The Signal Mountain girls and the McCallie boys know a little bit about winning big track meets, so it’s no surprise that these teams prevailed over a large field Saturday at Chattanooga Christian’s Mike Fingerle Track & Field Stadium in the 2024 Fast Break Invitational.
Both have won more than their share of state meets in recent years and it appears that both will make another serious run when the big meet takes place at MTSU at the end of May.
But on a day where the sky was clear, temperatures were a bit on the cool side at the start of the day and a nagging wind made things uncomfortable at times, these two teams proved they still have quality athletes in a number of events as the Lady Eagles prevailed with 101 points while McCallie was even more dominant by scoring 179.
Baylor finished second among the girls with 70 points while GPS was third with 52.5. Cleveland was a distant second among the guys with 58.5 points while host CCS was third with 52.
It’s been a whirlwind spring for McCallie’s Rodney Stoker, who was named the head coach for the Blue Tornado in January to replace the legendary Mike Wood. He really didn’t have to do much coaching on Saturday as his kids took care of business.
“I feel pretty good right now as this is a contagious group who all want to be good,” Stoker said midway through the meet when his team had already built a commanding lead.
“We had a great indoor season, but the outdoor stuff starts now. We had some really good performances today, including sophomore Andrew Smith, who won the 100, 200 and 400 dashes. And I was real proud of Drake Williams, who won the high jump and continues to get better.
“And it was nice to see Teddy Wingfield clear 13 feet in the pole vault as we took 1-2-3 in that event. But I’m pleased with where we are at this point. The kids showed up ready to compete today and we’re pointing toward the state meet where we hope to improve on two straight runner-up finishes,” Stoker added.
Signal Mountain coach Dustin Carpenter is in his 11th season leading the Eagles and his girls have won four state titles while his boys and girls have combined to win 15 state titles in cross country.
The Lady Eagles got off to a great start in the field events and were able to prevail over some pretty tough competition, despite the fact their number one distance runner, sophomore Maxine Richard, was in Arkansas competing in a mountain bike race.
“We’ve had a really good day and I’m super proud of the performances we had in the field events as we got first in the high jump, triple jump and long jump. Those are some big points, but we also had more than one girl place in those events and those secondary points are always important.
“This team is starting to come together. We finished third in the state last year and were really disappointed, but they have that internal drive to get back to the top. We have a bunch of girls willing to do multiple events and they’ve set the bar pretty high.
“We’re always trying to look forward and we’re trying to get things set for the sectionals at the end, but our goal is to find where to put our kids where they can score the most points,” he smiled.
While Smith was a three-time winner for McCallie on Saturday, Kendrick Reynolds won two with firsts in the 300 hurdles and the triple jump. Carson Gentle had a toss of 53 feet, 3.5 inches to win the shot put while teammate Carson Lawrence was second in the triple jump and also second in the long jump.
Marlee Burkley was the leader for the Signal Mountain girls as she won the long jump and high jump before taking fifth in the 200. She really did well in the high jump where she posted a personal record by clearing 5-6, which was a best effort by some four inches.
Kate Harman and Anna Neal took 1-2 in the triple jump while teammate Arianna Anthony was fourth. And the Signal Mountain relays had a good day as well with a first in the 4x200, second in the 4x400 and third in the 4x800.
And just to be on the safe side, Hannah Laramore posted a time of 11:36.36 to win the 3200 run in the next-to-last event to put the icing on the cake for the Signal Mountain girls.
The complete results are also posted on this website.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)