By Lee Davis
The Over the Mountain area left quite an impression on the state track meet at Gulf Shores the weekend of May 3-4.
In Class 6A, the Hoover Bucs swept to the title in both boys’ and girls’ competition. Class 5A saw the Homewood Patriots also bring home the boys’ and girls’ championships.
Coach Devon Hind’s Hoover boys outscored runner-up Opelika 105.5-88 while Vestavia Hills finished fourth with 52 points. The Buccaneer girls chalked up 130.5 points to easily outdistance second-place Mountain Brook’s 64 total.
Homewood dominated the Class 5A boys’ meet by totaling 102.5 points against second-place Columbia’s 51 score. The Patriot girls, however, needed every point to narrowly defeat runner-up St. Paul’s 126.5-125.5.
Hoover’s boys’ team was led by senior Marlon Humphrey, who overcame injuries and illness to win the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. Humphrey also ran the longest leg of the 4×400 relay.
Humphrey missed most of the track season with a hamstring injury and was sick with a fever of more than 100 degrees a week before the state meet. But he was determined to run.
“I wanted to help Hoover get another blue trophy,” he said. “That was my motivation to be out there.”
Humphrey will play football for the University of Alabama next fall.
“Marlon is a team guy and gave everything he had for his teammates,” Hind said. “His legs were like Jell-O this weekend because he’s been sick all week. What he did to win those events is amazing.”
The Hoover relay team also won the 4×100 meter run, and the Bucs’ Daniel Fort took first place in the javelin throw.
Vestavia won the 4×800 meter relay
Humphrey’s sister Brittley helped her team win the girls’ title, as she took victories in the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. Her time of 42.74 in the 300-meter hurdles set a new state record. Hoover’s Chloe White won the javelin throw.
“We really had a good meet for the boys and the girls,” Hind said. “I felt good about both teams all weekend–and really all year. We had some outstanding efforts from our kids.”
Mountain Brook’s Julia Leonard won the high jump, and the Lady Spartans’ Rachel Reddy took first place in the 3200-meter run.
Homewood’s girls ended St. Paul’s eight-year run as Class 5A state champions. Top performers for the Lady Patriots included Kiara Williams, who won the long jump and 100-meter hurdles, and Ann Mosely Whitsett, who took the top prize for the 800-meter run.
“We were underdogs, but I felt we could beat St. Paul’s,” Homewood coach Tom Esslinger said. “We knew we had to be our best to have a chance. A lot of our athletes really stepped up when it counted.”
The Patriots’ victory in the boys’ competition was sparked by Andy Smith, who took first place in the 1600-meter run, and Logan Sadler, who won the 800-meter run. Sadler’s teammate, Tristan Lindsey, was second in the 800 meters. Homewood also won the 4×800 meter relay.
Briarwood’s Will Edwards won the Class 5A boys’ javelin throw.
In the Class 1A meet in Selma, Westminster Oak Mountain claimed the girls’ championship with 120.5 points over second-place Addison’s 72 score. Katie Brooks Boone won the 200-meter run, 100-meter run, 400-meter run and the 300-meter hurdles. Her teammate Maddie Hoagland won the 3200 and 1600-meter run championships.
“It was great to go out with four individual championships, and winning the team championship made it even sweeter,” said Boone, a senior who will run at Auburn University next fall. “I kept remembering that this would be my final high school meet, and I wanted it to be a good one.”
Boone had hoped to break the state record in the 300-meter hurdles but came up a little short. “There was a pretty strong headwind in Selma that weekend so there weren’t too many new records set,” she said. “But I’m totally OK with how everything turned out.”
As a small private school, Westminster was not well known in athletic circles prior to the track and field team’s success, and that’s a legacy in which Boone feels great pride.
“Nobody knew much about our school until recently,” Boone said. “And I’d like to think the success our team had has given Westminster some good publicity. We were very conscious of the importance of representing the school in a positive way.”
Westminster’s boys finished third in Class 1A boys’ competition. The Eagles’ Jacob Carrell and Scott Landers finished first and second respectively in the 800-meter dash.
The Altamont School finished second in girls’ 2A competition, with Falkville taking the top spot. The Lady Knights’ Taylor Young won the 300 and 110-meter hurdles.
