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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Janie Branch competes in the first day of the AHSAA Class 4A-7A state outdoor track and field championship May 4 at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex in Gulf Shores.
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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Members of the girls team pose with the trophy.
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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Sophie Jane Knott won her first state individual title, taking first place in the pole vault.
The Mountain Brook High School girls track and field team won its battle for second place at the Class 7A state outdoor meet held May 4-6 at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex.
On the third and final day of competition, the Spartans scored critical points to preserve their runner-up finish. Hoover prevailed, 128.5 to 83.5. Auburn placed third with 71 points.
“I figured Hoover was going to be pretty far out,” said Mountain Brook head track and field coach Michael McGovern. “Then I knew it was going to be between us, James Clemens, Auburn and McGill-Toolen for second.”
Mountain Brook also placed second to Hoover at February’s state indoor meet. It had to fight to retain the position.
After slipping from first to third over the course of the final day, the Spartans rallied in their final two events. Lily Hulsey and Anna Grace Morgan came through when it counted.
Hulsey took second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 16.07 seconds. Morgan, a senior, posted a personal best of 2:17.87 to finish sixth. It was Morgan’s final event as a Spartan and her fourth of the meet.
“We had to have the points in the 800 to seal up the second place, and she knew it,” McGovern said of Morgan. “That’s the kind of person she is for us, the type of leader she’s been for us. She’s going to do whatever it takes.”
Morgan also placed second in the 3,200-meter run, fourth in the 1,600-meter run and contributed to the Spartans’ runner-up 4x800-meter relay team. Her podium finish in the 3,200 compensated for her near miss in the 1,600.
“Today, I just wanted to come back and just be really focused and stay up there to make sure that I scored some big points for the team,” Morgan said after her 3,200 on May 5.
Following her runner-up performance in the 800, Hulsey rebounded for the 4x400-meter relay. She teamed up with Anne Coleman Bradford, Sophie Jane Knott and Holli Chapman to earn a fifth-place finish in 3:59.8. Chapman ran a strong anchor leg, enabling Mountain Brook to glean four points despite competing in the second of three heats. Their collective showing sealed the Spartans’ second-place finish.
“We talk about it all the time. As soon as you’re into a state meet situation, people have to be ready to step up,” McGovern said.
Chapman and Knott, both sophomores, stepped up in more ways than one.
Chapman ran 57.25 seconds to place second in the 400-meter run. Knott, meanwhile, overcame gusty winds and overwhelmed the competition en route to the state pole vault title on the meet’s first day. She posted a personal-best clearance of 11 feet, 3 inches, to win the first individual championship of her career.
“It’s so exciting because I’ve worked so hard,” Knott said. “I haven’t jumped my best this season, and it just feels so good to finally PR.”
Knott tied her previous personal best (11 feet) to win the event, and then put icing on the cake by clearing the next bar. No other competitor vaulted higher than 10-6.
“I was just trying to go have fun,” she said, “ and it helped a lot.”
Janie Branch also shined in the field. The senior finished second in the discus and fifth in the shot put. Ella Cobbs, Eleanor Swagler and Anne Carlton Clegg all scored in the high jump. Cobbs and Swagler tied for second, as both required an identical number of attempts to clear the bar at 5-2. Clegg also cleared 5-2, but she finished tied for seventh because she took more attempts.
BOYS RESULTS
Griffin Riley and Gram Denning paced the Mountain Brook boys to an 11th-place team finish.
Riley nearly won the 800, but Hoover’s Trent Hamner pulled away in the closing steps. Riley ran 1:55.01 to Hamner’s 1:54.78.
Denning finished sixth in 1:56.65.
“All glory be to God. I was proud of my effort. I gave it my all,” Riley said. “I’m not so happy with the placement, but I mean, Trent’s a great racer. There’s not much you can do when you’re giving it all you’ve got.”
Riley and Denning teamed up with John Galloway and Warren Fitzpatrick to finish third in the 4x800-meter relay. In the field, Jack Grant placed third in the javelin.
