Team competes in invitational

Friday, the Marion County boys and girls track teams competed in the Green County Track and Field Invitational. The girls team finished in sixth place overall with a total of 45 points and the boys team took eighth place with 52.5 points.
“The girls had a good night,” Head Coach Robby Peterson said. “Natavia (Young), and Tamyra (McElroy) are really coming on strong in the long jump, triple jump, and shot put. The boys relay teams had a good night as well.”
Peterson went on to comment on some injuries that the team is dealing with.
“On the injury front, we had Buster Hazlewood go down with a quad strain but he should be fine by our next competition,” he said. “Tessa Simpson and Tamyra McElroy are both suffering from back injuries. Hopefully, by regional competition we will be back to full strength, except for Brooks Divine.”
Recently, Divine injured himself while competing in a pole vault event, which caused some injuries that will most likely sideline Divine for the rest of the season.
On the girls ledger, only one first place finish was taken by Marion County.  Natavia Young took the top spot in the triple jump event with a distance of 32’ 8”. Young also took fourth place in the long jump event with a leap of 13’ 8”.  Teammate Tamyra McElroy took seventh place in the long jump with a distance of 13’ 2” and a second place finish in the shot put. McElroy tossed 30’ 8” in the shot put. Alexus Calhoun finished just behind McElroy in the shot put with a distance of 29’ 9.5”, good for third place.
In the 400-meter dash, Brooklyn Burnside finished in 1:07.63, sixth place. In the 100 meter and 300 meter hurdles Olivia Jones was able to capture a sixth and eighth place finish respectively.  In the 100-meter hurdles, Jones ran a time of 20.29 seconds and in the 300-meter hurdles she finished in 1:00.75.
The 4 x 100 meter relay team of Brooklyn Burnside, Tamyra McElroy, Tessa Simpson, and Natavia Young took fifth place with a time of 56.36 seconds.  The 4 x 200 meter relay team of Young, Shampaigne Brown, Alexus Calhoun, Timmera Burton was able to capture sixth place with a time of 2:03.56.
The boys teams highest finish were four third places.  Scott Hunt was able to take third place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.69 seconds.  Kendal Taul took home third place in the long jump with a distance of 19’ 7”.  Justin Dawson was able to grab eighth place in the long jump with a distance of 16’ 11”.  Taul also took third in the triple jump event with a leap of 39’ 1.5”.  The 4 x 100 meter relay team of Taul, Denny Thompson, Jordan Bell, and Buster Hazlewood ran a time of 45.98 seconds and took third place as well.  
Buster Hazlewood finished the 100-meter dash in 11.51 seconds, and Denny Thompson finished just behind him with a time of 11.62 seconds.  Hazlewood took fourth and Thompson captured fifth place.  The 4 x 400 meter relay team of Scott Hunt, Justin Dawson, Kendal Taul, and Denny Thompson were also able to take a fourth place finish with a time of 3:42.88.  Hunt, Blake Blandford, Angel Santiago, and Nathan Devine finished the 4 x 800 meter relay in a time of 9:45.04, good for fourth place.
Hector Santiago finished tied for fifth place in the 110-meter hurdle event with a time of 19.17 seconds.  Santiago also took seventh place in the 300-meter hurdles and finished in a time of 48 seconds.  The 4 x 200 meter relay team of Chris Gaither, Ryan Brady, Justin Dawson, and Trevor Hood took sixth place with a time of 1:40.99.
 

Photo by Jessica Veatch

Freshman Alexus Calhoun throws the discus during a recent meet.

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