| Union City Middle School will be taking a large contingent of track athletes to the West Sectional in Memphis May 2.
Thirteen Tornado thinclads qualified for the top-level meet with their performances Tuesday at the West Tennessee Athletic Conference meet in Dyersburg.
First- and second-place finishers in Tuesday’s event earned the right to move on, with seven UC boys and six Lady Tornadoes earning that honor.
The UC boys won the eight-school WTAC team championship by accumulating 125 total points. Brighton was second with 111, followed by Covington and Munford.
It marked the fourth consecutive year that the Union City boys’ program — in just its fifth year of existence — has either won or placed second in the conference meet.
“We really competed and got after it,” UC head coach Bobby Williams said.
“There is no classification in track like there is in both basketball and football, and I believe our track program supplements the other two by showing them that we can complete with the much bigger schools like Munford, Brighton, Ripley, Covington and Dyersburg. Those schools are 4A and 5A in football, and double-A and triple-A in basketball on the high school level. I believe it really helps the mental toughness of our kids.”
Williams also gave credit to volunteer aide Tommy Jernigan.
The Lady Tornadoes were third, behind meet winner Munford, which totaled 93 points.
Union City’s boys’ effort was highlighted by first-place efforts of Taeshawn Allen in the long jump, Kalab Dowell in the 100 meter hurdles, Cooper Hurt in the discus and Tripp Conley in the mile run.
The mile relay team consisting of Michael Warford, Dowell, Lazz Scribner and Robbie Thomas also won gold.
Hurt also placed second in the shot put, while Dowell was runnerup in the 400 meter dash and Conley No. 2 in the two-mile run.
Warford finished third in the high jump, and Ashton Webb had a similar finish in the discus to give the locals valuable points in their team total.
Three UC relay teams were also third.
A group made up of Allen, Warford, Quentrail Polk and Jaylen Crumble ran the 400 meter relay, while Allen, Thomas, Polk and Crumble comprised the 800 meter team.
The quartet of Grant Kizer, Kendall Craig, Brian Jimenez and Scribner finished third in the two-mile relay.
Conley, Dowell and Hurt were all named to the all-conference team.
The Union City girls will take six athletes to the sectional competition — the most that have ever advanced to that level, according to head coach Hunter Rice.
Alivia Bishop won the discus with a personal-best toss, while Gussie Parks was second with a similar feat in the high jump after clearing 4’4”.
The 800 meter relay team of Cortteaira Monroe, Chynia Hyde, Audrey Adams and Ana’sha Eskew sported a runnerup finish in that competition.
Adams, Eskew and Parks were all chosen to the all-conference team, based on points earned. Published in The Messenger 4.17.13 |
