EA boys win 7th-straight overall track, field championship
Published 5:14 pm Friday, April 15, 2022
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GULF SHORES – Before the Alabama Independent School Association officials announced the 2022 boys overall track and field champion Friday, Escambia Academy threw seven fingers in the air during a group photo.
The Cougars racked up 161.5 points to claim their seventh-straight overall state championship at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.
Banks Academy finished second with 106 points, and Tuscaloosa Academy finished third with 84 to round out the top three.
EA track and field coach Hugh Fountain said this is a big accomplishment for the boys and the school given its size and participation count.
“That was, to me, a team win,” Fountain said, adding that after a mild 4×100-meter race, the boys came back to win the 110-meter hurdles and a short-distance running race. “It was a great team win, when you look at the points. In the field events, we were very strong there, and it showed today. We had three triple jumpers finish (first), (second) and (third.).”
Fountain said what helped push the team further ahead of everybody else was a solid morning start.
“We came in and scored well (in the triple jump), then scored 15 points in the high jump (Maliki Haynes, Bubba Nettles and Quinton Odom),” he said. “Right off the bat, Bubba and Tyler (Ragan) scored in the half-mile, and then Hunter Smith and Chris Long scored in the shot put.”
Fountain added that the team established its lead more as the day went along.
Fountain said this is a notable win for the team’s seniors, who have competed for 13 state championships in all sports at the Canoe School.
With great championship runs, there’s an origin.
EA began its track and field dominance in the spring of 2015, a mere five months after winning the 2014 state football championship.
Fountain said they believe it really starts in the weight room, and translates on the track and field, and in all sports.
He told his team that no one will be able to take their accomplishments from them at the end of the season.
In girls action, the Lady Cougars finished seventh.
Those EA athletes who finished in the top eight of each event included:
- Boys 4×200-meter relay – EA, second place, 1 minute, 34.21 seconds
- Boys 4×800-meter relay – EA, first place, 9:22.64
- Boys 3200-meter run – Danny Doerr, sixth place, 12:28.51
- Boys 1600-meter run – Doerr, seventh place, 5:36.58
- Boys 800-meter run – Nettles, third place, 2:12.51; Ragan, fifth place, 2:15.95
- Boys 100-meter dash – Devin Kelly, fifth place, 11.56 seconds; Brown, sixth place, 11.60 seconds
- Boys 200-meter dash – Kelly, second place, 23.76 seconds; and Samarion Clark, fourth place, 23.96 seconds
- Boys 400-meter dash – Brown, fourth place, 53.76 seconds; and Kevin Farrish, fifth place, 56.03 seconds
- Girls 100-meter hurdles – Tava Johnson, first place, 18.13 seconds
- Boys 110-meter hurdles – Landon Sims, first place, 16.31 seconds; Kelly, third place, 17.33 seconds
- Boys 300-meter hurdles – Maliki Haynes, second place, 43.35 seconds; Sims, fourth place, 44.71 seconds
- Girls 4×400-meter relay – EA, seventh place, 5:18.15
- Boys 4×400-meter relay – EA, second place, 3:39.99
- Boys high jump – Haynes, first place, 6 meters; Nettles, fourth place, 5.8 meters; and Quinton Odom, fifth place, 5.8 meters
- Boys long jump – Nettles, third place, 21.3 meters; Sims, fourth place, 20.11 meters inches
- Boys triple jump – Sims, first place, 42.7 meters; Nettles, second place, 40.8 meters; and Odom, third place, 39.12 meters
- Girls shot put – KayLeigh Jay, fifth place, 30.10 meters
- Boys shot put – Hunter Smith, second place, 41.75 meters; and Chris Long, fourth place, 39.95 meters
- Girls discus throw – Jay, second place, 94 meters
- Boys discus throw – Smith, first place, 136.01 meters; and Kanye Hooks, third place, 118.06 meters
