By John Martin, correspondent
The Sun
May 09, 2008 12:01 pm
—
Josh Birmingham of Luther and Jones standout hurdlers Chris Hunt and Justin Taylor brought home state championship gold medals in track and field action Friday and Saturday.
Birmingham successfully defended his state title in the 100 meter dash at the Class 2A championship in Mustang, clocking 11.67 to win the gold. Teammates Dominique Walker also got to mount the victory stand as he ran an 11.99 to win the fourth place medal.
Birmingham, who has battled mononucleosis all spring, uncorked a season best jump of 22-01/2 in the long jump but had to settle for the silver medal when Daniel Valderas of Snyder went 22-21/4 for the gold. Birmingham and Walker also missed out on a chance to medal in the 400 relay when the Lions mishandled a baton exchange in the prelims and were disqualified.
Hunt blazed to a 39.91 clocking to win gold in the 300 meter hurdles at the 3A meet at Tulsa Central, outdistancing runner-up John Branch of Lindsay by more than a full second. Meanwhile Taylor zipped to a blazing 15.25 gold medal in the 110 meter high hurdles while Hunt had a 15.67 to take the bronze medal.
Mark Peterson ran a 2:00.71 to take the silver medal in the 800 for the Longhorns while Adam Peitrowicz was fourth in the shot put and fifth in the discus to add more points to the Longhorns total.
Todd Thomas cleared 6-0 for a medal in the high jump and the Longhorns 3200 meter relay team won the sixth place medal with a time of 8:37.28.
The Luther Lady Lions got multi-medal winning performances from Haley Weathers and Aerie King. Weathers, the Lady Lions talented freshman basketball star, gathered in three medals, taking second in the long jump with a leap of 16-31/2, was third in the 300 meter hurdles with a personal best of 47.99 and was sixth in the 100 hurdles.
King claimed two medals, finishing fifth in the 100 and fourth in the 200 meter dashes.
For the Lady Longhorns, Brooke Frantz leaped 16-91/2 to take third place in the long jump while Morgan Howard was third in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.89. Howard also claimed a fifth place medal in the 200.
STAR SPENCER’S Chrishana Olds claimed a bronze medal with a time of 59.97 in the 400 meter run at the 4A meet at Tulsa Central for the Lady Bobcats’ only points. For the Bobcats, the 400 meter relay placed third with a time of 43.79 and the 1600 meter relay squad brought home fifth place medals with a time of 3:27.09.
Taking individual medals for the Bobcats were Darwin Rideau who was fourth in the 100 and Ashton Cochren, who placed sixth in the 300 hurdles.
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