In last year’s state track meet, Bryan County’s boys’ and girls’ teams had their best finishes ever, the girls pulling off a surprising seventh-place finish and the boys finishing 19th.
Coach Tim Adams said afterwards that the one thing the Redskins needed to do if they were going to be good was develop depth.
“If you look at the good teams, they’ve got depth,” Adams said. “We need to develop depth, and that will be one of our priorities next year.”
The Redskins, who lost only Riley Shuman off last year’s boys’ team, have been working on that on both the boys’ and girls’ sides since February. The time and effort paid off last week at Metter as the boys pulled off a mild surprise by winning the Region 3A-DII meet, and the girls nearly matched them as they finished second.
The top four finishers in each event qualified to advance to the sectional meet consisting of teams from Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4. That meet will take place Saturday at Bryan County. The top eight finishers will move on to the state meet which will be held at the University of Georgia on May 11.
Bryan County's boys had their best region meet ever as they chalked up 143 points to edge out Portal which had 140. They were in turn followed by Metter (123), Screven County (110), Jenkins County (47), ECI (35), McIntosh County Academy (29), Claxton (22), Savannah Early College (16), Savannah High (15), Savannah Classical Academy (9) Statesboro STEAM Academy (1).
Metter’s girls took first with 182.50 points with Bryan County finishing with 168.50. Portal (93.50) was third followed by Jenkins County (47), ECI (45.50), Claxton (44), Screven (43), MCA (29), Savannah (14), and Statesboro STEAM (5).
Bryan County boys had 10 individuals, several in more than one event, and three relay teams qualified for the sectional.
Posting an impressive first-place finish was the 4x400 relay team of Anddreas McKinney, Jaylen Cosey, Mari Green and Roderick Stephens which easily won in the time of 3:34.04 which is the best time in the state among Class A-DII schools and 21st among all classifications per Athletics Net.
The 4x800 team of Will Summerford, Walker Summerford, Jordan Carlos and Roderick Stephens also took first while the Redskins had three individual first-place finishers.
Sophomore Walker Summerford took first in the 1600 meters as he edged out brother Will, Josiah Johnson was first in the 300-meter hurdles and Smit Mahant was first in the 3200.
The Summerfords also qualified in the 800 meters and as members of the 4x800 relay team. In addition to being a member of the winning 4x400 relay team Green will be running in the 400 and with the 4x200 relay team.
Carlos, who is a rising star in basketball, also qualified in the 800 and the high jump. Mahant was third in the 1600.
Other qualifiers and their events: Braden Sharpe 110-meter hurdles, 4x200 relay; McKinney 4x200, 4x400; Channing Creech 3200; Caden Sanders 4x200; Jaylen Cosey high jump, 4x400; Caden Sanders 4x200 and Stephens 4x400, 4x800.
First year girls’ coach Brysen Collier, who has been working with the track program as a community coach while completing his degree work, inherited some excellent athletes especially in the persons of Abigail Stucker, Tristen Glover and Emily Johnson who combined to score 85 points.
Stucker, a region champion two years ago as a freshman, took firsts in the 1600 and 3200 meters, was second in the 800 and ran on the second-place 4x800 relay team to earn 30 points. Stucker was third in the state in the 1600 last year.
Glover also had two first-places as she won the 200 and 400 meters while being a member of the second-place 4x800 team. She was third in the long jump.
Emily Johnson made the podium at the state meet as a freshman when she finished third in the discus to post the Redskins’ only points. Last year she was fourth in the discus while taking sixth in the shot put.
An all-region performer in softball Johnson grabbed second in both the shot and discus in the region meet along with a second in the triple jump where she was edged out by one inch. She was sixth in the high jump.
Johnson has had the misfortune to be in the same class and region as Claxton junior Jayda Jordan who is the defending state champion in both the discus and shot. She has won the region in those events all three years of her career.