Deerfield-Windsor girls win third straight state title.

ALBANY — The Deerfield-Windsor girls track & field team came into the Georgia Independent Schools Association state meet with their proverbial backs against the wall.

Just before this weekend’s meet, the Lady Knights were hit with an injury bug forcing them to rely on some younger athletes if they wanted to win their third straight state title.

With the help of senior Tarah Young and a couple of strong performances from eighth-graders, the Lady Knights completed the three-peat Saturday afternoon at Hugh Mills Stadium.

Young won three individual meets and was the anchor on two first-place relay teams to help Deerfield earn 87 points and the No. 1 spot on the podium. The Lady Knights edged out Gatewood, who finished with 81 points, and Augusta Prep Day School, who scored 65 points, for the Class AAA title.

“It is good to see some young girls put in a pressure-packed situation and have them respond,” Deerfield-Windsor girls coach Allen Lowe said. “A lot of that has to do with the seniors. Even though Virginia (Moore) couldn’t run, she was over their helping get those girls ready to go.”

At one point during the finals, Deerfield trailed the leader by eight points. Young won the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash to give her team the lead. She was the high-point finisher with a total of 35 points.

“I knew that it was going to be tiring,” Young said. “We kind of had a lot of events back-to-back, so I knew I would have a quick recovery. I knew this year, we would be pushed because Virginia wasn’t running so we really, really had to go hard today.”

The Lady Knights’ 4×400 meter relay team which was made of Young and eighth-graders Hadley Holt, Charlotte Augenstein and Deena Willcox registered a time of 4:09.85, which was almost eight seconds better than second-place finisher Gatewood.

Holt, Augenstein and Willcox had built a lengthy lead by the time Young was given the baton.

“I told them, ‘I know you guys are nervous, but you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t good,’ ” Young said.

On the boys side, Deerfield-Windsor registered a third-place finish. Trinity Christian-Dublin won with 87 points, Trinity Christian-Sharpsburg came in second with 86 points and the Knights finished with 66.

Westwood’s Collier Baggett finished in second in the 300-meter hurdle with a time of 41.99.

While Baggett no doubt would have liked a first-place finish, he was still proud of his time.

“It was my last race so I was just trying to give it my all,” Baggett said. “I’m a little disappointed to come in second, but it is still something to be proud of.”

Not long after finishing, Young had already decided how to celebrate.

“I’m going to get sushi,” she said with a smile.