The Cedar Shoals Jaguars have won three state championships since 2000, they began work on another one as the Georgia Olympics got underway. The field events and distance running events opened on Thursday in the Georgia Olympics or State Championships for Georgia in Track and Field.
On the opening day of the championships, distance runner Josiah Jenkins finished third in the 1600m with a time of 4:20.80 and finished fourth in the 3200m with a time of 9:35.47. Jenkins accounted for 11 of the Jaguars 18 points.Cedar Shoals ended the day in third place in Class 5A through Thursday. North Paulding (26pts-did not score again) and McIntosh (20pts) are first and second respectively.
On Friday, the Jaguar 4×100 relay team of Asa Smith, Tomara Lowe, Breshawrd Cooper and Josh Bolton ran a prelim time of 42.65 qualifying them for the finals with the fifth best overall time. In the 4×400 prelims, the team of Smith, Lowe, Cooper and Justin McElroy qualified for the finals finishing first in their heat with the second best time in the prelims (Miller Grove 3:21.13) running a 3:23.96. Smith ran an 11.33 in the 100m and a 23.06 in the 200m prelims and did not qualify for the finals in either event. McElroy qualified for the 300m hurdle finals with a time of 39.36, fifth best of the qualifying times.
Cedar Shoals entered the finals of the running events on Saturday in third place with 23 points and a very real shot at earning their first state championship since 2005. Cedar Shoals continued to tack on the points as Asa Smith, Tomara Lowe, Breshawrd Cooper and Josh Bolton finished fifth in the 4×100, Cooper finished seventh in the 400m and Justin McElroy placed sixth in the 300m hurdles.
Entering the final event, the 4×400, Cedar Shoals had 32 points, eight behind first place McIntosh. A top two finish would assure the Jaguars at least a share of the state championship. It was not be as the 4×400 relay team of Smith, Lowe, Cooper and Justin McElroy finished third behind Dunwoody and Miller Grove with a time of 3:30.19, scoring only six points for a total of 38 points, two behind state champion McIntosh (40). During the field events on Thursday, Cedar Shoals suffered disqualification in the discus which would have been enough points for the state championship.
Finishing second showed the depth of the Cedar Shoals team that did not have one individual state champion this year.
2013 Class Track & Field State Champions:
6A- Mill Creek (5th consecutive) (Gwinnett County)
5A- McIntosh
4A- Marist (Dekalb County Private)
3A- St. Pius (Dekalb County Private)
2A- Westminster (Gwinnett County Private)
1A- Private: Athens Christian (third consecutive)
1A- Public: Commerce
The girls state championships will be held this weekend in Albany, GA