The Stephenson Jaguars won their fifth DCSD JV Boys’ Track and Field Championships title in the past seven seasons. (Courtesy Photo)
Devin Ingram’s victory in the 200-meter dash propelled the Stephenson Jaguars to their fifth DCSD Junior Varsity Track and Field Championships title in the seven-year history of the event held at Godfrey Stadium on Wednesday.
Stephenson and Arabia Mountain were tied at 83 heading into the 200. Ingram (22:48) edged out Arabia Mountain’s Benjamin Henry (22.83) by .35 seconds to make the difference of two points (93-91) in the teams that finished first and third on the day.
Defending champion Decatur got into the championship picture in the next to the last event of the day piling up 16 points in the 3200M run as Abe Werner won in 10:33.81 with teammate Louis Messonnier was third in 11:01.41. This put the Bulldogs in third with 88.50 points.
Decatur and Stephenson both had teams competing in the 4×400 relay, the last event, giving the Bulldogs a chance to pull out a two-peat.
Decatur outraced the Jaguars in the relay, but only came out ahead by one spot finishing sixth (3:46.47) to pick up three points to finish second with 91.50. Stephenson’s time of 3:48.79 was good for seventh and two more points to seal the 95-91.5-91 win over Decatur and Arabia Mountain.
Decatur also had a 1-2 finish in the 1600M run as Werner (4:49.27) claimed another gold medal and Luca Easley (4:51.53) finished second.
Arabia Mountain put together 53 points in the field events to lead Stephenson and Towers, both with 24 points, by 29 points and Decatur was in fifth with 14.5.
Jordan Miller jumped to a new meet record of 21-feet, 4.5 inches to win the long jump and put up 10 of the 53 points for the Rams. His leap broke the record of 21-3.5. set by former Ram Jordan Barrow in the inaugural meet in 2015.
Daniel Ndukwe also claimed a new meet record taking the shot put with a toss of 42-06.50 breaking the mark set by Miller Grove’s Isaiah Jackson in 2016 and tied by Demario Lemons of Druid Hills in 2019.
Fifteen more Ram points came in the triple jump led by a second place finish by Miller (41-06.00) behind Stephenson’s Trent Fields (43-05.00).
Tyon Reed (right) ran to Southwest DeKalb’s only gold medal with an 0.08 win over Decatur’s Ethan Johnson (left) in the 110M hurdles. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Stephenson began its comeback with a big 19-point showing in the 100M dash led by Ingram winning the first of his two individual gold medals with a new meet record time of 11:08. It broke the record of 11:15 set by Arabia Mountain’s Jordan Barrow set in 2017. Steven Brown (11.48) and Trent Fields (11.60) finished fourth and fifth to tack on nine more points for the Jaguars.
The Arabia lead was cut to 62-54 as the Jaguars continued to close the gap. Stephenson took the 4×100 relay in 43.48 with Arabia coming in second. Ten more points in the 300 hurdles fueled by Cheik Keita’s second place finish (44.33) behind Arabia’s Jordan Miller who won his second gold with a time of 42.74.
The point totals were down to just a three-point Arabia lead and Stephenson tied the Rams with a sixth place finish by Samario Jones in the 800-meter run (2:13.14) in which the Rams had no runners.
Miller Grove finished fourth with 70 points behind the 400-meter dash win by James Atkins (53.76) and the 4×400 relay win (3:35.22).
Towers which finished fifth overall had a pair of gold medal performances in the field events with wins from Eh Blu Wah in the discus (107-02.00) and Joseph Thames in the pole vault (5-06,00).
Seventh place Southwest DeKalb got a gold medal from Tyon Reed who raced to a 0.08 second (17.00 to 17.08) win in the 110-meter hurdles over Decatur’s Ethan Johnson.
Martin Luther King finished just .5 points behind the Panthers with two record setting performances in the relay events. The Lions claimed the 4×800 relay record with a time of 8:50.20 to break the mark of 9:57.89 set by Decatur in 2021. They followed up with a win in inaugural 4×200 relay with a time of 1:34.41 to set the mark heading into next year.
Redan picked up a gold medal in the 800M run as Lodrick Scott ran a time of 2:07. 60 and Lakeside grabbed a victory in the high jump as Darius Miller went over the bar at 5-06.00.
See links below for the full results and updated records of the JV Championships: