CULLMAN - Winfield High School and Whitesburg Christian won state track championships for the second year in a row as the 92nd annual AHSAA State Outdoor Track and Field Championships concluded at Cullman Saturday.
Coach Steve Reaves' Pirates totaled 97 points to win the Class 3A boys ' title. Montgomery Academy scored 64 to finish second and Greensboro (50) was third. Whitesburg Christian's girls, coached by David McConnell, won their second consecutive Class 1A outdoor title with 109 points to edge Westminster of Oak Mountain, which totaled 103. St. Bernard was third with 98.50.
St. Bernard, coached by Steven Calvert, also captured the boys' state title with 138 points. Marion County finished second with 98, and Linden was third with 53.50. Claiming the Class 2A boys' championship was Cold Springs, coached by Claborn Campbell. The Eagles had 139 points and runner-up Falkville had 109.50. LaFayette was a close third with 102.
Coach Corey Thornton's LaFayette took home the Class 2A state crown scoring 110 points. Falkville had 96 to finish second and Mobile Christian was third with 83. T.R. Miller, coached by Eddie Brundidge, was the Class 3A girls' champs scoring 89 points. Cottage Hill Christian was second with 70.75. It was the third state title for T.R. Miller since 2011.
Winfield junior Trey Cunningham shattered his own Class 3A 110-meter hurdles record (14.18) set in A015 Friday with a 13.42-second time in the prelims. Saturday, his winning time of 13.50 seconds in the finals fell just shy of the prelim time but gave the Pirates standout the best three Class 3A times in the event's history. The 13.42 now ranks as the fastest in the AHSAA state meet in any classification.
He also breezed to the 200-meter dash win with a winning time of 21.82 seconds, and leaped 22-08 to win the long jump - giving him 40 points and four golds for the state meet.
Shades Mountain Christian senior distance runner Dylan Pausic also broke a 31-year old Class 1A record with his 9:39.78 time in the 3,200-meter run Saturday morning. Athens Bible's Jeff Harwell set the previous mark (9:51.06) in 1985. Pausic, 5-foot-6, 135 pounds, also won the 1,600 meterson Friday to give him a sweep of the 1A distance events.
Piedmont senior Karri Green, who set the 3A state record in the 400-meter dash Friday, won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.90 - just missing the record (14.23) set in 2005 by Leeds' Bridget Rose. She followed with another record-setting effort in the 200-meter dash. She ran 24.97 to eclipse the previous record (25.10) by Simone Pugh of Cottage Hill in 2009.
Some other highlights from Saturday's 1A/2A/3A competition at Cullman included:
CLASS 3A BOYS
High Jump: Three jumpers tied at 6-4 with Tyrell Riley of Hillcrest-Evergreen winning on fewer misses. Dakoda Mackey of Sand Rock and Matt Cahoon of Holly Pond finished 2-3 after also clearing 6-4. The trio all missed their three attempts at 6-6.
4X100-Meter Relay: In one of the best races of the entire meet, Hillcrest-Evergreen clocked 43.52 seconds, just missing the record (43.04) set in 2015 by the Jaguars. Madison Academy clocked 43.66 and Pike County, 44-02, to finish close behind at 2-3.
800-Meter Run: Noah Karr of American Christian won with s 3A state-record time of 1:53.31 to break the previous record (1:53.76) set by UMS-Wright's Brandon Phillips 18 years earlier in 1998.
CLASS 2A BOYS
800-Meter Run: Falkville placed three runners in the top four finishers with Brian Bradford winning with a 2:04.00 time. Teammates Blake Bradford and Drake Hamilton finished 3-4 at 2:06.70 and 2:07.41. Cold Springs' Jared Stanley was second at 2:04.79.
CLASS 1A BOYS
200-Meter Dash (Para Ambulatory): Twin brothers Conner and Cole Howell, from Enterprise, clocked 37.29 and 38.53 seconds for the Alabama School for the Blind to complete their third event of the 2016 state championships. Teammates Gerdon Carter and Curtis Taylor were their lane guides.
CLASS 3A GIRLS
Triple Jump: Callie Jones, who set the 3A state meet record last year with a 38-05 leap, won the triple jump again with another record-setting performance. She beat the 2015 record twice, leaping 38-11 and 38-11.75 - the last distance becoming the new standard.
CLASS 2A GIRLS
800-Meter Run: Karri Watts of Falkville finished strong to win the 800 in 2:24.22. She also finished second in the 200-meter dash with a 27.17 time one event earlier to pick up 18 points late for the Blue Devils. Aryn Head of Holy Spirit won the 200 in 26.66 seconds.
Pole Vault: Addison's Emee Baldwin cleared 9 feet, 6 inches to set a new Class 2A girls' state pole vault record. The old mark of 9-03 was set by Drake McGowin of Montgomery Academy in 2013.
CLASS 1A GIRLS
4x400-Meter Relay: Whitesburg Christian's relay team of Emily Cusker, Emily Pierce, Kayla Shoaf and Kristina Thoenes won the final running event of the meet in 4:19.00 to give the Warriors 10 needed points en route to the state championship. The Warriors won by just six points over Westminster of Oak Mountain.