By Mike Blackerby
MURFREESBORO — Area athletes harvested gold medals in five events Thursday during runnings finals at the Large Class state track and field championships at Middle Tennessee State University.
State champions included:
Boys
1600: Catholic junior Jake Renfree, who had the fastest time in the state in the event coming in, won in 4 minutes, 12.7 seconds.
400: Hardin Valley senior Willington Wright, who also competed in the triple jump, 200 meters and 4×400 relay, registered the easy victory in 47.77.
4×400 relay: Hardin Valley took first in 3:19.04.
Girls
800: Teammates Ellie Bachmann and Kensi Gray of Hardin Valley went 1-2. Bachman, a sophomore, won in 2:16.28. Gray, a junior, followed in 2:16.99.
4×800 relay: Catholic crossed the finish line first in 9:19.64.
Pole vault: In the final field event Thursday, Anderson County’s Brittany Bishop handily won as she cleared 12 feet.
Team
Hardin Valley picked up a pair of third-place finishes in the team standings.
The Brentwood boys (62) built up a huge lead through the field events and held on to edge Cleveland (58) and the Hawks (49).
Bearden (22) tied for seventh, Catholic (18) tied for ninth and South-Doyle (17) shared 11th place.
Hardin Valley’s (48.5) girls were third behind Southwind (61) and Whitehaven (57).
Maryville (27) was seventh, Catholic (24) ninth and Anderson County (22) 10th.
Hardin Valley’s boy and girls combined to score 97.5 points, second only to Brentwood’s 108.