Monroe relay performances highlight state track and field meet

ALBANY — Both the Monroe boys and girls 800-meter relay teams won state championships Saturday and put their names down as state record holders as the winners of the first running of the event at state.

The Monroe boys speedsters fell just short of winning the 1,600 relay state title, while the girls won the 1,600 relay. The boys finished three seconds behind Fayette County to take second place in the final event of the day.

The boys team of Usir Bey, Domonik Henderson, Johnny Cauley, and Zemontreyl Gibson blew past the competition and finished the 800 relay in a time of 1 minute, 28.87 seconds, a second ahead of the Cedar Shoals team that was seeded first after the preliminaries. Gibson was a substitute for Tykerris Washington, who was unable to run because of an illness. Gibson took the role of the anchor leg and held off the others for the win.

“My teammates just put it all out there today,” Gibson said. “They got us a big a lead and all I had to do was finish. And we did.”

In the last race of the day, Washington was able to run the anchor leg to give the Tornadoes the second spot in the 1,600 relay.

The Monroe girls’ 800 relay team of Eve Craig, Marianna Wright, Jurdyn Johnson and Kaitlyn Williams finished a second ahead of the team from Miller Grove with Columbus right behind in third. The Monroe girls crossed with a time of 1:42.51. In the last event of the day, those same girls won the 1,600 relay a second ahead of Druid Hills. In that same race, the Westover team of Kennedy Ingram, Destiny Love, Taylor Singleton and Ehreaul Jackson finished sixth.

Marianna Wright, a freshman at Monroe who won the national championship in the 400-meter hurdles last summer, was hoping to win two more races Saturday afternoon in back-to-back events. Even though she improved her time by two seconds from her run in the preliminaries, Wright fell just short in the girls 400, crossing the finish line one second after Arabia Mountain’s Davenae Fagan. Moments later, with barely time to catch her breath, Wright was back on the track for the 300-meter hurdles. She earned her state championship medal and title by edging Nafer Rapier of Baldwin by 12/100ths of a second. As part of the two championship relay teams, she also earned two previous state championship medals.

Others making an appearance on the state medal stand from nearby schools included:

♦ Destiny Love of Westover, eighth in 100-meter hurdles

♦ Chavonddria Crimes of Stewart County, second in the 1-A 100-meter dash and fifth in the 1-A 200-meter dash

♦ Zariyona Williams of Miller County, fourth in the 1-A 200-meter dash and seventh in the 1-A 100-meter dash

♦ Madison Mitchell of Westover, fourth in the 4-A 200-meter dash and sixth in the 100-meter dash

♦ Miller County relay of Jayla Riggins, Tamia Perkins, Precious Collins and RahMya Hughes, third in 1-A 800 relay

♦ Westover relay of Serenity Brooks, Adrienne Daniels, Ravyn Harvey and Ehreaul Jackson, seventh in 4-A 800 relay

♦ Terrell County relay of Rashad Hunter, De’Vonte James, Chavious Jones and KaHari Bogan, seventh in 1-A 800 relay

♦ Mitchell County relay of Amayane Middlebrooks, Tytiana Troutman, Azaniah White and Trinity Thomas, sixth in 1-A 400 relay

♦ Westover relay of Ehreaul Jackson, Jatoria Mcghee, Taylor Singleton and Madison Mitchell, fourth in 4A 400 relay

♦ Patrick Williams of Mitchell County, seventh in 1-A 400 meter dash

♦ Usir Bey of Monroe, eighth in the 4-A 200-meter dash

Special Photos: Joe WhitfieldJoe Whitfield