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By Mark Brock
DEKALB COUNTY, GA–Towers Lady Titans and Druid Hills Lady Red Devils both took third place in their respective team standings to lead a pack of 10 DeKalb County girls’ track teams to garner Top 10 finishes in the GHSA State Track and Field Championships held last weekend across the state.
DeKalb brought home nine gold medal performances along the way and two State Meet High Points Awards in a banner weekend on the track.
Towers senior Catherine Forbes brought home two of the gold medals and came up just .07 shy of a third in the Class 2A state meet at Kinnett Stadium in Columbus, Georgia while Towers piled up 75 points behind Oglethorpe County 119.50 and Pace Academy 79.
Forbes won the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.65 edging out senior teammate Serenity Harry (24.86) and then claimed the 400-meter dash (57:34) to repeat the feat completed by former Towers teammate Jemelia Simmons just a year ago. She beat Simmons time of 25.88 in the 200 and was just short of Simmons’ time of 57.33 in the 400. She joined Simmons as the only Towers girls to win either event. Forbes was also named the Class 2A Girls State Track High Points Champion.
Harry edged out Forbes for the 100-meter dash gold 11.93 to 12.00 as the two swapped medal finishes in the 100 and 200 events. Forbes also took a silver in the triple jump with a leap of 37’-01.5” as she accounted for 36 individual points in the meet to be the Class 3A Outstanding Performer.
Macada McDonald grabbed a silver in the 100-meter hurdles (15.61) and was fourth in the 300-meter hurdles (46.02). Towers also picked up 10 combined points with a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 4×100 (50.04) and 4×200 (1:45.30) relays.
CLASS 4A
The Druid Hills Lady Red Devils finished five points out of second with 56 points to trail state champion Marist (96) and runner-up Jefferson (61) at the Class 4A State Championships at Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.
Arabia Mountain was fourth with 43 while Miller Grove picked up a 10th consecutive Top 10 finish in a three-way tie for ninth with 30 points. Stephenson finished just out of the Top 10 in 12th with 28 points.
Sophomore Sanaa Frederick swept the gold medals in the 100-meter (11.93) and the 200-meter (24.34) dashes to become the first Red Devil to win either event and also sweep both. She was also named the Class 4A Girls High Points Champion.
The Druid Hills 4×100 relay team of Jadyn Bolden, Miya Carthan, Sanaa Frederick and Sole Frederick ran to the gold in a time of 47.69 to win the state event for the first time for the Red Devils. Druid Hills also picked up a silver medal in the 4×400 relay (3:53.64) and bronze by Harley Martz in the 800-meter run (2:21.73).
Arabia Mountain was led by a pair of gold medal winners as well in Davenae Fagan in the 400-meter run (54.67) and Kailey Elliott in the 100-meter hurdles (14.18).
Miller Grove’s versatile Rashunek Tyler-Thompson brought home two silver and one bronze in individual events. She took second in the 100-meter hurdles (14.43) behind Elliott and second in the long jump (18-02.00) and gave DeKalb a clean sweep of the top three spots on the 200-meter dash podium with a third-place finish with a time of 24.70 joining Frederick of Druid Hills and Fagan of Arabia Mountain.
CLASS 5A
The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs finished seventh in the Class 5A Girls State Championships at Kinnett Stadium in Columbus with 31.50 points led by Jordyn Parker.
Parker won the 200-meter dash (24.49) and was third in the 400-meter dash (56.25) to notch 16 of the Lady Bulldogs 31.50 points in the meet.
Clarkston’s Kionni Graham finished fifth in the long jump (17-11.00) to score four points for the Lady Angoras.
CLASS 6A
Sprinter Mallory Hodge scored 14 of the Tucker Lady Tigers’ 28 points to lead her team to a Top 10 finish of eighth in the Class 6A State Championships at Grisham Stadium in Carrollton.
Hodge claimed a silver medal with her runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash (24.05) and a bronze for third in the 400-meter dash (55.65). She also ran a leg for the team’s 4×100 relay (46.73) that also claimed a silver medal.
CLASS 7A
The Dunwoody Lady Wildcats scored 21 points to snag a 10th place finish in the Class 7A State Track Championships at McEachern High School in Powder Springs.
Trinity Williams led the way with a third-place finish in the long jump (18-02.00) to take home a bronze medal. Claire Shelton scored a total of eight points for her fourth-place finish in the 1600-meter run (5:05.58) and sixth in the 3200-meter run (11:11.78).
Anderson Bowe finished fifth in the discus (120-10.00) and Jeanne Hardy was sixth in the 300-meter hurdles (46.24).
CLASS 3A
Azaria Green made the podium in both the shot put and discus to score nine points for the Redan Lady Raiders good for 21sst out of 34 teams in the Class 3A State Track Championships at Grisham Stadium in Carrollton.
Green took fourth in the shot put (37-08.00) and fifth in the discus (119-08.00) for Redan.
Cedar Grove finished 25th with four points as the 4×400 relay team ran a time of 4:12.30 to finish fifth in the state.
Top photo: Towers senior Catherine Forbes brought home two of the gold medals. Photo provided by Mark Brock.
Mark Brock is the DeKalb County School District Athletics Specialist for Media Relations.