By By Matthew Nascone
Two monumental occurrences happened when the Escambia Academy JV Cougars hosted the AISA State Track and Field Tournament April 21. One state record was broken and another was tied.
The EA 400-meter relay team put in a time of 49.22 seconds, breaking the record of 49.67. And in the field events, Brett Wilkins heaved the shot put 40 feet, 6 3/4 inches for victory in the meet and a share of the state record.
EA head coach Heath Gibson was proud of what Wilkins accomplished.
"We knew we could do some special things at this meet," Gibson said. "And when Brett started throwing I knew he was going to do well. He did a great job to tie the record."
Gibson said he also knew the 400 relay team could do good things at the meet.
"The record for the 400 relay was set last year and we knew we had a team that could take that record down,"he said. "We ran last week at a meet and our time was only a half a second off. And we had a bad handoff, so we knew if we got better on the handoffs we could set the record. And all four of them had great handoffs and great speed."
The 400-relay team consists of Nick Flowers, Cameron McGhee, Jon Dean and Jake Taylor.