RMA Indoor Meet Saturday Continues to Grow Sport

RMA Last Chance Indoor
Bruce Taylor

This past Saturday Riverside Military hosted its largest meet in school history with  several last minute entries, including 23 teams,  but teams brought more kids with them than ever before and more unattached athletes. Gainsville brought the largest contingent, and Coach Bridges from Rome had 68 athletes with Monroe; Buford, Mary Persons, Lithonia, Thomson and Heard County attending as well. Its unfortunate that the original plans for the fieldhouse would have been about 10m longer and 15m wider and the standards for track were in yards and not meters. But, its still a nice facility and Coach Tim Cummings from RMA and daughter Cayla Reddish of Athens Christian do a great job with the meets.

There were some competitive races, especially in the boys distance events. Justin Wachtel from Mary Persons took wins in the 800m at 2:09.30 and 1500m going 4:30.30. Miguel Lopez of Gainesville also had a strong day winning the 3000m at the wire in 9:31 just nosing out Cameron Watson from Coffee County. The 200m was very tight as the top 2 finishers were separated by just .01 with Ryan Restifo of Galloway taking the win at 24.58 with Chase Spann of Monroe Area 2nd. India Turk from Macon, is one of the top horizontal jumpers in Georgia and was the star of the meet on the girls side winning the TJ at 37-07.50 and a mark of 18-07 in the LJ. Makaela Wofford from Wolves Track Club (Rome) swept the 55h (10.42) and 200h (33.83)

One of the more interesting events ran was a HS 200m hurdles race which was touted as being the only HS 200h race available in the state. Coach Cummings had these post meet comments...

"Wow what a great meet! A big shout out to all the athletes, coaches fans and helpers that made this meet so much fun and super competitive. Like a coach told me afterwards: "...what an advantage to get your kids listening to a gun, responding to calls and doing a little racing in early Feb. in perfect temperatures and no wind." The boys 3000 was won in the last step, the 55s were really fast and it was fun to run and watch a race that you rarely see: the 200 meter hurdles. Thanks to all the coaches that have been a part of this over the years and built this into a large meet: like Coach Bridges from Rome, I think he had 68 kids there Sat. morning and the large Gainesville contingent, it was great to welcome some new faces for the first time as well with Mary Persons; Chapel Hill; Heard County and Thompson just to mention a few. Thanks to coach Mike Fowler (high jump); Coach Mallard (pole vault); Coach Brownlee (Shot) and all the coaches from Rome; Gainesville and Mary Persons that helped us with the jumps and everyone else that chipped in all day. I  am continually impressed with the sportsmanship and class that the coaches and kids of our sport display; I didn't hear a discouraging word all day. Good luck to all as we head outside. Got a couple spots left in our middle school meet on the 13th, thanks everyone"

RESULTS
Elites

HS GIRLSMARKATHLETETEAM
Long Jump Finals18-7India TurkHoward High School
Triple Jump Finals37-7.75India TurkHoward High School