MURFREESBORO – After rain, lightning and the wailing of tornado sirens on Tuesday the Greeneville boys track team left Dean A Hayes Stadium on the campus of MTSU proud of what it had accomplished, but still focused on the bigger goal in front of it.
The Greene Devils captured three individual state titles on Tuesday, and they sit in first place as a team, but the meet was suspended after a long weather delay and they will have to wait another day to claim their second straight Class AA Team State Title.
“We are pretty much on cue with what we expected and in a couple of places we were a little better. Overall we have done well today, and things are headed the way we want them to be headed,” Greeneville coach Larry Blalock said. “Fortunately, we had our hotel rooms booked for tonight. We just have to come back tomorrow, do what we are supposed to do, and we’ll have this thing taken care of.”
Tuesday meet was paused three times because of lightning in the area and was ultimately suspended after heavy winds and rain passed through Murfreesboro while tornado sirens blared around the stadium. Events will pick back up at 12 p.m. on Wednesday with six running events and the AA boys pole vault waiting to be completed.
In the team standings Greeneville sits in first place with 64 points while Millington Central has 45 points. Greeneville has two events left to compete in, Jacob Moore is the top seed in the pole vault and Zaydyn Anderson is the third seed in the 200 meters. For Millington Charles Brown is seeded fifth in the 400 meters, in the 200 meters Brown is seeded sixth and Derrick Bolden is seeded eighth. Millington’s 4×400 relay team is seventh.
If all seeds held on Wednesday Greeneville would win 82-55, but if Greeneville’s athletes were to slip up and Millington’s had all extraordinary performances the title is still mathematically within reach.
Greeneville’s big day on the track got started early, and in the day’s first event Trey Bailey claimed the state title in the 3,200 meters.
“It feels amazing to be a state champion,” Bailey said. “I’ve run this race a million times and it’s hard, but I knew if I could hold though lap six and then drop the hammer that I would be able to bring home a state title. I stuck to the plan and I won the title.”
It was a tough race with five competitors running in a pack for most of the race. On the seventh lap Bailey made his move and went to the front, then on the last lap he found a second win and began to push pace, ultimately winning by four seconds with a time of 9:28.73. He ran the final lap in just over one minute, his fastest lap by eight seconds.
“Usually between 1,000 meters and 600 meters to go you have to know your body to decide when to kick,” Bailey said. “On lap six I was feeling good and said ‘lets go’. When I started to kick I was questioning why I do this sport, because in the moment it doesn’t feel good. But I had to be strong, and I knew we needed the team points. I turned my brain off and sprinted.”
After two pauses for lightning Greeneville’s Anderson began collecting medals four hours later. Anderson won two state championships on Tuesday, in the long jump and 100 meters, and he was third in the triple jump.
In the long jump Anderson’s first two jumps were disappointing by his standards, but on his third attempt he got out to 22’2.5”. That was enough to secure the win. He also overtook top seed Tayshaun Dye of Millington Central, which resulted in a four-point team-score swing.
“It feels great to win a state championship,” Anderson said. “My first two jumps were bad, but it felt great to get out there on the third one. And one jump is all you need. We’re working on a bigger goal as a team, and so to get in front of the Millington kid felt great too.”
In the 100 meters Anderson started in lane seven, but running on the outside did not bother him and he just focused on his race. Anderson got Fairview’s Lucas Casaletta-Holmes on the lean and won the race by .02 seconds in a time of 11.03.
Last year Anderson was on the other end of a close race in the 100 and came in second, .03 seconds off of first place.
“Since I was in the outside lane I knew I had to run my own race,” Anderson said. “I knew I couldn’t focus on the inside guys, I just had to focus on me. Last year I lost this race in a close one, so it felt really good to finish on top this time.
Greeneville’s Jaxon Nichols picked up a second place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, even after a protest forced the race to be run twice. He finished in 15.38 seconds. Alcoa’s Josiah Tucker won in 14.84.
In the relays Greeneville’s 4×100 squad of Cole Franklin, Taren Claridy, Darien Humphries and Nichols placed third. The 4×800 team of Bailey, Grant Tunnel, Isaac Gibson and Micah Muyanja placed came in sixth.
In the 1,600 meters Bailey placed third in 4:27.51.
In the Class A State Track meet South Greene collected a handful of medals.
Natalie Foshie came in second place in the girls discus with a heave of 111’6”. York Institute’s Reese Beaty was first at 137’8” and had the four best throws of the event.
In the boys discus South Greene’s Heath Norton was sixth at 114’10”. He placed fifth in the shot put at 43’7.5”.
Alexa Gabbard was third in the triple jump with a leap of 33’4”. She was seventh in the long jump at 15’11”.
South Greene’s mixed 4×400 relay team of Abby Hoxie, Samantha Birdwell, Tripp Neas and Noah Case placed third in the first ever running of the experimental event at the state meet.
In the girls 4×800 relay South Greene was eighth.
