Taking the stand
- Updated: February 6, 2016
Calhoun County produces 3 medal winners on Friday’s record first day of the state high school indoor track championships
Ohatchee senior Courtney Poole (R) stands with coach Casey Howell after finishing third in the 1A-3A girls shot put Friday at the state indoor track championship.
By East Alabama Sports Today
BIRMINGHAM — Calhoun County produced three medal winners on Friday’s first day of the state high school indoor track championships at Birmingham’s CrossPlex.
Ohatchee senior Courtney Poole capped a journey that parallels the program when she finished third in the girls 1A-3A shot put, while Piedmont’s Wil Mitchell finished second in the 1A-3A boys pole vault and Piedmont’s girls 4×200 relay team finished second.
Piedmont is currently seventh in the 1A-3A girls team standings. Its boys are tied for ninth.
Poole, competing in only the second indoor track meet in her life, scored a medal-winning throw of 30-feet, 5 ¼ inches.
“It was very exciting,” said Poole, a top eight finalist outdoors each of the last two seasons. “I’ve worked hard. Every meet I try to improve.”
Ohatchee coach Casey Howell said seeing Poole on the medal stand was “special” for him. If anyone “deserves” that kind of success, he said, it is Poole, a multi-sport athlete at the school who will be signing a volleyball scholarship with Southern Union Wednesday.
“Courtney was in our track program when no one else was in our program,” he said. “If I built it, she did, too. She was the first person in Calhoun County history to participate in the state heptathlon. What she had done for our program can never be replaced.”
Mitchell jumped 12-feet in the 1A-3A boys pole vault. The Lady Bulldogs’ relay team of Karri Green, Megan Mohon, Tatiana Jenkins and Melione Richardson ran 10 seconds faster than its seed time and finished one-tenth of a second behind winner Westminster-Oak Mountain.
Piedmont’s Mohon (8-6) and Macy Hanson (8-0) finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the girls 1A-3A pole vault. White Plains’ Savannah Yates (8-0) was sixth in the girls 4A-5A pole vault. Oxford’x 4×200 relay team was seventh in 6A girls (1:52.73). Pleasant Valley’s 4×200 relay team was eighth in 1A-3A boys (1:43.07). Oxford’s 4×200 boys team was fifth in their 6A race.
Several runners will have chances for state titles today. Piedmont’s Green ran the fastest qualifying times in the 1A-3A girls 60 and 60 hurdles; she’s also favored in the 400. Oxford’s Laquavious Ford and Antuan Crowder posted the fourth and fifth best qualifying times in the boys 6A 60.
AHSAA TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Class 1A-3A Girls Standings
1. American Christian 21, 2. Winfield 30.5, 3. Montgomery Academy 28, 4. Cottage Hill 22, 5. Westminster-Oak Mountain 19, 6. Bayside Academy 16.5, 7. Piedmont 16, 13. Ohatchee 6.
Class 1A-3A Boys Standings
1. Winfield 38, 2. American Christian 32.5, 3. Madison Academy 27, 9. Piedmont 8, 16. Pleasant Valley 1.
Others
4A-5A Girls: 15. White Plains 3.
6A Girls: 13. Oxford 2.
6A Boys: 14. Oxford 4.
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