The Richmond Hill boys’ and girls’ track teams took first and second place, respectively at the Region 2-AAAAAA meet, qualifying several athletes for sectionals.
“We were able to qualify almost all athletes that we anticipated moving onto the next round,” Coach Levi Sybert said. “We will have to wait to see the final sectional meet program to get a clearer idea of who has the chance to move onto state.”
The sectional is Saturday at Grovetown.
The boys’ team had several athletes qualify in multiple events. They are Sam James: 200, 400, 4x100, 4x400; L’Marqez Prather: 100, 200, 4x100, 4x400; Justin Jeffery: triple jump, 4x100, 4x400; Rakeem Littles: 800, 1600; Jalen Murray: 1600, 3200; Matthew Clark: 100 and 4x100; and Lachlan Holt: shot put, discus.
Other qualifiers include Lucas: Van Ginkel, 800; Cooper Williams, 3200; and Lance Miracle, shot put.
Three relay teams qualified. Clark, James, Jeffery and Prather in the 4x100, with James, Jeffery, Bryce Eads and Danny Haddo in the 4x400. Blake Crump, Giovanni Bass, Joshua Quiller and Marquis Sparks also qualified in the 4x400.
“We are excited to win the region meet this year, as we had to get more aggressive on procuring field event points to make sure that we stayed in the hunt for the title,” Sybert said of the boys’ team. He also noted that assistant coaches Heather Sybert and Josh Eads prepared athletes across the board to perform well in the field events.
For the girls’ team, Mackenzie Frei qualified in the 100, 200, 4x100 and 4x400. Dericka Infante, Kaiyana Peoples and Talisha Duval join her on the 4x100 team, while Kalia Whyte joins Frei, Infante and Duval on the 4x400 squad.
Peoples also qualified for the 100 and 300 hurdles, with Whyte also qualifying in the 300 hurdles. Anecia Prater-Lockley qualified in the 400.
Madison Motley qualified in both shot and discus, while Mikayla Bobkoskie and Ellie Skinkle qualified in pole vault.
In the distances, Kayla Gholar qualified for the 800 and 1600, with Stella Pierre-Louis and Taylor Elkins set to run the 3200.
“The next challenge is to get as many past the sectional round which is exponentially more difficult than the region meet,” Sybert said. “This is the part of the season that we enjoy the most though. It is so fun seeing the Richmond Hill athletes see the competition and find so many ways to step up and move beyond what seemed capable only a week prior.”