Monroe, GAC set for another track finals duel

ALBANY — Track and field meets don’t get much closer than the head-to-head duel Monroe and Greater Atlanta Christian girls had in last year’s GHSA Class 3A girls championship.

GAC and Monroe were first and second in the team standings heading into the final event, the 4×400 relay. Monroe had two relays qualified for the finals of the 4×400, while GAC had one.

Needing a fourth-place or better finish to clinch the team title, GAC turned in a second-place performance. Monroe, however, made things interesting, finishing first and third in the relay to cut a 13-point gap down to five.

State championship competition returns to Hugh Mills Stadium this weekend, with the GHSA bringing Class 3A, Class 2A and Class 1A-Public boys and girls competition to Albany. Field event finals begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday (boys) and Friday (girls), with preliminary running events scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday (girls) and Friday (boys). The opening ceremony for running event finals is at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, with the first final set to start at noon.

Tickets are $7 per day. Class 7A, Class 4A and Class 1A-Private finals are at Berry College, while Class 6A, Class 5A and wheelchair finals take place in Carrollton.

Here are some events to watch involving athletes from the Albany area at Hugh Mills Stadium (times are approximate):

Class 3A girls triple jump (11:30 a.m., Friday): Monroe’s Isis McVay jumped 38-11 in the sectional meet. She bested the field by more than 19 inches, giving the Tornadoes a strong shot at 10 points in that event.

Class 3A girls long jump (1:30 p.m., Friday): GAC and Monroe athletes had the top three sectional performances in the long jump. GAC’s Jasmine Jones is the top seed at 18 feet, 4 inches, while Monroe’s Jaeda Hunt is the No. 2 seed at 18-2.5. Hunt won the event last year with a 19-1.5 attempt. Chloe Fair, who was GAC’s top finisher in the long jump last year in fifth, is the No. 3 seed, while Monroe’s Mikendy Edwards is the No. 6 seed.

Class 3A girls 4×100 relay (4 p.m. Thursday prelims, noon Saturday final): Strong track and field teams usually have strong relay squads, and GAC and Monroe are no different. The GHSA allows two relay teams per school in each of the relay events, and both GAC and Monroe have two in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. In the 4×100, GAC and Monroe occupy four of the top five seeds, with GAC in first and fifth and Monroe in second and fourth. The other team in the mix? Third-seeded Central-Macon.

Class 3A girls 400 (4:20 p.m. Thursday prelims, 12:30 p.m. Saturday final): Another event in which Monroe and GAC will be running neck-and-neck. Monroe’s J’Milya Poole is the defending champion and top seed, while Fair is the No. 2 seed after finishing second last year. The Tornadoes’ Camielle Milledge is seeded fourth.

Class 3A girls 100 (4:40 p.m. Thursday prelims, 1 p.m. Saturday final): Hunt returns to defend her title as the fastest female in Class 3A, although Nia Brown, last year’s second-place finisher, enters with the top sectional time. Edwards is the No. 3 seed, while GAC’s Jada Jones is seeded seventh. Brown and Hunt are also seeded 1-2 in the 200.

Class 3A girls 300 hurdles (6 p.m. Thursday prelims, 3:05 p.m. Saturday final): Jasmine Jones swept the hurdles at last year’s state meet for GAC, and she and Jada Jones are seeded 1-2 in the 100 hurdles. But Monroe has a shot at picking up some points on GAC in the 300 hurdles, with Mcvay and Poole seeded 1-2. Jasmine Jones is seeded third in the 300 hurdles, with Fair seeded fourth.

Class 3A girls 4×400 relay (7:20 p.m. Thursday prelims, 3:35 p.m. Saturday final): The final event is again an interesting one. Monroe enters as the top seed, the only team to crack the four-minute mark in sectional competition in Class 3A. Both teams have two relays entered, with the two GAC relay squads seeded third and fourth and Monroe’s second relay seeded ninth. Monroe’s second relay seed time is only half a second out of the top eight, making this a key event on qualification night for the Tornadoes.

Class 1A-Public shot put (11:30 a.m. Thursday boys, 11:30 a.m. Friday girls): Pelham has the top seed in the shot put for both boys and girls. Krystian Jones had a 35-1 mark at the sectional meet, beating the girls field by a foot, while Malik Mango’s 46-11.5 attempt put him in the No. 1 spot heading into the state meet.

Class 1A-Public girls 100 hurdles (1:30 p.m. Saturday final): Terrell County’s Tanisha Huckaby is the No. 1 seed at 16.76 seconds. She is also the No. 2 seed in the 300 hurdles.