Track standouts Kimberly Wallace, Gracie Hovan, Hayden Wilson and Kristy Martin will represent Dawson County at the State Sectionals on Saturday.

All four qualified by finishing in a top four spot in their event at last week's Region 8-AA meet at Jefferson High School.

This will be the first year for the state sectional format in Georgia.

Each of the Lady Tigers will travel to Lamar County High School on Saturday to compete against Regions 2, 3, 4 and 8.

In the field events, in which all the Lady Tigers participants will compete, the top eight will advance to the state tournament that will be May 3-5 in Albany.

Wallace will compete in the long jump after a third place finish at Jefferson.

Wallace jumped 15'5.5," which was just behind first place finisher Shae Giles, 16'8," and Morgan Byrd, 15'9," both from North Oconee.

Lady Tiger Gracie Hovan qualified for sectionals with a triple jump of 31'7.25" to take a fourth place finish. Giles from North Oconee captured the triple jump crown with a leap of 33'3."

Hayden Wilson and Kristy Martin will both be heading to Lamar County with finishes of third and fourth respectively in the discus.

Wilson had a throw of 98'7.5" to take third, while teammate Martin tossed the disc a distance of 96'6" to finish fourth.

Winning the discus competition was Aubrey Fearnow from Oglethorpe County with a throw of 111'9.5."

Head coach Arron Haynes said he couldn't be more proud of the girls.

"I am proud of them. They are some of the toughest girls I have ever been around. They have battled through injuries to reach their goals. We are excited to be a part of the first ever state sectionals," Haynes said.

At the Region 8-AA championships at Jefferson High School the Lady Tigers finished a respectable 10th place with 29 points.

Winning the team title was North Oconee with 170 points.

Hart County finished in second place with 98 points.

Haynes' team was very competitive in a strong track region.

Qualifying was held on Thursday for all the running events. The best times were then selected to compete in the finals on Saturday.

In the field events, all finals were held on Thursday.

Lady Tiger Rachel Glockner finished in eighth place in the 800-meters with a time of 3:42.86.

Olivia Pigg of North Oconee won the event with a time of 2:30.56.

In the 1,600-meter finals, Dawson County runners Savanna Estes, 6:09, and Taylor Grindstaff, 6:15, finished in seventh and eighth place respectively. Pigg also won this event with a time of 5:33.

The 3,200-meter finals were won by another North Oconee runner, Dorie Fabner, with a time of 12:06. Lady Tigers Glockner, 14:22, and Claudia Santillan, 20:46, crossed the finish line in eighth and 11th place respectively.

Jordan Moore jumped 4'4" to finish in ninth place in the high jump.

In the pole vault, Lady Tiger Shelby Whitaker cleared a height of 6'6" to come in eighth place.

In the shot put, Hayden Wilson threw a distance of 28'7" for eighth place.

Teammate Kristy Martin finished in 13th place with a distance of 26'4."