GULF SHORES, ALA., MAY 6 — No one expected this.

Two weather delays, which forced meet officials to scramble to accommodate rescheduled events, plus a ton of meet records, marked the 2023 Alabama High School Athletic Association Track & Field Championships held for Classes 7A to 4A at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex.

At least 14 meet records were broken or tied, and two powerhouses — Class 7A Hoover and Class 5A Scottsboro — dominated their respective classifications with program sweeps.

 

 

The Hoover boys won their fourth title in the last five years and 10th in the last 13, while the girls won their third straight and 10th in the last 12 seasons.

The Bucs defeated Vestavia Hills 146.5 to 89.5 to take the boys title, with Hewitt-Trussville (54), Huntsville (54) and Auburn (51) rounding out the top five. On the girls side, Hoover scored 125 points to defeat Chelsea (79). Hewitt-Trussville had 71, with Auburn (69) and Foley (49) rounding out the top five.

“It’s just a blessing and I’m grateful to be here in front of Hoover, following the footsteps of Devon Hind and keep the tradition alive,” Hoover head coach Chris Schmidt said. “I was very, very pleased. You know me, I like to nickel and dime and I don’t like to focus on just an individual, but focus on the team.”

Hoover stacked nickels and dimes all over the meet, with a lot of other spare change. The team got double wins from Jay Avery in the long jump (23 feet, 5 inches) and triple jump (47-8), as well as a record-setting performance in the javelin from George Mann (198-8). Hoover also got a big win in the 400 from sophomore Demarion Gardner (48.08), the pole vault from Collin Pate (16-0), and a win in the 4x400 (3:17.25).

Hoover’s girls got a lone first-place individual finish from Gabrielle Washington in the 400 (56.15), but the Bucs placed in numerous other events, and won the 4x100 and 4x400 relays with times of 47.35 and 3:53.03.

“They ran well, and they were a few seconds off from what they’ve been running earlier in the year,” Schmid said. “But it’s been a long weekend and with the weather and all I was very pleased. We have great kids. We have a great coaching staff and they believe in the process.”

Besides Mann’s record-setting performance in the javelin, Vestavia Hills set a new state meet record in the boys 4x800 (7:44.67). Vestavia’s Alex Leath — who won the 800 — broke a meet record in the 1,600 (4:07.33), while Auburn’s Maxwell Hardin (4:07.44) and Huntsville’s Jackson Harris (4:11.74) were also under the meet record. Hardin broke the meet record in the 3,200, which he won in 9:11.55.

On the girls side, Foley’s Destiny Roper tied the 100 record (11.73) while Chelsea’s Cady McPhail broke the meet record in the 1,600 (4:52.14).  

“I felt a little nervous, but I felt confident in myself,” said Roper after the 100-meter win. “I felt like I was going to do my best, and I did. My qualifying time gave me some confidence, and it boosted my head up just a little bit. I’m going to do some things to get faster.”

In addition, Kaitlyn Ford of Bob Jones and Nyel Settles of Hoover broke the record in the girls high jump, clearing 5-8 and 5-6 respectively.

 Other notable performances in Class 7A came from Alabaster Thompson’s Bradley Franklin, who won the 110-meter high hurdles (13.92) and 300-meter hurdles (37.70), Oak Mountain’s Devan Moss, who won the 100 meters (10.65), and Jordan Urrutia of Bob Jones, who won the 200 (21.51).

 

It came down to the 4x400 relay, and Homewood came up big, finishing third in the race while Mobile’s St. Paul’s Episcopal failed to score, for the Patriots to pull off a two-point victory, 88-86, for the boys team title. Tuscaloosa Northridge was third with 59 points while Mobile’s UMS-Wright and Clay-Chalkville scored 50 and 42 points to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.

Homewood got a big win from Slate Rohrer in the 300-meter hurdles, and overcame five St. Paul's victories to get the win. St. Paul’s got wins from freshman Anthony Jones in the shot put (51-2.50), Spencer Marston in the javelin (176-5), Stone Smith in the 1,600 (4:14.55). Evan Wrights in the 800 (1:55.45) and also the 4x800 team (7:57.77).

