“Game over” Deerfield-Windsor claims state championship

LOCUST GROVE — The Deerfield-Windsor boys track team is headed back to Albany with the GIAA Class AAA state championship trophy after a drama-filled three days at Strong Rock Christian School in Locust Grove.

“It’s game over,” said Deerfield-Windsor head coach Jake Clawson moments after Mason Johnson took first place and Boles Middleton placed third in the boy’s 300-meter hurdles Saturday afternoon. “We’re up and Stratford isn’t coming back!”

The Knights finished with 112 points on the day compared to 83 points for Stratford Academy of Macon.

“I knew we had runners in each race left,” Clawson said. “They didn’t. They just had one runner left, so I knew we had it.”

The Deerfield-Windsor boys got a boost early in the day when Garrison Slaughter won the 3200-meter race to begin Saturday’s events. Slaughter had finished second in Thursday’s 1600-meter run behind Adam Lippe of Westminster of Augusta. Apparently, the Westminster athletes had a plan to deal with Slaughter in the 3200.

“They were trash-talking in the track,” said Deerfield-Windsor assistant coach Jessica Carr. “They were saying they were going to box Garrison in.”

Their plan didn’t work. With a lap to go, Garrison broke free and won the race by nearly five seconds. The two runners from Westminster finished third and fourth.

Slaughter ran in five events — a total of seven races- in three days. He won the longest race- the 3200, won with his relay team in the 3200-meter relay, was second in the 800, finished fourth in the 1600, and finished third with his 1600-meter relay team in the last race of the competition. Slaughter, Boles Middleton, Thomas Ray, and Mason Johnson ran the final race and put together the second-fastest time in school history in the 4×400 — 3:33. Adding up the points, Slaughter had a hand in winning 40 points for the Knights in three days.

But everything wasn’t perfect. Deerfield-Windsor’s 400-meter relay team was one of the favorites Saturday afternoon. The Knights were the second seed after the prelims and were running well until the baton dropped on a handoff — a very similar issue the Lady Knights had Thursday. Deerfield-Windsor finished eighth.

Then there was Boles Middleton.

Middleton was the favorite to win both hurdles races after an excellent season and strong preliminary performances Thursday when he finished first in both. However, Middleton finished second in the 110-meter even though he took a half-second off of his preliminary time. Josh Gray of Frederica Academy won with a time of 15.99. Middleton finished with a time of 16.15.

Dejected, Middleton sat under the goalpost of the football field alone until Carr came and sat with him until time to get on the podium. His first hurdles race came only minutes after his 4×100 relay team finished eighth because of the baton drop.

But Middleton put the shoes on again for two more races Saturday. He finished third in the 300-meter hurdles with teammate Mason Johnson in first and then third in the 4×400 relay at the end of the day. He had also placed fourth in the triple jump Thursday, so in two days, the senior helped the Knights earn 25 points.

Mason Johnson, a sophomore at Deerfield-Windsor, is the state champion in the 300-meter hurdles, though this is his first year running the hurdles race. His time of 41.74 was almost two full seconds faster than Thursday’s preliminary race.

“It was fun,” Johnson said after the race. “I just practiced one time before we started competing. It was fun running with Boles, I am going to miss him next year.”

Other notable individual performances at the state track meet for Deerfield-Windsor:

Reid Martin won the boy’s pole vault;

Joi Hubbard finished second in the girl’s long jump and triple jump. She also finished third in the 100-meter dash;

Ella Bridges placed third in the girl’s pole vault and Faith Chung placed eighth;

Chancellor Bacon took third in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the 100-meter dash;

Margaret Hodges finished seventh in the 1600-meter run and sixth in the 3200-meter run;

Ethan Newsome finished sixth in the 1600-meter run and sixth in the 3200-meter run;

Thomas Ray finished fourth in the 400-meter dash;

Gabrielle Harris placed eighth in the 800-meter run;

Jackson Belusko (dealing with an injury) finished eighth in the 800-meter run.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]
Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]