JOHNSON CITY — What a day it was for Dobyns-Bennett in the TSSAA 1-AAA Sectional track and field meet at Kermit Tipton Stadium.
The Indians finished second Saturday in both the boys and girls competition, and won seven individual events from throws to jumps, sprints to relays. For the Indians, winning those events and getting others qualified for the state meet was more important than the team scores.
“If we’re second in both of them, that means our kids performed well,” Dobyns-Bennett coach Bob Bingham said. “Most of our bubble kids got down there (to the state meet). We got some nice wins.”
Sally McReynolds doubled up with wins in the shot put and discus. She had a heave of 34-02.50 to win the shot put by nearly two feet. Her throw in the discus of 118-03 was nearly five feet farther than runner-up Rylee Durrence from Science Hill.
“The shot put around here is tough competition, so it’s great to win the medal,” McReynolds said. “I just try to get a good one out there. Our coaches do a great job having his prepared.”
Kamarion Marshall nearly doubled up. His winning leap of 22-feet 8 in the long jump edged the best effort from West Ridge’s Ian Neff by two inches. Marshall finished second to Brody Foster of Knox Halls in the triple jump.
They were ready to go in the running events as well. The girls’ 4x800 relay team of Mattea Mazzilli, Carlee Cradic, Tiesha Turner and Gigi Venzon started the track portion of the event with a school record 9:22.65 to beat rival Science Hill by four seconds.
Venzon later won the 400 meter dash at 57.60 seconds, a race which Mazzilli finished third. Two events later, Turner won the 800 meter run at 2:18.33. Dace Potts added a win for the Dobyns-Bennett boys with his 400 meter win of 49.38 to edge Hunter Hawkins from West Ridge by just .012 second.
“Tiesha ran a super smart race and Gigi ran her best 400 this year,” Bingham said. “The girls 4x9 set the school record which was big, same as Sally winning both the shot and discus. The points were really split up on the boys’ side. Dace ran some people down that last 100 meters to win the 400. Kamarion qualified for four races, and won the long jump. He was on a 38 (second) pace when hit the sixth hurdle.”
Jeremiah Jones cleared 6-feet-3 in the high jump to finish second in that event, a result matched by Madison Pendleton, who went 10-feet to runner-up in the pole vault.
Maddox Pruitt was runner-up at 15.09 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, while the boys’ 4x200 and girls’ 4x400 relay teams each posted second-place finishes.
West Ridge closed out the meet with its boys 4x400 relay team of Braylen Funderburg, Ian Neff, Heath Kerns and Hunter Hawkins qualifying for the state meet. Previously, the 4x200 relay team also qualified.
“It was a great way to close out the meet since one of our own main leg guys got hurt last week,” West Ridge coach Nick Copas said. “Braylen Funderburg set up in his place, ran his tail off the first leg and put us in a good position.”
Neff and Hawkins qualified in multiple other events. Hawkins was second to Potts in the 400 and third in the 200 meters. Neff was second in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump. Other West Ridge athletes to qualify included Elaina Kennedy in the discus and Finlee Taylor in the high jump.
Daniel Boone sprinter Evan Tomlinson put on another spectacular showing. He won the 100 meter dash at 10.56 seconds. Later in the meet, he rallied to beat Sevier County’s Taylor Madison and set a school record of 21.20 seconds in the 200 meters.
The meet began with an exhibition mixed 4x400 relay which qualified the winning Science Hill team at 3:40.82 for the state meet in a non-scoring event. Farragut was runner-up at 3:44.09 with Hardin Valley third.
Boone qualified in both the 4x800 and 4x400 relays. They started with the 4x800 and ended with a 4x400 team consisting of Tomlinson, Adam Kelley, Riley Burns and Fish Battel.
“That was exciting. We led off with Evan who gave us everything he had,” Boone coach James Garst said. “I’m really proud of Riley Burns, a senior who gets to go to his first state track meet. Then, Fisher and Adam brought us home.”
