In April, the Putnam County girls and boys track teams competed in the Region 4-AA meet at Glenn Hills, where they both placed second.
The PCHS boys had several athletes qualify for state sectionals, including the 4x200 relay team, consisting of Dj Bland, Alian Hill, Sharod White, and Jermaine Nelson. Also, Bland showed out in the long jump, while Keyni Crawford was successful in the triple jump.
The PCHS boys’ 4x100 of Bland, Hill, White and Brown also qualified for sectionals. As far as individuals go, Nelson (100 m and 200m), Hill (long jump), Brayon Farley (300m hurdles), Crawford (high jump), Zacoree Wallace (shot put and discus) and Elijah Sepulveda (pole vault) all placed.
The sectional qualifiers for the girls included the 4x800 relay region champions (Alyssa Pennington, Lily Frisch, Bernicia Harris, Kadyn Dennis) with a time of 11:39.61. Individual girls’ event winners included Amber Winslette, who is the first girls’ region pole vault champion in PCHS history, and Alyssa Pennington, who won both the 1600- (6:02.35) and 3200-meter runs (13:24.01).
Other PCHS girls’ qualifiers for sectionals were Baylen Yarbrough in the 200, Lily Frisch in the 800 and 1600, Halana Griffin in the long and triple jump. The girls' 4x100 and 4x200 teams (Griffin, Yarbrough, Vanecia Williams, and Alexandra Morris) also qualified for sectionals.
Pennington’s winning 1600, 3200, 4x800, and 5th place in the 4x400 secured her a tie as the Region 4 Girls’ High Point Champion. This award goes to the girl and boy who contributes the most points to their team score. Overall, the Putnam boys’ team scored 117 points, while the girls finished with 106 team points.
The sectionals competition was held the following Saturday, May 6, at East Jackson High School.
For state qualifiers to be selected, PCHS track coach James Ignoffo explained, “We qualified in eight boys’ events and seven girls’ events. They run or jump until the Top-8 qualifiers are established and move on to state (competition).”
The jumps were done first, and Crawford qualified eighth for the triple jump. Hill and Bland qualified first and third, respectively, in the long jump. Nelson qualified sixth for PCHS in both the 100- and 200-meter races. The boys’ 4x100 team also qualified third.
Those who missed out on advancing were triple-jumper Brabham, Sepulveda in pole vault and Wallace in the shot put.
On the girls’ side for Putnam High, state qualifiers included the 4x200 relay team and Frisch in the 800- and 1600-meter events. Other competitors were Pennington (1600, 3200, 4x800), Yarbrough (200), Griffin (long jump, triple jump) and Amber Winslette in the pole vault and girls 4x100 relay team.
Overall, Putnam High School qualified five boys and five girls for the state meet held May 11-13 at McEachern High School.
On the first day, Bland placed sixth overall with a long jump of 21-2.5 feet, while Hill, unfortunately, did not qualify for the finals. Crawford also missed the finals for the triple jump. And unfortunately, the PCHS boys 4x100 had a bad exchange and baton drop in the first exchange to end their 2023 track season.
Nelson qualified for the 100 finals on Saturday with a time of 10.99 seconds but missed the 200 and finished 12th. Running in the 100-meter final race, he placed seventh.
The girls 4x200 team missed making the finals after finishing 13th.
Frisch missed the 800 finals by finishing 14th and had a 13th-place result in the 1600-meter run to end her season.