Citizens Christian Academy track and field team competed on Friday, April 23rd at the GAPPS state meet at Lamar Co. High School in Barnesville.
Despite a small, young team of four consisting of Jane Ashley Rowell, Morgan Hodges, Maddi Knight, and Kaitlyn Tanner, the girls took state runner-up for Division I with a total of 108 points. They came in just 2 points short of the championship to the nine member team of Central Fellowship Christian Academy.
Leading the way for CCA was freshman Kaitlyn Tanner and sophomore Jane Ashley Rowell, who claimed overall meet high point award and runner-up with 38 and 36 individual points, respectively.
Tanner placed first in the long jump with a personal record (PR) leap of 15’ 1.5”, in the 100m dash with a time of 13.41, and the 200m dash with a PR time of 28.10. She also earned a second place finish in the 400m with a PR time of 1:05.45.
Rowell placed first in the triple jump with a PR leap of 33’ 1” and in the 100m hurdles with a PR time of 17.79. She earned second place in both the high jump (4’8”) and the 300m hurdles with a PR time of 51.86.
Morgan Hodges, a sophomore led the way in the discus and shot put for CCA earning 1st and 3rd place, respectively. Her 1st place discus throw of 76’ 10” and 3rd place shot put throw of 26’ 5.5” were both PRs for Morgan.
The girls 4x100m relay team of Rowell, Hodges, Knight (freshman), and Tanner took first place, while the 4×400 relay took second.
After such an impressive meet, head coach Katie Roberts shared, “I couldn’t be prouder of these girls and all their hard work and dedication this season. To perform so well at state and set so many PRs without the facilities to practice their events regularly shows how determined these girls were to win. We made some adjustments towards the end of the season and some of the girls tried new events to maximize our points at state and it really paid off well for the team.”
On the boys’ side, senior Stetson Swails and sophomore Jake Spivey led the way, earning 11 individual points each.
Swails earned a second place finish in the 1600m run with a PR time of 5:20.81 and 6th in the 800m run with a PR time of 2:18.2.
Spivey took a 3rd place and 5th place finish in the 110m hurdles (20.01) and 300m hurdles (49.4). Both runs were PRs for him. He also placed 7th in the long jump.
Sophomore Cody Davis set a PR in the triple jump with a leap of 38’ 1” and earning 3rd place. He also picked up an 8th place finish in the long jump.
Also competing in field events were Sophomores Brayden Bradshaw and Logan Fountain. Bradshaw picked up a 7th place finish in the discus and Fountain finished 9th in the shot put.
Coach Roberts commented, “These guys worked really hard this season! Several athletes tried new events throughout the season and placed in state in those and I’m really looking forward to seeing them improve on these events going forward. For our only senior, Stetson, I was really happy to see him end his HS career with Personal Records on both of his events.”
Also competing on the CCA team this season were Alexandria Andrews, Anna Giddens (injury), Khush Patel, and Alex Dunn.