Strong start for Trinity, ACCS at state

Published 12:01 am Saturday, May 2, 2015

JACKSON — After standout performances in their respective south state track meets, athletes from Adams County Christian School and Trinity Episcopal Day School headed to Jackson Friday to compete on the biggest stage — the state meet.

Both schools were able to make an impact in the field events and will hope to carry over the success into today as runners hit the track.

For Trinity, discus thrower CJ Chatman and high jumper David Jackson both set personal bests in their event at the meet.

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Chatman threw the discus 111-feet-10-inches, which ranked fourth, while Jackson cleared a jump of 5-feet-8-inches, which was good enough to tie for third.

“I think it says a lot when you put out your best performance in the last event,” Trinity track and field coach Zach Rogel said. “That is all you can do as an individual. It is definitely motivating and exciting to carry over into next year.”

Rogel said the two had been working on their craft all the way up until the competition, and he was glad to see their hard work pay off.

“CJ has been throwing well all year,” Rogel said. “He’s been limited as far as practice resources, but we’ve been able to get out there and do some stuff.

“For David, he cleared 5-feet-6-inches in the last two meets, and we could tell he could reach that next height with a little practice. We went out, tweaked a few things, and got to where he was comfortable with it. The fact he cleared it on a big stage is pretty impressive.”

Kevontaye Caston is scheduled to run for Trinity today in the 100-meter dash, but Rogel said it will be a race-time decision on whether he goes or not because of a hamstring issue that has been bothering him for some time.

For ACCS, Lester Wells earned second place in two events, the long jump and high jump.

Wells recorded a jump of 22-feet-4-inches in the long jump, and cleared a height of 6-feet-2-inches in the high jump.

Jay Fleming took home third in the triple jump with a distance of 40-feet and 10 inches, and Tyler Stockstill captured third in the high jump with a mark of 6-feet-2-inches.

In the shot put, Chris Smotherman turned in a solid outing with a toss of 41-feet-5-inches.

“Today was solid,” track and field coach Matthew Freeman said. “Some of our kids were disappointed, though because they felt they could’ve done better.”

Someone who will look to continue to get better is Trey Fleming, who will be competing in the 300-meter hurdles today.

Fleming broke the state record at the south state meet with a time of 40.06, but will need to break the previous record once again at the state meet to have the time officially recognized.

Wells will also take part in races tomorrow, running the 100 meter dash and he will also be a part of a relay team made up of Trey Fleming, Sam Butler and Shaverick Williams.

Stockstill will also compete in the 110-meter hurdles.

Freeman said he feels confident heading into today about where the team stands.

“We should finish first or second in all of those events,” he said.