Gatewood’s track and field teams hosted and participated in the final GIAA Region 4-AA meet last Thursday.
The Lady Gators performed well, finishing third with 110 points, behind Edmund Burke and Brentwood. They qualified more than 20 athletes for the GIAA Class AA state meet.
“I thought the girls had a very solid day at our region meet,” Gatewood head coach Jeff Ratliff said. “Our region is the strongest track region in the state. I felt like we had a great showing and, more importantly, we qualified a lot of girls for the state meet.”
According to Ratliff, the Gatewood girls qualified for 28 out of a possible 34 slots for the state meet.
“That is fantastic,” Ratliff added of the Lady Gators’ accomplishments. “With that many girls going to state, we have a chance to have a great state meet and make a difference in the outcome.”
The Gators also performed well, finishing second with 168 points, behind Brentwood. They qualified 30 athletes for the state meet and won six events at the final region meet.
“Our region is one of the toughest track regions in the state, and on Thursday, I think everyone saw why,” Ratliff said. “While we had a very good meet, we finished second.
“I told the boys before the meet started that one of our goals was to go out and win a region title, but I also told them that the number one goal was to win a state title next week. The only way we could do that was to get qualified for the state meet. We did that in a big way.”
The long-time head coach said the Gatewood boys qualified for 30 slots out of a possible 34.
“Obviously, everything did not go our way,” Ratliff added. “We had some ups and downs with the injuries and other teams posting some of their best times of the year, but we put ourselves in a position to win another state title. Now, we must go out and have the best three days of track and field that we have had all year.”
The GIAA Class AA state meet will be held at Strong Rock Christian in Locust Grove from Thursday to Saturday this week.