Madison County fares well in home track meet

TJ Allen set a new personal record of clearing 11 feet on the pole vault and taking first place.

“I was really impressed with his new record today,” said Raider coach Jamie Sims. “TJ has been working hard with some help from Mr. Sikes from the middle school to help fine tune some of his technical issues that are helping him improve tremendously over the past few weeks.

Kardashian Johnson broke 40 feet in triple jump, taking second place with a 40’2” triple jump. Johnson also took first place in long jump and the 100M run. Overall, Johnson had a standout day for the Raiders.

Garrison Harris had his first attempt this season at triple jump and made a 38 feet jump.

Sims said this was very impressive for a freshman in his first attempt of the season. Codey Brakhage took second in the 1600m run. Tyler Colquitt had a personal best in discus, throwing a 105’5” throw and taking fourth place out of 14 competitors and also taking third place in shot put out of 12 competitors. Freshman Vince Hix also had a personal best taking fifth place throwing a 101’4”.

For the girls, Mylane Rutledge had another good performance on the 100 hurdles, taking second place out of five competitors. Sam LeZear took second in the 100m run out of five competitors and second in the discus throw out of eight competitors and another second place finish in shot put out of eight competitors. LeZear also was named #1 in her senior class this past week, making her the valedictorian of this years senior class at MCHS.

“That in itself makes us coaches proud!” said Sims. Freshman Christian Carruth pulled off another first place win in the 1600m run.

“She is steadily improving and I’m so proud of her work ethic and heart for running track!” said Sims. “She has a bright future ahead of her if she keeps it up.”

Freshman Elyssa Smith also had a good race in the 400m run, taking second place out of nine competitors. Diamond Jennings also finished third in shot put with a new personal record.

“All in all we have much to be proud of and much to continue to work on with our team but overall we are so proud of each and every one of our kids,” said Sims.

Sims offered thank you’s to those who helped at the recent track fundraiser.

“I want to put a big thank you to all the local businesses that helped by donating to our annual track barbecue fundraiser a couple of weeks ago: Down Home Cooking, Foxx’s pizza, Chicken Express, Gina Belles, Ila Restaurant, Biscuit Express, Pizza & Sub Express, Bill’s Barbecue, Zeb’s Barbecue, Huddle House of Danielsville, Ingles of Hull, Marketplace in Danielsville and the Butt Hut,” said Sims. “And a special thanks to my dad Mr. James Sims the mastermind behind cooking our wonderful barbecue. And his world famous Sims barbecue sauce that makes the barbecue taste so good and thanks to everyone that put in time to help with that process and thanks to Gordon’s Chapel church for allowing us to use their barbecue pit free of charge! Thank you all for your help making this fundraiser a major success for our program and our track kids again this year!