Photo courtesy of Homewood Track and Field.
The Homewood boys track and field team placed first at the AHSAA Class 6A state meet in Gulf Shores on Saturday, May 6, 2023. Photo courtesy of Homewood Track and Field.
Once the results came in, chaos ensued.
It came down to the final event, the 4x400-meter relay. The Homewood High School boys finished third and St. Paul’s finished 10th. At that moment, coach Josh Donaldson knew the Patriots had claimed their first Class 6A state outdoor track and field championship since 2019.
“It was crazy,” Donaldson said.
The fact that Donaldson was close to the Homewood tent when the final scores were posted made the celebration that much sweeter.
Homewood scored 88 points, edging St. Paul’s by two points in the event, held May 4-6 in Gulf Shores. Northridge finished third with 59 points, while UMS-Wright scored 50.
The first day of the tournament was not Homewood’s best, but the Patriots stepped it up on the second day to put themselves within striking distance. Donaldson said the boys still trailed by about 30 points entering the final day, but they rose to the occasion.
A lengthy weather delay during the second day allowed Homewood fresh legs for the 800-meter run on the final day. Colvin Bussey, Grayton Murray and Ben Murray combined to score 17 points for the team, setting the Patriots up for a big finish.
Donaldson said he knew the boys team had a shot to capture the state title leading into the meet, but it was going to take a team effort. In some events, the Patriots did not get the amount of points they hoped for. But in others, there were some pleasant surprises that buoyed their efforts.
“I knew we had a chance, but I also knew things had to fall into place to end up how it did,” he said.
The 4x400 relay team finished third but posted a time of 3 minutes, 23.72 seconds, just 0.01 seconds off the school record. The 4x800 team ran the race in 8 minutes, edging out Mountain Brook. Hunter Drake had a big day, posting a second-place finish in triple jump and finishing fifth in long jump.
Slate Rohrer won the 300-meter hurdles in 39.5 seconds, while finishing third in 110 hurdles.
Homewood’s girls finished fourth, scoring 66.5 points. Mountain Brook won the event, accumulating 94 points. Northridge was second with 76 and St. Paul’s edged Homewood for third with 69.5 points. Homewood grabbed fourth ahead of Saraland, which posted 66 points.
Brooke Walden posted a new state record in the pole vault, winning by clearing the bar at 12 feet, 10 inches despite battling an injury in the lead-up to state. The girls 4x400 relay team won the event with a time of 4:02.
In the 1,600-meter run, Grayton Murray finished third, with Andrew Laird scoring points in seventh as well. Laird was fifth and Murray was sixth in the 3,200. Elliott Allen reached the podium with a third-place finish in pole vault. In shot put, Maxy Salazar was fifth and Aaron Ford was seventh. Zaire White finished seventh in the 110 hurdles.
Maris Owen reached the podium by finishing third in the 400 and Madeline Alford posted a sixth-place finish in 300-meter hurdles. Emma Brooke Levering was third in the 3,200, fourth in the 1,600 and seventh in the 800. Sarah Derriso earned a point by finishing eighth in the 100 hurdles and Caroline Wilder was sixth in the 3,200.
Neily Stephens was second in javelin as well. Magi Williams was sixth in long jump and Chandler Binkley was seventh in high jump. The 4x800 relay team also grabbed a third-place finish.
Will Doughty, Foster Laird, John Martin, Hayden Thomason, Aaron Ford, Ada McElroy, Olivia Burczyk, Lily Griffin, Layla Essalah, Julia Mitchell, Ma’eva Fortson and Sadie Busbee were among the other Homewood athletes to compete.
Donaldson said Homewood took 23 seniors to the state meet, one of the largest classes he has seen come through the program.
“It was a whirlwind of a week, but there was no better way to cap it off,” he said. “There was a lot of emotion at the end. I’m so proud of all the athletes. They stepped up and competed like I knew they would.
“That’s a nice icing on the cake for most of them.”
Cavs finish as 5A runner-up
The John Carroll boys finished second in the Class 5A state meet, accruing 76 points. Scottsboro dominated the meet, earning the state title with 116 points.
It is John Carroll’s fourth trophy in outdoor track and field, joining the runner-up squads of 1998 and 1999 and the championship team of 1974.
Arthur Langley racked up plenty of points for the Cavs. He finished second in the 3,200, fourth in the 1,600 and seventh in the 800.
KJ Beck won the 400, posting a time of 49.56 seconds, with Aden Malpass coming home fourth.
Malpass won the 300-meter hurdles, running the race in a school record time of 40.22 seconds.
James Edmonds also set a school record, as he won the pole vault competition by clearing the bar at 14 feet. Aidan Lange was third in the pole vault.
The boys 4x400-meter relay team of Beck, Jaylin Shepherd, Sebastian Guerrero and Malpass won the event in 3 minutes, 27 seconds.
The 4x100 and 4x800 relay teams placed fourth as well.
On the girls side, Katie Marie Everett was fourth in pole vault. The 4x100 relay was sixth, the 4x400 team placed ninth and the 4x800 team finished fifth.
