Green goes for the gold
- Updated: February 8, 2015
Piedmont junior wins two events, finishes second in another; Bulldogs’ Benefield second in boys 60
By East Alabama Sports Today
BIRMINGHAM – Piedmont’s Karri Green won two events and finished second in another to highlight the second day of action for Calhoun County athletes at the State Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Green won the girls 1A-3A 400 meters (59.71) and 60-meter hurdles (9.25) and finished second in the 60-meter dash (7.96). She was seeded first in the two events she won, second in the other.
“I wasn’t expecting to get anything,” Green said. “I was trying to (win the events), but I didn’t expect it. I’m just happy with what I got.”
Piedmont’s Mitchell Benefield and Skylar Fontaine were the highest-placing boys at the meet, finishing second (9.04) and fifth (10.38), respectively, to a record performance in the boys 1A-3A 60 hurdles. Trey Cunningham of Winfield City blew away the field at 8.22.
With Green’s help, the Piedmont girls finished sixth in the 1A-3A team standings; Ohatchee was 10th and Pleasant Valley 14th. The Bulldogs were seventh in the boys standings. Oxford finished ninth among the 6A boys, 15th in the girls standings.
Green, a junior, started her day Saturday by winning the 400 in her fastest-ever time indoors. Before the race some of the girls were asking if she were the one who had run the 59 earlier in the year. She didn’t say anything because “I didn’t want to jinx it” in the main event.
“It feels great not to fall,” she said, a reference to the tumble she took in the event at last year’s outdoor state final that served as her motivation. “Winning it gave me the feeling like it was going to be a good day. Inside my head I was jumping up and down.”
She followed it up with the win in the 60 hurdles, a race that went back and forth early before Green left her closest challenger with two hurdles to go. She ran her second-best time ever.
She just didn’t have enough to catch Altamont’s Taylor Young in the 60, finishing a solid second but a tenth of a second behind the winner.
“Unfortunately I can’t race that girl again because she’s a senior,” Green said.
Other point-producing performances on the second day of the event were delivered by …
Piedmont’s Seth Pope, eighth in the boys 1A-3A 400 (55.42); Piedmont’s Krae Keener, sixth in the 1A-3A shot put (37-3 ½); Oxford’s Trevon Sanders, sixth in the 6A 60 hurdles (9.35) and Oxford’s Kaylan Banks, seventh in the 6A 400 (51.19). Piedmont was sixth in the 1A-3A 4×400 relay (3:56.24).
On the girls’ side, Oxford’s Brianna Calhoun was fourth in the 6A shot put (32-4 ¼); Pleasant Valley’s Brenna Harris fifth in the 1A-3A high jump (8-0). Ohatchee was seventh in the 1A-3A 4×800 relay (12:37.99) and Piedmont was seventh in the 1A-3A 4×400 relay (4:49.71).
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