The Woodford County Track and Field team just had their first invitational of the year, which means they had their first look at some real competition at AJ’s Heart of the Bluegrass. This meet in Mercer County is a very big meet for the Woodford County team since this meet is named after Alvis Johnson, the father of Woodford County’s Athletic Director, Coach Dennis Johnson. Woodford County had a great performance, winning the meet with the boys and girls teams. The boys got 99 points, winning by 24 points with Peasure Ridge Park getting second with 75. The girls were a little closer, winning by 7 points, getting 97.5 points while Mason County was in second, 90.5. (Top 8 finishers score points: 1=10, 2=8, 3=6, 4=5, 5=4, 6=3, 7=2, and 8=1) This was a great day for the Jackets and a great opportunity to see how Woodford County is doing this year.
The girls had a strong start to the day, leading off the meet with a second-place finish in the 4×800. Then, Charla Gormley also got the team 8 points, getting 2nd in the 100 hurdles. Then they had a first-place finish in the 100-meter dash by 8th-grade Hannah McColl and in the 4×200-meter relay. Woodford then had two people score points in the 1600 with Addison Moore winning, and Gabby Gampper, who got 7th. This start was very impressive by the Jackets, having three wins and two second-place finishes in the first five events.
The boys got some points at the start, but not off as quickly as the girls. In the 4×800, the boys got 7th. Then Christopher Reed got 5th in the 110-meter hurdles. The main scoring during this first part was during the 100-meter dash, with two Jackets in the top 5, with Leland Taylor getting 1st and Elijah Ward getting 4th. In the 4×200, the boys got 3rd. Then in the 1600 meter, the boys got another win with Ryan Hendrix cruising to a first-place finish. (Read about his School record: Another School Record Broken) Like the girls, the boys got off to a strong start, scoring points in every event in this first part.
Off the lunch break, both teams had a bit of a struggle with the girls tying for 8th in the 4×100 meter, which is still good since they got points, but the boys were looking very good in the 4×100 meter, but they missed the final handoff, leading to a DQ. Then the girls got no points in the 400 meter, but the boys came back off the DQ, and Leland Taylor got first in the 400 meter.
The girls got back to scoring, starting with the 300-meter hurdles, with Charla Gormley getting 2nd place in this event. Claire Seitz added to that he got 8th in the 800-meter run, and then Hannah Mcoll got first in the 200-meter dash. The girls didn’t get any points in the 3200 but ended the day with 4 points, getting 5th in the 4×400 meter.
The boys rode the momentum off Leland Taylor’s win in the 400-meter and got 8 total points in the 300-meter hurdles. Jalen Johnson got 3rd, and Joshua Champagne got 7th. Leland Taylor added to his impressive day, winning the 200-meter dash, really helping the boys’ team pull away from the other teams at the meet. Blake Burns continued the scoring, squeaking out 1 point in the 3200-meter run, getting 8th. The boys didn’t end the track events with any points, but both the girls and the boys had a great day on the track.
The Jackets also had some great field events too, that really pulled them ahead of the rest of the competition. For the girls Evie Hall got 3rd in the shot put, Maddie Rabinowitz got 7th in discus, Charla Gormley got 8th in the long jump, I’Yana Leath got 4th in the triple jump, Maddie Rabinowitz got 8th in the high jump, and Shealyn Coffey and Ainsley Nuckols got 3rd and 4th in the pole vault.
In the shot put, Samuel Garrison got 4th, Mo Hash got 1st in discus, along with Elias Tackett getting 6th, then Davion Sturgis got 4th in the long jump, and then the final points Woodford got in the field events were Jackson Gray getting 1st in the pole vault.
Overall, this was a great day for Woodford County. Both the boys and the girls won, and Coach Swingle won the AJ’s Heart of the Bluegrass coach of the year again after another win. Coach Swingle has turned around the track and field culture and has made them real front runners in the region and contenders at state. This meet is giving a great look at the Jackets’ chance to be really successful this year, taking the win in their first invitational meet.
