Despite some very impressive performances the Dawson County boy’s track team failed to qualify anyone for the state meet.
The Tigers scored a team total of 24.5 points to finish in eighth place in the Region 8-AA meet held April 25 and 27 at Bryan-Keen Stadium in Jefferson.
The first round of competition was held on Saturday.
Field events were the order of the day, as all champions were crowned on Saturday. Qualifying for the running events were held with the finals to come on Monday.
Dawson almost placed two team members in the state finals.
Tiger TJ Byrd placed the highest with a third place finish in the pole vault.
Byrd vaulted 12’6” to earn six points for his team. Winning the event was Tyler Porter of Jefferson with a vault of 14’00.”
Byrd qualified for the state meet last year, unfortunately only the top two placers advance. Byrd also finished in fourteenth place in the discus with a throw of 91’6.”
Taylor Rowan also had a decent throw in the discus with a toss of 85’11.5.”
Luke Parks also finished well in the pole vault. Parks vaulted 9’6” for seventh place and two team points.
In the high jump, senior Tommy Lin tied for eighth place with a jump of 5’8.”
Lin earned 0.5 points for the Tigers. Winning the high jump was Maurice Freeman of Oglethorpe County with a jump of 6’6.”
Lin also came in eighth place in the long jump. Lin jumped 18’8.5” for Head Coach Arron Haynes’ team.
Eian Perry finished in third place in the long jump with a leap of 19’1.5” in the finals to earn five team points for the Tigers.
Perry also placed in eleventh place in the triple jump recording a leap of 34’0.”
Dawson’s John Markley came in eighth place in the triple jump. Markley recorded a leap of 35’4.75” to earn a point for the Tigers.
Grant Brown placed the highest for the Tigers in the shot put. Brown finished in 14th place with a throw of 34’9.”
Zak Paz threw the shot a distance of 32’7” to place 16th.
After the first day of events Dawson was in eighth place with only 15.5 team points.
The Tigers qualified in five different events for the finals on Monday. Dawson had a chance in the 400 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, 3200 meters and the 4x400 team.
In the 400, Markley had a very good run, coming in fourth place with a time of 53.43.
He helped his team earn five team points. Brad Baker of Riverside Military Academy won the event with a time of 51.68. Markley also performed well in the 200 meters with a time of 24.52 for an eighth place finish earning his team a point.
Tommy Lin came in eighth place in the 100 meters with a time of 12.01.
The finish was good enough to earn a point for the Tigers.
Marlin Veazie of Riverside won the event with a time of 11.27.
Andrew Hinton came in 11th place in the 3200 meters with a time of 12:28.98.
In the same event, Rene Santillan finished 16th with a time of 13:18.44. Winning the event was Josh Holloway of Oglethorpe County with a time of 10:30.46.
In the last event of the meet, Dawson placed eighth, earning a team point, in the 4x400 meter relay. The team of Byrd, Lin, Perry and Markley crossed the finish line with a time of 3:56.52.
This was the last meet of the season for the Tigers.
North Oconee won the region with a team score of 132. Finishing second was Jefferson with a score of 118.