FHS boys go back-to-back
Falkville High School’s boy’s track and field team amassed 157 points to win their second straight Class 1A-3A state championship in Selma on Saturday.
St. Jude was runner-up with 78 points.
The team claimed 10 medals, five of which were for first place wins.
“This group of athletes is really special,” said co-head coach Keith Wilemon. “They are very hard workers. Since they started training Feb. 1, they’ve had only three days off, and one of those was due to bad weather.
“They realized on day one that we had high expectations for them,” he added. “They were very coachable and had good senior leadership.”
“They had high expectations for themselves, too,” said co-head coach Karen Wilemon. “That’s what motivated them to achieve their best.”
Bram Miller, Ryan Sullivan and Canaan Smith each claimed individual championship medals. Miller finished first in high jump with a 6-6 leap, one-half inch under the state record. Sullivan ran a 42.41 in the 300-meter hurdles for first place and Smith finished first in the javelin with a throw of 164 feet and eight inches.
Falkville also finished first with state record times in the 4×400 meter and 4×800 meter relays,
Second place medalists were Daniel Lockhart, javelin; and Clay Kyle, pole vault.
Third place medalists were Travis Cole, 300-meter hurdles; Aaron Estes, 100- and 400-meter dashes; and Brian Bradford, 1,600-meter run.
Other winners of points were Estes, fourth in triple jump; Miller, sixth in triple jump and eight in shot put.
Falkville’s girls team finished eighth overall with 36 points.
Autumn Eddy led her teammates in number of points earned. She finished second in javelin, sixth in triple jump, and fifth in both long jump and high jump.
Others who earned points were Patricia Kilgore, fourth in the 400 meter run, eighth in the 800 meter run and sixth in the 1,600 meter run; Kari Watts, eighth in the 400 meter run; and Katie Evans, eighth in pole vault.