Clay-Chalkville’s Jaylen Mbakwe was a double winner in the 100 (10.70) and 200 (21.57). Mbakwe also anchored the winning 4x100 team (42.30). Benjamin Russell High’s Malcolm Simmons won the long jump (24-1) and high jump (6-8).

Mountain Brook won its second straight girls team title, defeating Tuscaloosa-Northridge 94-76, while Mobile’s St. Paul’s Episcopal was third with 69.5 points. Homewood and Saraland were fourth and fifth with 66.5 and 66 points, respectively. But while Mountain Brook dominated the distances, getting a 1-2 finish from Reagan Riley and Lucy Benton in the 1,600 (4:53:28/4:57.10) and Riley winning the 3,200 (10:33.71) it was Saraland’s Morgan Davis who stole the show.

The University of Kentucky-bound Davis won four events, breaking meet records in two of them. She won the 100 meters in 11.63 in Day 2 of the competition, then broke the all classes record in the long jump, soaring US#2 20-8.25. The next day, she became the first Alabama female to clear 6-0 in the high jump, breaking a 38-year-old record set by Murphy’s Kelly Gregory. She also won the 200 (24.06).

Davis' high jump performance matched US#1 and the long jump is US#4.

“I was definitely worried because I didn’t want to have to come back after the 200 and try to (high) jump because I knew my legs were going to be dead,” Davis said. “I had to keep moving and stay hydrated. I knew I couldn’t think about the height, so that helped me a lot and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, so I decided to have fun with it.”

Another broken record came in the pole vault, where Homewood’s Brooke Walden cleared 12-10, breaking the old meet record of 12-9 set by McGill-Toolen’s Margaret Ollinger in 2014.

Calera’s Jordon Bray was a double winner in the 400 (55.58) and 800 (2:11.88), while St. Paul’s  Janie Ford won the 100-meter hurdles (14.33) and triple jump (40-11.25) and was second in the long jump to Davis (19-1). Ford was also second to Shades Valley’s Reah DeGraffenried in the 300-hurdles. Both broke the previous meet record, with DeGraffenried running 42.48 and Ford running 42.68.

 

Once again, Scottsboro showed why it dominates Class 5A competition, with or without ace pole vaulter Maddox Hamm.

Using a strong performance from its distance corps after Hamm was sidelined with a hamstring injury, Scottsboro’s boys scored 116 points, easily besting Birmingham’s John Carroll Catholic (76). Arab was third (45), while Demopolis (43.33) and Southside-Gadsden (43) were fourth and fifth respectively.

Scottsboro’s girls were just as strong, routing Opelika Beauregard 113 to 60 while Arab (59.5), Birmingham-Wenonah (48.5) and Lawrence County (46) rounded out the top five.

“We had kids scoring in most of the events,” Scottsboro coach Luke Robinson said. “We kind of knew coming in that if we show up and everybody does their job, we could take care of it. It seemed like in day one, we were scoring more points than we were supposed to here or there, and a lot of athletes who might have been seeded 10th or 11th ended up scoring and getting points. We had a good weekend, top to bottom.

“We hate not having Maddox here. He’s been at this meet since he was a seventh-grader and this is his senior year. It’s horrible timing to make it that far and dominate all these years and come up two weeks before the state meet and have a hamstring mess-up. We’re missing Maddox for sure.”

There was enough in the tank for Scottsboro’s boys to take home the blue map trophy. Distance ace Evan Hill set meet records in the 1,600 (4:14.04) and 3,200 (9:01.59) and also ran a leg on the victorious 4x800 relay.

For the girls, Emma Bradford won the 800, 1,600, and 3,200 (2:23.00/5:08.59/11:11.96), while Caroline Sanders won the long jump (18-10.75) and was second in the pole vault (10-6) and triple jump (37-4).

Hill’s record-setting performance in the 3,200 was even more remarkable considering it came after a nearly six-hour rain delay.

