State track and field championships: Northwest’s Smith 2nd, Southeast’s Watkins 3rd in 4A hurdles

Published 8:00 pm Monday, May 16, 2022

Whitfield County fielded two of the top three finishers in the state in boys 110-meter hurdles at the Class 4A state track and field championships in Albany on Saturday.

Northwest Whitfield High School’s Dominique Smith finished second in the event with a time of 15.38 seconds, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Southeast Whitfield’s Jesse Watkins at 15.47. The pair finished behind 4A state champion Carver-Columbus’ Muhammad Diaby.

Smith’s second-place state finish was the highest among area athletes at state championship track and field meets. Meets across all eight Georgia High School Association classifications were Thursday through Saturday.

Smith and Watkins both improved on preliminary results to place higher in the state finals. Smith moved from a fourth-place finish in prelims to grab second, while Watkins moved from sixth to third.

Northwest Whitfield’s Silas Griffin was a third-place finisher in high jump at the Class 4A meet, while Dalton’s Meg Coleman was third in girls 100-meter hurdles and 10th in both 100-meter dash and 300-meter hurdles at the Class 6A championships in Carrollton.

Both seniors wrap up stellar careers just short of a state title.

Griffin was the regional and sectional champion in high jump this season, and holds a Northwest school record with a jump of 6 feet 10 inches. The three-time region and sectional champ jumped 6 feet 6 inches at the state meet, finishing behind the top jumps of 6 feet 8 inches. Griffin has finished in the top three in the state in high jump three times.

Coleman was the Class 6A defending champion in 110-meter hurdles. She jumped from a sixth-place finish in preliminaries to third, but couldn’t defend her state title in the event. Dalton’s Anna Lee Grafe also competed in 110-meter hurdles at state, placing eighth and giving the Lady Catamounts two finalists in the event.

The Dalton boys 4×200-meter relay team (Luke Blanchard, Warner Ross, Kameron Staton and Assad Tanner) placed 10th at the state meet, finishing in 1:28.75 and setting a new school record by two seconds.

Also at the Class 4A meet, Southeast’s Brody Smith grabbed a sixth-place finish in the state in boys pole vault while Lauren Taylor finished 14th in girls shot put. Both the boys (Kevyn Chavez, Riley Hollar, Johnny Silverio and Chris Smith) and girls (Marlene Paez, Daisy Pintor, Sandybel Ramos and Julie Ruiz) 4×800-meter relay squads competed at state, both finishing 13th.

The Class 3A state championships were also in Carrollton.

Coahulla Creek’s Robbie Wiggins and Zeke Turso finished eighth and 11th, respectively, in boys shot put. North Murray’s Rachel Schmidt was 12th in the 400-meter dash, falling a few spots short of a slot in the finals.

The Dalton Academy’s Gauri Sheth competed in the Class A Public state championships in Albany in the school’s first year. Sheth was 16th in the state in triple jump.