthony Folkerts, Sam Martin, Luke Veuleman), 3:50.52