By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
The Southside High School boys track and field team certainly made a good impression in Gulf Shores last weekend.
Helped by four medals and 10 top 10 finishes, the Panthers finished fifth out of 35 teams at the Class 5A state meet on May 6.
Jamvion Jones (pictured above) came away with quite the haul, winning two individual medals and earning a third as part of a relay team. The senior speedster won the gold medal in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.98. He took the third-place bronze in the 100-meter dash at 10.95 seconds.
Jones was the anchor leg on Southside’s second-place 4×100-meter relay team along with
Gauge NeSmith, Cody Roberts and Kody Kueny with a time of 43.62.
Earning points for Southside were Will Shirley with a fifth-place throw of 46-00.00 in the shot put, Jackson Griggs with a fifth-place time of 4:30.10 in the 1600-meter run and a sixth-place time of 10:01.77 in the 3200-meter run; Evan Christopher with a seventh-place time of 10:04.42 in the 3200-meter run and an eighth-place time of 4:34.78 in the 1600-meter run; the 4×800-meter relay team of Hayden Tucker, Grant Mathews, Jonathan Russell and Evan Christopher with a time of 8:50.54 and Cole Chastain with a seventh-place throw of 156-08 in the javelin.
The Ashville girls finished 14th out of 36 teams in Class 4A. Medaling for the Lady Bulldogs were Emma Drinkard, who won the bronze in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.76, and the 4×800-meter relay team of Taylor Knight, Allie Cone, Molly Northam and Alana Whitehead, which posted a time of 10:19.74.
Just missing out on a medal was Ashville’s 4×400-meter relay team of Molly Northam, Allie Cone, Emma Drinkard and Alana Whiteman, which clocked in fourth at 4:20.62.
Knight also had a pair of top 10 individual efforts, placing sixth in the 1600-meter run at 5:35.73 and seventh in the 3200-meter run at 12:10.02.
Drinkard finished eighth in the 200-meter dash at 26.25, while Lydia Northam’s leap of 4-10.00 was good for 10th place in the high jump.
The Ashville boys ended up with five top 10 performances, highlighted by Greyson Simpson’s fourth-place efforts in the both the javelin at 174-06 and the pole vault at 12-06.00.
Joe Stevens came in eighth in the 3200-meter run at 10:14.17 and 10th in the 800-meter run at 2:02.42, while he and his 4×800-meter relay teammates Coby Caswell, Ryan Matthews and Maddox Vann posted an eighth-place time of 8:35.08.
Other top 10 local finishers were Sardis’ Jake Alewine in the 5A boys high jump (fifth, 6-00.00); Gadsden City’s Kyla Price in the 6A girls 400-meter dash (sixth, 1:00.52); Gadsden City’s Nyla Franklin in the 6A girls high jump (seventh, 5-00.00); Gadsden City’s Mariah Ragland in the 6A girls long jump (seventh, 16-06.25), the Southside 5A girls 4×100-meter relay team of Zoie Menk, Anna Cashman, Rylie Kitchens and Lauren Henderson (seventh, 52.42); Southside’s Kathryn Webb in the 5A girls high jump (eighth, 4-10.00); Etowah’s Trent Bothwell in the 4A boys triple jump (eighth, 41-04.25); Gadsden City’s Karleigh Sheffield in the 6A girls 200-meter dash (ninth, 25.73); the Gadsden City boys 6A 4×400-meter relay team of Cameron Rolley, Caleb Davis, Tylan Sims and Braydon Mayes (ninth, 3:34.47) and Southside’s Kathryn Webb in the 5A girls long jump (10th, 15-00.75).