Girls Sprints
The sprints will be a four way battle in almost every event. Rosalynd Hollingsworth, Iaunia Pointer, Kaleb Mcdonald, and Veronique Ninamou will make every sprint event extremely interesting. There's hardly a favorite in any event from the 100, 200, and 400m dash. Earlier in the season Sacred Heart's Iaunia Pointer was getting beat by her Louisville area competitors, but as the season progressed she set the state lead in the 200 and 400 when it matters most...the regional round. As for the 100, those four ladies are ranked 1-2-3 with Pointer in 5th. McDonald has been there from the state with a few state titles under her belt as she pulled off the 1-2-4 triple last year she'll look to hold off the field for a few more state titles this year. Hollingsworth has been part of some star relay teams for Tates Creek that have taken state titles, but hasn't been able to capture an individual title yet. Finally, as just a freshman Veronique Ninamou of Male HS has been one of the top ladies in the state and won almost every meet she's been entered in. Saturday she will try and spoil the party for the veterans.
Sophie Galloway will be the lady to watch in the 100mH and also the horizontal jumps. She's been absolutely dominant all year and she enters the meet with a PR thats almost an entire second faster than the next fastest being Kayla Jones. The 300mH will be a closer battle with three ladies very close to each other Naturi Robinson and Mackenzie Cooper will go head to head. Neither of them have been to the state meet before so they'll look to take their first title back home. Don't count out Aniya Diamond of North Hardin either who holds the third fastest time in the state and the third fastest seed time.
Kaleb McDonald out-leans Hollingsworth at the line for the 100m dash victory
Girls Distance
One of the most dynamic ladies in this class is South Laurel's Phoebe McCowan. For most of the year she was the state leader in the 400m dash, but that's not even here event. In fact, she's not even entered in it. Last year she was the state champ in the 800m as just a freshman and this year she'll go after the 1600m title as well as she enters as the top seed in both. Oldham County's Katy Chapman will be a threat in both though. She has been in impressive form lately highlighted by her Dream Mile runner-up finish to Kailee Perry who we will see in the Class A meet.
The 3200 is headlined by a young lady who has come so close to a state title, but hasn't been able to capture it. Jenna Strange comes into the meet as the top seed in the longest race of the day and will attempt to make her state title run after running the mile. Savannah Cagle will make her work for it though as she comes into the 3200 with fresh legs. Her only other race scheduled for the day is the 4x800 relay, but it seems that she'll be an alternate. Both enter with an 11:40 seed time so keep an eye on that duel at the end of the day.
Phoebe McCowan walks through her win in the 800m at the 2018 State Meet
Girls Relays
The story of the relays for the Class AAA girls will be the sprint squad from Tates Creek and the 4x800 team of Butler. The Butler Lady Bears have been the dominant force all season and come into the state meet with a seed time that is 11 seconds better than the next best time. Their season best time run at the regional meet in 9:39 is 10 second better than duPont Manual's mark at 9:49.
On the sprint relays, Tates Creek is the class of the state. For Class AAA, the Lady Commodores lead in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 relays. The 4x100 might be the most impressive of them all when they threw down a 46.40 at the Henry Clay All Comers back on April 23 as they ran that race against the boys. That time is almost 2 full seconds better than second place Male. Their seed at state also reflects that gap. The 4x200 is also dominated by Tates Creek as their season best mark of 1:40.11 bested Male's mark of 1:42.68 when they went head to head at the Fayette/Jefferson Border Battle. Lastly, the closest of the three races would be the 4x400. The season best mark by Tates Creek is 4:03.34 to Male's mark of 4:03.54 both run in the month of May. The Male Bulldogs come into the state meet as the top seed as their regional mark was a full second faster than Creek's mark. These races will be EXCITING! I am going to go out on a limb here and call that at least one state record will go down at the University of Kentucky facility.
Tates Creek ladies talk their big win in the 4x100m relay
Girls Throws
Angel Lee will be the one to watch in the shot put with her entry throw at regionals of 38-06 as well as her state leading throw of 44-4. Lee comes in as just a sophomore from North Hardin and will be chasing her second shot put state title defending her spot on the throne as one of the younger competitors in the field. Right behind her though in the state rankings as well as seed throws is Grant County's Brooklyn Hammons who, as the lone freshman in the field will attempt to do the same thing Lee did at last years meet.
The waters are a bit muddier in the discus. A few girls have a legitimate
chance to
win with no real outliers. In terms of entry throws,
Brianna Seibert and
Tantalissia Champs look like the clear favorites to battle it out for 1st and 2nd, but when looking at the state rankings there are a few others who
enter the conversation including defending champion
Myla Lee and before mentioned
Brooklyn Hammons. If either of them can be on their A
game that day they'll have a shot at snagging a state title.
Girls Jumps
Sophie Galloway once again makes an appearance on the preview because of her dominance in the horizontal jumps. She leads the state in the long and triple jump as well as the 100mH and to put it bluntly, theres hardly and competition. Her state leads are 18-8.5 in the long jump with the next best jump for AAA girls is 17-5. In the triple jump she leads the way with a 40-7 mark which she jumped at regionals, and the next farthest mark in the entire state in 37-9 by Jasmine Claunch who makes her appearance in the AA State Meet. The top seeded girl in the high jump will be
Julia Pohl of
George Rogers Clark who wis the lone lady with an entry mark above 5-0 with her regional clearance of 5-3. Behind her are a few who sit at that 5-0 mark including defending state champion
Tori McCracken of
Marshall County who took
home gold last year as a freshman and is currently tied at 5-6 for the state leading mark.
