12 Records Set As 44th Indoor Track Championships Conclude
Final Results
Beauregard won its first girls’ state title scoring 94 points to claim the Class 1A-4A championship as the 44th AHSAA State Indoor Track Championships concluded Tuesday at Birmingham’s CrossPlex. St. Paul’s tied a state record held by Mountain Brook by winning its 20th girls’ state crown.
UMS-Wright was runner-up to Beauregard with 71 points and Westminster at Oak Mountain was third with 58.
St. Paul’s posted 144 points to win the Class 5A girls championship and Homewood had 120 to take second place.
Hoover won the 6A girls’ crown for the first time since 2006. The Lady Bucs had 130 points and runner-up Pelham totaled 72.
In the boys’ competition, Coach Devon Hind’s Bucs made it a sweep as Hoover took the 6A crown with 90 points. Auburn was second with 71 points and Opelika third with 64.
Homewood won its second straight 5A boys’ title with 125 points and St. Paul’s was second with 73.
UMS-Wright captured the 1A-4A state boys’ title with 71.50 points. Montgomery Academy was second with 59 and Dadeville was a close third with 52.
A total of 12 state indoor records were either tied or broken Tuesday for a total of 25 during the two-day meet.
Highlights of Tuesday’s competition included:
CLASS 6A Girls
Brittley Humphrey and Sarah Sanford finished 1-2 in the 6A finals of the 60-meter hurdles. Humphrey, who broke her own state record in the prelims Monday, ran 8.54 to beat her time of 8.71 to set yet another record. Sanford ran a sterling 9.0 time, which bettered the state record times in Class 5A and Class 1A-4A.
Woodlawn’s Jayla Kirkland, who ran the nation’s seventh fastest prep indoor 60-meter time this season in Monday’s 60-meter prelims, topped that 7.50 mark with a winning time of 7.49 in the finals. Reigning champion Caitland Smith of Pelham was second with a 7.51 time.
Hoover’s 4x400 relay team also set a new state mark with a winning time of 3:56.58.
In what may have been the closest 400-meter girls’ race in state history, Pelham’s Smith and Hoover’s Sanford finished 1-2, just .03 seconds apart. Smith won in 56.51 seconds and Sanford, who lunged and did a complete tumble roll at the finish line, clocked 56.54. The times were just .36 and .39 off the state mark set by Joy Maneice-Marbury of Hoover in 2012.
CLASS 5A GIRLS
One record fell with St. Paul’s winning the 4x400 relay in 4:09.50.
CLASS 1A-4A GIRLS
Lincoln’s Shelbi White clocked 57.89 seconds in the 400-meter dash in the first event of the day and set a new Class 1A-4A state record. She edged Katie Brooks Boone of Westminster at Oak Mountain, who set the state mark last year with a 58.36 time. Boone ran 59.54.
Boone won the 60-meter dash with a 1A-4A state record 7.70. She also set the record last year with a 7.75.
CLASS 6A BOYS
Jaalen Jones of Thompson tied the indoor mark in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.89 seconds. Marlon Humphrey, who was injured in the long jump Monday and did not compete in any event Tuesday, set the 6.89 mark in 2013.
The 1,600-meter race turned out to be a sprint to the finish as Auburn’s Dylan Ogburn edged Austin Norwood of Hewitt-Trussville by .88 seconds in the best boys’ race of the day. Ogburn clocked 4:30.06 and Norwood 4:30.94.
CLASS 5A BOYS
Harrison Dudley of Paul Bryant won the Class 5A 400-meter dash in 48.68 seconds, setting a new state record. Hunter Hawkins of Walker held the record since his 49.97 time in 2012.
In the 5A boys’ 1,600-meter race, no record was set but Andy Smith of Homewood pulled past teammate Alex Ngei at the finish line to claim the championship in 4:35.62. Ngei’s second-place time was 4:57.14.
Homewood followed up with a state-record effort in the 4x800-meter relay. The Patriots clocked 8:19.17 to win and eclipsed the previous record set by Walker in 2012 by .37 seconds. The Vikings clocked 8:19.56.
Paul Bryant also set a 5A record in the 4x400 relay with a winning time of 3:25.71.
CLASS 1A-4A BOYS
Ismail Saleem of St. Jude broke the Class 1A-4A state record he set Monday in the 60-meter dash prelims with a 7.03 time in the finals. He ran 7.10 Monday.
Montgomery Academy also set a record in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:36.59.