The first day of the TSSAA track and field state championships began on May 19 at Tom Black Track at the University of Tennessee.
Here are the top takeaways from Day 1 of the meet, which featured schools from Class A and AA classifications.
Pearl-Cohn, Station Camp nearly sweep
Both Peal-Cohn and Station Camp came close to sweeping the team championships in both Class A and AA.
Pearl-Cohn girls captured first in Class A with 88 points, while its boys team took third (69.5). Station Camp girls secured first in Class AA with 96 points and its boys finished state runner-up (68 points) behind Millington Central.
Chyna Harris Rucker took home three state championships for the Firebirds. She claimed first in the 100-meter dash in a time of 11:45 seconds. She also captured first in the 200 (23:53), and 400 (53.06). Both the girls and boys won the 4×400 relays. On the field, Chester Burgess won first place in the boys discus throw with a distance of 169-feet, 9-inches.
Station Camp cleaned up on the field events. Braden Lawler leapt into first in the girls pole vault (11-0), while Gavin Quinn won the boys pole vault (15-6). The Bison accrued five second-place finishes in the track events.
Spierdowis siblings rack up points for Gibbs
Both the Gibbs boys and girls finished in fourth in Class AA, largely due to the Spierdowis siblings. Junior Waylon Spierdowis won three state titles, beginning with the boys decathlon on May 13-14. On the first day of the track and field championships, he was first in the 110-meter hurdles (14.17) and 300-meter hurdles (38.12) He also finished second in triple jump (46-9).
Waylon’s freshman sister Rebekah Spierdowis debuted with a first-place medal in the 300-meter hurdle (43.44). She earned second place in the 100-meter hurdles (14.43) and was third in the triple jump.
Millington Central grabs five first-place medals
Millington Central boys captured the Class AA team championship with 92 points, a 24-point advantage over the second-place Station Camp. Five first-place finishes powered the Trojans their third straight TSSAA team title.
Senior Rodney Gude led the way with a victory in the 100 (10.63). He also won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.49.
Millington Central boys also finished first as a team in the 4×200 and 4×400 meter relays.
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TSSAA track and field state championships dominated by Pearl-Cohn