The 6A Region 7 track meet was held at Alpharetta High School on April 22 and 24, and after two days of track and field events, the Lady Bears brought home their second region championship in a row, breaking six school records and taking home five individual event region championships.  The boys had an exceptional showing as well, with four new school records and two region champion titles.   There will be 14 athletes, competing in 16 events, who will travel to Grovetown for the sectional meet on May 4, a record in and of itself.

 

The team excelled on the track, but three athletes still qualified in the field events to move on.  In the girls' long jump, Ryan Jackson ('20) had a mark of 17'5.25" for a silver medal. Connor McDaniel ('19) also brought home a silver medal, clearing 6'0" in the boys' high jump, 2" shy of his school record.  Freshman Liv Bollenbacher cleared 9'6" as part of the regular competition, and then 9'9" in a jump off to break a four way tie, to earn 4th place in the pole vault.   Also bringing home medals in the field events were Julian Petty with 5th place in the shot put with his mark of 39'4", a new personal record;  Connor McDaniel in 5th place with his long jump mark at 20'2.25", 1.25" short of his school record; and Michaela Prevallet ('20) took home the 5th place, and first alternate medal, clearing 9'6" in the pole vault.

 

The track races involved two days of racing for the shorter distances, with preliminaries on Monday allowing athletes to qualify for one final race in that event on Wednesday.   For the first time, Cambridge had at least one athlete qualify for the finals in all events except the 100mh and 200m dash for the boys.   The first race of the evening was the 4x100m relay, and the team of Quiniche Peets ('19), Ryan Jackson('20), Kathryn Suplee('21) and Grace Wolf ('20) set the tone for the rest of the evening as they finished in a school record time of 48.82 for 2nd place.   The boys 4x100 team finished in 6th place, besting their 8th place qualifying time, and also setting a new school record of 43.69 seconds. Competing on the 4x100 team were Connor McDaniel('19), CJ Thompson('19), Jack McHale('20) and Hayden Gardella('21).   Following the relay, was the 1600m final. The girls ran this on Monday, with Ashley Sechrest ('20) finishing in first, and Clarissa Beck ('19) earning her first spot at sectionals with 4th place.  Jack Filan ('19) and Josh Gargan ('20) competed for the boys 1600m on Wednesday, and finished in 1st and 10th place, with this being Jack's fourth region title in the last two years in distance running.  The next race was the 400m dash, and Ryan Jackson ('20) and Kathryn Suplee ('21) both broke the one minute mark, with Kat passing two other runners in the last second, and the girls finishing in 3rd and 4th place to move on to sectionals.  Ryan actually set a new school record on Monday in the prelims when she finished in 59.12 seconds, and the times in the finals were 59.68s for Ryan and 59.79 seconds for Kat.   Jack McHale ('20) represented the boys' team in the finals, and broke his own school record with a time of 50.45, finishing in fifth as the first alternate for sectionals.   From the longest dash to the shortest, Grace Wolf's time of 12.32s in the 100m dash was .12s shy of the school record, but earned her the first gold medal for the Lady Bears on Wednesday, and her first region champion title.   Also running for the Bears in the 100m, CJ Thompson finished in 8th place for the finals, but ran a personal best of 11.36 in the prelims.

 

The hurdles followed, with Michaela Prevallet setting a new school record in the 100mH of 15.28 seconds, and earning silver.  Taya Jackson finished in a season best time of 17.11, earning 5th place and just missing the cutoff for sectionals in this event.  After the hurdles was the 800m, and school record holder Delaney Goodell('19) finished in a new school record time of 2:21.5 to earn the silver medal.  Teammate Lola Merrill('21) finished in 7th to add two more points to the team score.  For the boys team, sophomore Cole Suplee finished in 6th as second alternate, crossing the line in 2:01.2, a new personal record.    The second gold of the evening for the Lady Bears would go to Ryan Jackson in the 200m dash.  Her time of 25.16s broke her school record from two years ago, and earned her the region champion title.  Grace Wolf was back on the track with teammate Taya Jackson as both qualified for sectionals in the 300mH.  Grace finished in 2nd and Taya in 4th with their times of 44.85 and 46.68.   Additionally, Spencer Gray ('20) set a new school record on Monday in the prelims, and followed that with a fourth place finish to qualify for sectionals in a time of 41.82 seconds.  Caelan Jones ('21) finished less than a second behind in 42.08 for sixth place.

 

The last individual race and 2nd to last event of the evening on both Monday and Wednesday was the final in the 3200m.   For the boys, this was run on Monday, and for the girls it was run on Wednesday.    Jack Filan ('19) earned his first title of the meet, and third region championship, on Monday with a clear victory in a time of 9:22, and freshman Lyle Donovan set a new personal record with his 3rd place time of 9:49.   In the girls' race, the Lady Bears finished in first and second to bring the Bears from 3rd place to first place in the standings with 18 points.   Earning 10 points with her second region title of this meet, and sixth region title in two years for distance running, was Ashley Sechrest ('20) with a time of 11:15.  Clarissa Beck ('19) then set a personal record by 15 seconds with her clear second place finish, crossing the line in 11:50 for 8 more points.

 

The final race of every track meet is the 4x400 relay, and it could easily change meet standings in the blink of an eye.   The Lady Bears, with two teams having qualified for the finals, remained focused and determined to clinch the region championship title for the entire meet.   Finishing in first place, with a school record time of 3:59.16, breaking the 4 minute barrier for the first time, was the Cambridge 'A' team of Grace Wolf, Taya Jackson, Kat Suplee, and Ryan Jackson.  They finished nearly six seconds ahead of the 2nd place team from Johns Creek, leading the handoff all three times.  The Cambridge 'B' team did their part as well, and finished in 4:10 to secure fourth place and a trip to sectionals as well.  Michaela Prevallet, Grace Counsel, Liv Bollenbacher and Delaney Goodell gave it their all, with clean handoffs to finish the night strong.  The boys 'A' team of Evan Bell, Cooper Carrow, Hayden Gardella and Jack McHale had a great race and set a new school record in the 4x400 with their time of 3:28.47, but it was not enough to qualify for sectionals, and the boys took home the fifth place medal for the event.

 

In 2018, the 4x400m results ended in a three way tie for region champions, but this year the Lady Bears were the clear cut winners with 139 points to Johns Creek's 122 points and Dunwoody at 112.    The boys team finished in fifth place overall, and will be sending four boys to sectionals. 

 

Congratulations to the Lady Bears on their team win, and congratulations and good luck to all the athletes heading to Grovetown on May 4. 

 

Go Bears!