Chukwu from Mill Creek winning her heat of the 300m hurdles at Gail Devers
Week of Mar 13 - Mar 18 Unsung Heroes Week 5: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Put)
Do you remember what it was like to participate in your first season of track and field? Maybe you're in the middle of your first season, or maybe it happened years ago and feels like a distant memory. Either way, I would predict that it took some time to get used to which events you were suited for and learn the techniques necessary to succeed. It probably took several seasons before you were able to reach your full potential. Well, not every first-year athlete has too much trouble adapting to the sport. That's why this week, we're honoring freshmen at Unsung Heroes. Now, most of these athletes participated in track and field to at least some extent at the middle school level, but high school is a whole new realm. These freshmen have made the transition to high school and thrived. In a few years, these athletes have a great chance at being atop the leaderboards in their respective events, but first the foundation has to be laid for future success.
"Unsung Heroes" recognizes some great individual performances from this past week across the state of Georgia that might have flown under the radar or gone underappreciated. One winner is selected from each of five categories (sprints, hurdles, distance, jumps, and throwing events) for both boys and girls. Enjoy!
Girls Winners
Sprints
12.53 in 100m at Robert Ballard Invitational, 1st
25.78 in 200m at Robert Ballard Invitational, 1st
In Week 2 of this year's Unsung Heroes, back at the beginning of March, I awarded an Unsung Hero title to Ivey Hall of Jenkins HS. Well, it turns out she has some serious competition among freshman sprinters in 5A. Greenbrier's Bryannah Remice has been outstanding in the early season, and she appears to be improving as the season progresses. Remice pulled off the 100m/200m double victory at the Robert Ballard Invitational, a five-team meet at Greenbrier's home track. Her 12.53 in the 100m set a PR by nearly half a second and ties her for the fastest 100m run by a freshman in 5A this season. Remice appears to be on track (no pun intended) to qualify for the state meet in two events as a freshman. Could a region championship also be in her sights?
Hurdles
15.34 in 100mH at Gail Devers Invitational, 4th
47.62 in 300mH at Gail Devers Invitational, 4th
Simply writing that Amarachi Chukwu finished fourth in two events at the Gail Devers Invitational doesn't do her performance justice. Her 100mH time of 15.34 was not a season best, but it would still place her among the top 25 100m hurdlers in the state (in all grades) this year. Chukwu's 47.62 in the 300mH was a season best, and she finished first in her heat. The only girls that bested her 300mH time at Gail Devers were all ranked in the top 15 all-classifications in that event. It appears that Chukwu is already prepared to compete with, and beat, some of the best hurdlers in 7A. That's amazing for a freshman!
Distance
Lillian Glass, Atlanta International
2:28.33 in 800m at Huey Magoo's Running with the Devils, 2nd
5:30.48 in 1600m at Huey Magoo's Running with the Devils, 2nd
Like Chuwu above, Lillian Glass was unable to grab first place at her meet last week, but she was able to run one of the fastest 800m/1600m doubles of any runner in 1A-DI so far this season. Bleckley's Ella Gibbs rightfully earns much credit for her all-time freshman season, but Glass has also thrown down some fast times this season in 2A. Coming off of an 11th-place finish at the 1A-DI XC meet, Glass has already broken 2:30 in the 800 and 5:30 in the 1600 this season, She set a season best In the 800m at the Running with the Devils meet at Loganville last weekend, less than a second away from taking home the victory. One statistic showing how remarkable Glass's season has been is that she ranks in the top six in 1A-DI among all grades in the 800m and 1600m.
Throws
35' 7" in Shot Put at Cedartown Meet #1, 2nd
86' 4" in Discus at Cedartown Meet #1, 1st
One team that could score surprisingly high in the 3A girls track state meet is Bremen High School. So far this season, their best performances have all come in field events, so they might well be in first place heading into the final day of the 3A state meet. Langley is a major reason for this optimism in Bremen. She and fellow freshman Reece Brown dominated the discus throw at the Cedartown dual meet, and then Langley threw a season-best 35' 7" in the shot put to give her the third-best throw of any athlete in 3A this year. It is crazy for a freshman to be ranked that high in shot put! Along with teammate Amanda Rhinehart, Langley could lead Bremen to a 1-2 finish at the shot put at state.
