Redan Places 3rd in Region 6-AAAA Track Championships

The Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers and Dunwoody Wildcats both captured
their second consecutive Region 6-AAAA track championships on Wednesday at
Panthersville Stadium.

The defending Class AAAA state champions Lady Panthers won seven of the 16 events on the way to compiling 138 points to finish 45 points ahead of second place Dunwoody’s 93 points.

was third with 79 points following closely by Chamblee in fourth with 76.

The Lady Panthers built up a hefty 70 points through three gold medals and
two silver medals in the field events. Senior Demetria Dickens won both
the shot put (40-08.00) and discus (120-08) while junior teammate Kenya
Wheeler was second in both the shot put (38-06.00) and discus (112-06) to
give Southwest a one-two finish in both events.  Senior Arial Walker took
first in the triple jump with a leap of 38-09.00 in helping the Lady
Panthers to the big first day.

Senior Shunika Jarrells matched Dickens two gold medals with two of her
own in winning the 100 meter dash (12.31) and the 200 meter dash (25.08)
to add 20 points to the Lady Panthers’ total. Senior Charlotte Williams
collected a gold medal in the 400 meter dash (56.95) and the 4x400 meter
relay team grabbed gold with a time of 3:52.41 to edge out Dunwoody
(3:53.03) in the fourth best time in Georgia this season.

Dunwoody’s second place finish was keyed by a first place in the 4x100
meter relay (47.80) and Alex Cameron’s gold in the 1600 meter run
(5:07.83) to go with a pair of silver medal finishes by sophomore Erika
Banks in the 100 (12.44) and the 200 (25.34).

Redan's India Hammond and Nikkia Jefferson, both seniors, finished
one-two, respectively, in the 100 meter hurdles and the 300 meter hurdles
to lead the Lady Raiders to the third place finish. Hammond ran times of
14.55 in the 100 and 44.22 in the 300 with Jefferson finishing the 100 in
14.97 and the 300 in 44.67.

Alyssa Felton won the long jump (19-02.00) and finished third in the 200
(25.40) to lead Chamblee’s fourth place finish.

Tatiyana Caffey of Miller Grove rounded out the DeKalb gold medal winners
by winning the 800 meter run in a time of 2:15.64.

The Dunwoody Wildcats and Lakeside Vikings fought it out for the boys’
title in what was almost an exact replay of the DeKalb County Champions
won by the Wildcats 71-70. The Wildcats stretched the victory to a mere
2.5 points (90.50-88) over Lakeside in the Region 6-AAAA Championships
while Mays finished third with 74.50, Marist fourth with 74 and Redan in
fifth with 69 points.

Dazel Claytor was the only Wildcat to win a gold medal as he took the long
jump in 23-04.25 which is the fourth best leap in the state this season.
The Wildcats had four silver medals and three bronze as they passed and
left behind Carver of Atlanta which held the lead after the field events.

The Vikings picked up gold medals in the in the 800 meter run by Brent Reynolds (1:56.12) and the triple jump by Jason Lewis (43-02.50).

Redan senior Troy Howard took first in the 100 meter hurdles (14.67) and
Miller Grove’ senior Ezekiel Lee won both the 100 (10.77) and 200 (21.78)
meter dashes as they helped their teams to fifth and sixth place finishes,
respectively.  Miller Grove also took gold in the 4x100 relay in a time of
42.13.

Other DeKalb County gold medalists include Tucker senior Darious Massey in
the high jump (6-02.00) and Southwest DeKalb’s Christopher Morris in the
300 meter hurdles (38.57).

The top four finishers in each event qualified for the State Sectionals
set for April 28 at Greenbrier High School in Augusta.

Mark Brock is the Athletics Statistician/Information Officer/Web Manager for DeKalb County Schools Athletics/East DeKalb Campus.

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