2017 DCSD Middle School Girl’s Track and Field Champions — Chamblee Lady Bulldogs
A new girls’ champion was crowned at the 2017 DCSD Middle School Track and Field Champions on Monday as Chamblee finished strong to take home the title which eluded them a year ago.
The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs set a pair of new meet records on the way to an 85-78 victory against a talented Henderson club to win their fourth tile in the past nine seasons (2009, 2010, 2012, 2017).
A year ago the Bulldogs held a slim lead heading into the final event (4×400 relay), but had no team qualified to run and Salem pulled off a come-back victory 67-65 win over both Chamblee and Champion who tied for second.
This year Chamblee, leading 75-70 over Henderson, entered the final race with a strong relay team and needed to win to stave off Henderson which had a pair of teams qualified for the 4×400 relay.
The relay team of eighth graders Kennedy Bates, Keahndra McClendon and Divine Drayton and seventh grader Cydney Bowe grabbed the lead in the first 400 meters and Bowe closed out the win holding off a pair of opponents down the stretch for a time of 4:21.74 to clinch the title for the Bulldogs.
Henderson’s teams came in fourth and sixth to collect eight points to seal a second place finish. Henderson had titles in 2008 and 2013.
Chamblee’s Cydney Bowe (far right), Girls’ Championship Meet MVP, held off Miller Grove’s Angelica Frederick (middle) and Tucker’s Mallory Hodge (far left) as she set the 200 meter record time of 25.45. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Bowe was a shining star for Chamblee setting a new meet record in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.45 to break Jessica Shelley’s 2016 record of 25.47. She also captured gold in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.45. She was also named the girls’ MVP as she was also a part of two gold-medal winning relay teams on the day.
The other record to fall on the day was the 4×100 meter relay as Bates, McClendon, Divine and Bowe clocked a 49.90 broke the 11-year old record of 50.16 set in 2006 by Tucker.
Chamblee picked up a fifth gold medal as Janae Profit came up just 2.5 inches short of tying the meet record in the shot put with a toss of 39 feet, 5.5 inches.
Henderson’s second place effort included gold medals by Abigail McHoul in the 1600-mter run (5:33.12) and Hayley Iverson in the long jump (16-04.50).
Champion which tied for second in 2016 finished third with 63 points behind gold medals by Shani Simon in the 800-meter run (2:28.17) and the 1600 sprint medley team of Deyana Macon, Janiyah Alibey, Rhema Lake and Simon which clocked a time of 4:31.37 for the gold.
Tucker was fourth overall in the team standings with 41 points while taking home a pair of gold medals as well as Mallory Hodge won the 400-meter dash (1:00.82) and the 800 spring medley relay team of N’lasya Wright, Ashlyn Carthen, Destiny Jones and Hodge put together a time of 1:56.12 to finish first.