Jumps
9' 0" in Pole Vault at Fayette Coweta Championships, 1st
Any pole vaulter would love to have the kind of rapid improvement that DeLaere has seen this season. In her (presumably) first meet ever as a pole vaulter, DeLaere cleared 7' 6", already a respectable height. A few weeks later, she cleared 8' 6" and won her home meet. Now, DeLaere has cleared the 9-foot barrier and is the Fayette-Coweta area champion! Already she ranks among the top 10 freshman girls pole vaulters in the state, and she has a good shot at scoring some points for Starrs Mill at the state meet with a bright future ahead in the event.
Boys Winners
Sprints
51.97 in 400m at Panther JV Invite, 5th
I bet most of the people reading this article have at least attempted to run a 400 at some point in their lives. If you're anything like me, you tried to run a great deal of 400s, and you never got anywhere close to 51.97 seconds. What makes Caden Guidry's performance so special is that this was his first high school 400m, and he was close to winning the very competitive and deep Panther JV Invite. Guidry also was coming at the 400m from more experience in the 800, and he even ran XC in the fall. The fact that he ran so well in his first race means he has some serious speed, and combining that with his distance strength could make him a very formidable 400/800 runner before long.
Hurdles
16.89 in 110mH at Whitley Freshmen Showcase, 1st
43.03 in 300mH at Whitley Freshmen Showcase, 1st
While we are honoring freshmen this week at Unsung Heroes, I would be remiss to not mention the Whitley Freshmen Showcase, a meet held last week just for freshmen! It was well-attended, too, as at least nine teams sent their freshmen athletes to battle it out at Parkview. Jayden Alexander flattened the feisty freshman field with a margin of victory of nearly two seconds in the 110m hurdles and 0.7 seconds in the 300m hurdles. He also improved his PR significantly in both hurdle events. Now, Alexander ranks as the top freshman 110m and 300m hurdler in 5A.
Distance
2:00.15 in 800m at A.J. Terrell Invitational, 5th
2:03.69 in 800m at Woodward Academy Meet #1, 1st
Gazula was a casualty of Westminster's deep XC team in the fall, running a 16:34 at Asics but failing to make the state squad. It looks like he will have a good shot at not only making the region team, but potentially scoring in the state meet in the 800m if he continues running as well as he did last week. Gazula has improved his time in the 800m each time he has run the event so far this season, and his most recent performance was milliseconds away from becoming the third freshman in the state to break 2:00 in the 800 this season. Gazula also ran 53.08 in his only 400 this season, so it appears that he possesses the speed to dip under 2:00 his next time out.
Throws
Brooklyn Spivey, Douglas County
125' 5" in Discus at Rockmart Friday Night Lights, 2nd
43' 11" in Shot Put at Rockmart Friday Night Lights, 1st
Brooklyn Spivey needed very little time in high school to make his mark on the throws. By mid-March of his freshman season, he had already thrown over 125 feet in the discus and 45 feet in the shot put, ranking among the top four freshmen in GA in both events. He earned a narrow second place finish in the discus throw at the Rockmart Friday Night Lights meet last Thursday (yes, on Thursday), despite throwing for a new PR. He made up for that narrow loss by winning the shot put as part of a Douglas County 1-2-3 sweep in that event. Spivey might not be contending for a state title this year, but that's mostly because he's in 6A. As it stands, he still might make the sectional or even the state meet as a freshman, and that's certainly a great accomplishment.
Jumps
12' 1" in Pole Vault at Duluth Meet, 2nd
Norcross has not one, but two pole vaulters named Harrison who have cleared 12 feet this season. Harrison Green is a junior who qualified for the state meet last year and is currently ranked 5th in 7A. Harrison Kyle is a freshman who is rapidly catching up to Green, clearing a personal-best 12' 1" at the Duluth Meet held last Wednesday. Kyle ranks fourth among all freshmen in GA in the pole vault, and he has finished no worse than third in any of four meets that he has competed in this season, despite having a star teammate.