“It (the delay) definitely messed with me because I did my full warmup before the earlier race (time),” he said. “We were getting our spikes on, and it definitely screwed us up. We had to come back and do a modified warmup, but I definitely don’t think it was messing me up. I was just racing the race and doing what I could. I just wish I had done my third 800 better. It’s always that third 800 where I go (too) slow.”

Less than 30 seconds after Hill’s record-breaking performance in the 3,200, Tallassee’s Kayden Slay cleared 7-0 in the high jump, breaking the old record of 6-10.50 by Chilton County’s Lance Lenoir. The feat was even more amazing in that it was Slay’s sixth track and field meet. In addition, weather delayed the competition with the bar at 5-8.

“It’s really crazy,” Slay said. “Coming into this competition, at sectionals I was only able to jump 6-4 because of dirty track conditions, so I was a little nervous coming in. We came in here; coach gave me some good advice, and I was able to get it done. When we came back (from the rain delay) my legs felt a little sore; but I just kept on jumping and got higher and higher.”

More notable performances came from Shonedra Richardson of Demopolis, who broke the 100 record, running 11.77, and also got a second-place finish in the long jump (17-7.25) to go with her victories in the 200 (24.49) and triple jump (39-5); Vigor’s Jerrian Graham won the boys 100 (10.75) and anchored the winning 4x100 relay team (43.13); Jamvion Jones of Southside-Gadsden won the 200 (21.98); Wenonah’s Ivy Teachey swept the hurdles hurdles (14.91/45.88).

 

Anniston had more than enough to outlast Priceville and middle-distance ace Adam Taylor to take the boys title. The Bulldogs defeated Priceville 81-54, with Montgomery Academy (48), Handley of Roanoke (40) and Brooks of Killen (40) rounding out the top five.

Anniston got a double win from Jayden Money Lewis in the 100 (10.72) and 200 (21.89), as well as a first-place finish from Malachi Taylor in the triple jump (44-3.75). In addition, the Bulldogs won the 4x400 (3:27.89) and 4x800 (8:17.29).

But it was Priceville’s Taylor, an Alabama-Huntsville commit who had shining performances even in defeat. He won three events — the 400 (50.89), the 800 (meet record 1:55.04), and 1,600 (4:21.33).

“This is what I’ve been working for the past couple of months,” he said. “It shows that I can go fast every single time. In the 800, I didn’t go as fast as I wanted to. I wanted to go sub-1:55. I wanted to PR, but winning was bigger than PR’ing.”

Another notable performance came in the javelin, where Haleyville’s Matthew Coleman broke the meet record with 196-6 to best his teammate Brett Coleman (179-7).  Mobile Christian’s Michael Moore won the high jump, clearing 6-6 and edging out Skyler Stovall of Montgomery Academy (6-4) and Hanceville’s Will Calvert (6-2).

In Class 4A girls, Brooks defeated Daphne’s Bayside Academy 87.5-58.5. Montgomery Academy (49), Cherokee County (39), and Anniston White Plains (35) rounded out the top five. For Brooks, Ellie Partrick won the discus (125-8) and the javelin (138-9), while White Plains was led by Maddyn Conn, who won the 1,600 (5:10.16) and 3,200 (11:23.89). Partrick also finished second in the shot (33-7.50).

Fairhope St. Michael Catholic’s Tia Acker was a triple winner in the 100 (12.05), 200 (24.68) and 400 (56.63), while Satsuma’s Presleigh Montalvo won the long jump (18-4). Mobile Christian’s Hailey Padgett won the 100-meter hurdles (16.08).

 

CLASS 3A 

Ethan Lemons of Viewmont ran an all-time state best 8:56.50 in the 3,200 meters and also won the 1,600 in 4:12.24 for a second meet record. 

Dadeville senior Antojuan Woody won the boys 100 and 200 meter titles in honor of his friend and former teammate Philstavious Dowdell, the 2022 champion, who was shot and killed in April in a mass shooting that made national headlines.