Piedmont Track Competes at Pre-Region

Several Piedmont Academy track team members had standout efforts during a “pre-region” meet last week at Gatewood.

The event was essentially a warm-up for the Region 1-AA, which was scheduled for Wednesday of this week. The top four athletes in each event at region qualify for state in Albany later this month.
During the “pre-region” event, the Lady Cougars were fifth overall with 24 team points. Heather Tyler won the 3,200-meter run in 15:01 to lead the Piedmont girls. Tyler was also sixth in the 1,600-meter run in 7:33.

Anna Jones was sixth in the long jump (13-5) while Savannah McGinnis earned seventh in the 800-meter run (3:41) and Cheyenne Galloway was seventh in the 200-meter dash (32.19). Galloway was also eighth in the 100-meter event in 14.9.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Tyler, McGinnis, Galloway and Jones was eighth in 1:01.31.

Piedmont’s boys were fourth overall with 59 total points. Zach Benjamin won the 100-meter dash in 11.30. Coach Rhett Farmer said he believes if Benjamin can break 11.00 at region, he could win state.

Benjamin was also second in the 200-meter dash in 23.25 last week.
Bobby Mitchell earned third in the triple jump (35-10) and fifth in the long jump (17-6.)

The 4×100-meter relay team was third behind the running of Peter Lawson, Mitchell, Tyler Cullum and Benjamin.
Piedmont’s 4×400-meter relay team, consisting of the same athletes, captured fourth place in 48.63.

Rhett Roberts’ mark of 5-2 in the high jump was good enough for fifth place. In the running events, Roberts was eighth in the 300-meter and 800-meter runs.

Sam Clearly was 5th in the 300 hurdles despite having never competed in the event. Cleary turned in a time of 50.72.
Austin Bass was seventh in the 3,200-meter run in 14:11 while Sam McGinnis was just behind his teammate in the event at 14:12.
Justin Wilson helped lead the way in the field events for Piedmont with an eighth place finish in the discus (73-11).