Tift to host 7A track sectional Saturday
May 6—TIFTON — Car tags from all over Georgia will fill the Tift County High parking lot Saturday. The southern half of the sectional track meet for Class 7A is returning to the Friendly City and the campus will be covered with team tents of all different colors.
Action gets started at 10:30 a.m. with field events. These last until 2:30 p.m., at which point focus turns to the track. Two heats will take place for most girls and boys events, with the exception of the 4x800 relays, the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
Admission is $5, according to Tift Athletic Director Chris Martin.
The Georgia High School Association has a strict schedule of events for each sectional in each classification to ensure athletes in multiple events get proper rest. Tift track coach J.C. Clark said the only possible changes to that schedule are that track can be moved up slightly if field events finish early or in the event of bad weather.
Twenty-one teams from Region 1, 3, 4 and 5 are set to participate, ranging from a high of 48 athletes (Lowndes) to 19 (Colquitt County). Lowndes has the most female athletes involved at 23, with Brookwood leading the pack in male athletes at 27.
The full list of schools and athletes registered are: Alpharetta (20 girls, 13 boys), Brookwood (19, 27), Camden County (12, 23), Cherokee (13, 9), Colquitt County (7, 12), Etowah (10, 18), Grayson (16, 17), Harrison (19, 22), Hillgrove (19, 21), Lowndes (23, 25), Marietta (19, 21), Milton (12, 21), Newton (15, 10), North Cobb (11, 13), North Paulding (13, 8), Parkview (20, 17), Roswell (20, 18), South Gwinnett (16, 15), Tift County (19, 20), Walton (18, 15) and Woodstock (5, 21).
The top eight athletes in each event will advance to the state meet, set for May 12-14at McEachern in Powder Springs.
Bailee Williams should be a repeat to advance to state as a shot putter. Her region throw of 34'9" ranks her fourth best in the group competing at Tift. She is less than two feet behind leading thrower Kameryn Hannon of Grayson.
If the performance list stays true to form, Williams and Ethan Jackson also have an excellent shot of making state in discus. Both are ranked sixth going in at the sectional.
Will Clark could slip in for high jump. Clark is ninth on the performance list with his region jump of 5'10", but he has cleared 6'0" at meets this year, which would put him in the top eight. Also poised for an upset is Lily Bruce in the 100 hurdles, ranking 10th in the preliminary standings and a half-second from being fourth.
The initial 10:30 a.m. events are girls high jump, girls long jump and girls shot put and boys discus, boys pole vault and boys triple jump. At 12:30 p.m., boys and girls will switch events.
The track schedule is as follows:
2:30 p.m. 4x800 relay.
3:05 p.m. 100 hurdles (girls) and 110 hurdles (boys).
3:25 p.m. 100-meter dash.
3:45 p.m. 4x200 relay.
4:05 p.m. 1,600-meter run.
4:40 p.m. 4x100 relay.
5:15 p.m. 400-meter dash.
5:45 p.m. 300-meter hurdles.
6:10 p.m. 800-meter run.
6:30 p.m. 200-meter dash.
6:50 p.m. 3,200-meter run.
7:20 p.m. 4x400 relay.
