ROME — Brantley County had one near miss in medaling here at the two-day Class A Division 1 track finals held at Barron Stadium.
Mailey Thigpen placed ninth in the discus finishing one spot short in earning a medal during the Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 finals. Mallory Crosby and Malachi Saunders each finished 13th in their respective events with Avery Crews finishing 14th.
The last Lady Herons to record a top four showing at the state meet was Jaymi White finishing third in the 2011 Class AA long jump event. The last Heron with a top four showing was DeVein Saunders winning the 2023 Class AA high jump event.
The top eight qualifiers for each event across two Sectionals advanced to the final meet.
More than 30 teams participated in the girls’ meet, the first without private schools, with 29 schools recording points.
Vidala won its first title since claiming the Class AA crown in 2018 finishing with 70 points. The Lady Indians were followed by Model (63), Bremen (57), Banks County (52), Bleckley County (52), Heard County (45), Fannin County (39), Region 1 member Thomasville (37), Social Circle (30) and Oglethorpe County (30).
Four other Region 1 members earned at least one point with Jeff Davis (13) finishing 13th, Worth County (9) placing 21st, Berrin (2) finishing 27th and Fitzgerald (1) tying for 29th.
Bleckley County won its first boys’ crown since capturing the 2019 Class AA title finishing with 59 points with 37 of the 40plus schools in the field scoring. The remaining Top 10 consisted of B.E.S.T. Academy (55), Social Circle (53), Bremen (42), Region 1 member Thomasville (39), Swainsboro (34), Fannin County (29.5), Chattooga (29), Towers (29) and Commerce (25).
Region 1 also had four other boys’ programs to score points with Worth County (18) finishing 15th, Fitzgerald (15) placing 18th, Berrien (7) tying for 30th and Jeff Davis (6) finishing 33rd.
Girls’ meet
Crosby recorded a 101-foot throw in the discuss event finishing ninth. The winning mark was 125’10” with the eighth-place mark at 107’4”.
Mallory Crosby posted the 13th-fastest time of 50.55 seconds during the 300-meter hurdles qualifying. The pre-lim fastest time was 46.72 seconds with an eighthplace time of 49.41 seconds. The event finals winning time was 44.66 seconds.
Avery Crews placed 14th in the 1,600m event with a time of 6:10.59. The winning time was 5:09.59 with an eighth-place medal time of 5:27.17.
Boys’ meet
Saunders cleared the high jump bar at 5’10” to place 13th in the field. The winning mark was 6’6” with an 8th-place medal mark of 6 foot.
