The Francis Marion Track and Field team competed at Paul Bryant High School on March 2nd with almost 900 athletes competing. The ladies placed 4th and the men placed 10th out of 18 teams. The only teams to beat the ladies were Sparkman High School (7A) and Northridge/Paul Bryant High Schools (6A). As usual, the Running Rams had many high performing athletes compete well, and here are the ones who made it on a podium. Ke’Lashia Shelton placed 3rd in the 400M. Zy’Tashia Moore placed 3rd in the 100m hurdles and 3rd in the 200M. Deldrick Shelton placed 2nd in the high jump, even though he was clearly the better jumper. The winner cleared an earlier height prior to him, and he cleared 6’2” only to have the back of his thighs brush the bar on the way down all three attempts. He’s already cleared his best from last year and will grow by many more inches on the high jump. LaChelsea Moore placed 3rd in the javelin. Johnny Hudson threw an almost three-foot personal best to take 2nd in the shot put. The girl’s 4x100M throwers relay won the whole event run by LaChelsea Moore, Michaela Rutledge, StanQresha Jones, and Jakyrria Bradford.
These next two highlights did not make the medal podium, but both were Francis Marion School new records. The 4x100M Relay girls ran a 51.72 that beat the record set last year of 51.94. That was with shaky handoffs with two new members who are still learning the art of the relay handoff. Just wait to see their time when they’ve had more practice as a team! Carlton Tutt raised the school record in the javelin from 113 feet to 127 feet.
With track meets involving all sizes of schools until sectionals at the end of April, it’s hard to visually see how well your team may be doing stacked against other 2A schools. Thankfully MileSplit tracks all performances and orders them for track athletes to compare themselves to other teams in their division. Currently in 2A, the Running Rams have many top ranked athletes. A’Naja Tubbs, Johnny Hudson, Zy’Tashia Moore, the girls’ 4x100m relay team, and Deldrick Shelton are all ranked number one in at least one of their events in 2A. Tracianna Moore, Ke’Lashia Shelton, Antasia Moore, LaChelsea Moore, Michaela Rutledge, Brianna Webb, Elanna Lewis, Michael Hopkins, Carlton Tutt, Jamarian Essex, and the boys’ 4x100m relay team are all in the top five of at least one of their events in 2A. This should be a record setting year for the Rams!!!
