To say Saturday was a big day for high school track in field in Georgia would be a understatement.
    Every GHSA high school across all seven classifications competed in sectionals across numerous sites scattered around the state to see who will compete for state titles in two weeks. However the GISA, who don’t use sectionals to weed out competition, had their state championships Saturday where Bulloch Academy had a couple of nice showings from a few individuals.
    The highlight of the afternoon was the Gator boys 4x100 meter relay team edging out region rival Frederica by five-one hundredths of a second to win the state title and set a school record to boot with a time of 44.08 seconds. Frederica qualified for the number one seed by beating out BA by .85 seconds in the prelims, but in the end the combination of Jack Fortune, Alex Cauthen, Davis Childs and Jake Mock would bring home the gold. 
    Childs, Seth Brant, and Regan Ellis all won individual state championships in their respective events — with Brandt and Ellis defending titles they had won in 2016. Brant has been the best 110 meter hurdler in both GISA classifications two years in a row now as the junior bested his 2016 time of 15.86 with a 15.41 to go back-to-back.
    “We have some really good kids coming back next year like Seth (Brant) and Wilson Joiner,” said boys coach Ronnie Hodges. “But our seniors carried us today. They were the ones who pulled through in the relays to help us place as high as we did.” 
    Brant also placed second in the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet nine-and-a-half inches to improving on his eighth place finish from 2016. He’d also help the 4x400 relay team place third alongside Childs, Steven Henry and Wilson Joiner to give him a total of 19.5 points — the seventh most of any individual in the boys AAA division.
    Not even old enough to drive herself to practice, Ellis is now a two-time state champion in the shot-put with her throw of 36 feet one inch Saturday afternoon. That was over two feet better than her title-winning throw in 2016, making it seem like Ellis could have more state titles in her future. She’d also place third in the discus throw to give her 16 total points — tenth best of any girl in AAA.
    “If she keeps working as hard in the weight room as she does, I have no doubts she could go five for five when it’s all said and done,” said girls coach Barbara Conner.
    Childs won the 400 meter dash title with a 51.82 time to beat out region foe Walker Payne of Trinity-Dublin by .16 seconds. As previously mentioned he was also a crucial member of both relay teams that would help the BA boys place third overall at the AAA meet, finishing only behind Deerfield-Windsor and Trinity-Dublin — the latter of which whom BA beat in their region championships. 
    The other placers for the boys were as follows: Joiner (3rd 300m hurdles, 3rd pole vault),
Cauthen (3rd long jump), and Tyce Lovett (2nd shot put). The only other top-three placers for the girls was Keeli Hennon who placed 2nd in the pole vault.
 
Southeast Bulloch
    SEB had the pleasure of being the only team in the county to host a sectional meet as regions two, seven and eight all came to Brooklet for a shot at the 3A state championships. And at the end of the day ten Yellow Jackets — boys and girls — will head to the state finals in two weeks.
    Seven boys qualified with three finishing as high as fifth place. Brandon Hill in the discus, Barhon Carter in the pole vault and Travion Johnson in the 400m all placed fifth in their events. Johnson will also travel to Albany with the 4x400 team alongside Tyler Thorton, Chase Walker and Georgen Batton, who placed seventh out of 16 teams.
    Batton will also compete in the 300m hurdles at state after finishing eighth in sectionals. Also finishing eighth was Jalen Scott in the shot put. Coach Jeremey Gantt said he didn’t expect to take this many athletes to state at the beginning of the year, but after how hard he had seen them work it wasn’t all that surprising in the end.
    “I wasn’t quite sure how we would fare in some of those running events, especially the 4x400,” Gantt said. “But this group has killed it in practice all season long. They earned their right to make it through this far.”
    As for the girls, Emma Britt qualified for state in three events after placing seventh in the triple jump, 110 hurdles and eighth in the long jump. Hattie Pitts will compete at state in the pole vault after placing sixth in that event and  eighth in the 3200. The high placer was the girls Cierra Jordan, who tied for first in the pole vault with a vault of eight feet.

Statesboro
    The Blue Devils wrapped up a successful trip to McDonough on Saturday by sending a county-high 13 athletes on to their state championships, which will take place in two weeks in Carrollton.
    Highlighting it all was Iyana McKeever, who broke the meet long jump record with a leap of 18 feet one-and-a-half-inches and earning first place. Her night also included qualifying in the 4x100 alongside Dayonna Henry, Maggie Jones and Yanna Lipsey following a fifth place finish in the event. Henry would also qualify in the 400m (eighth place) and the triple jump (second place). Chasity McDuffie qualified in the discus after placing eighth to round out the qualifiers for the Lady Blue Devils.
    “Both our teams, boys and girls, competed at a high level today,” said coach Josh Coleman. “Our 4x100 teams really carried us today.”
    The boys 4x100 team finished sixth at their sectionals behind James Badger, Jonte Grant, Dauardrion Lipsey and Jaden Adams. Adams would also finish seventh in the 100m and sixth in the 200m to give him three different events to run in at state. Badger will also have multiple events to run at state after qualifying for the high jump with a seventh place finish.
    Noah Caplinger finished sixth in the 1600 and Clayton Snyder finished seventh in the pole vault to round out the qualifiers for the boys.

Portal
    Unlike the other GHSA classifications, class A breaks their sectionals up into public and private instead of dividing up the regions. Portal only sent three individuals and one team, but at the end of the day one Panther will got to state to represent the town of 638 people.
    Dashonda Morgan qualified for the class A state championships in the triple jump. Even though that jump isn’t close to her personal best, her coach says they’re happy they’ll get another chance to try and top it at state in two weeks.
    “She didn’t jump as well as she wanted, but she advanced and that was the goal,” said coach Cliff Hubbard. “Now she has two weeks to prepare for winning a state championship.”