2021 DCSD Girls County Track and Field Champions — Chamblee Lady Bulldogs
Trailing the Dunwoody Lady Wildcats by 21 points following the 4×100 meter relay, the Chamblee Lady Bulldogs turned it up on the track on the way to a 118-97 win for their third DCSD Girls’ Track and Field Championships title last weekend.
Dunwoody had built its 64-43 lead behind a strong showing in the fields events, 1600-meter run and 4×800 meter relay.
Senior Janae Profit of Dunwoody set a pair of records on the way to two gold medals. She broke the discus record of 143 feet, 4.5 inches set in 1994 by Columbia’s Lesheal Johnson with a throw of 146 feet, 5 inches and then broke her own record of 41 feet, 11 inches in the shot put set in 2019 with a toss of 44 feet, seven inches.
Freshman Claire Shelton won the girls’ 1600-meter run with a time of 5:13.97 and the 4×800-meter relay team won the gold in 9:58.11 which will be the standard going forward as the it was the first running of the event.
By the time the 400-meter dash was finished Chamblee had closed the gap to four points (67-63) on the back of Kenedi Bates second place finish (58.52) in the event behind Arabia Mountain’s Shani Simon (56.91).
Chamblee took the lead for good (84-68) at the end of the 100-meter hurdles won by Arabia Mountain’s Candace Taylor (15.28) with Chamblee’s Ariel Raggs (15.99) finishing second.
Dunwoody closed the lead back down as Shelton (2:21.42) came from behind to nip Druid Hills Harley Martz (2:21.68) and Emma Tessler (2:27.33) added a third place finish to close the gap within 90-87 with five events remaining.
Chamblee’s Ariel Raggs (right) won the 300-meter hurdles ahead of Miller Grove’s Faith Hill. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Raggs came through for the Lady Bulldogs as they clung to a 92-87 advantage by winning the 300-meter hurdles in 44.63 to help Chamblee out to a 106-87 lead over the Lady Wildcats.
Olivia Tabron clinched the title for Chamblee with a third place finish in the 3200-meter run (11:48.56) behind winner Martz (11:43.55) and runner-up Shelton (11:46.84) of Dunwoody. The finish put Chamblee out of reach up 112-95 over Dunwoody with Arabia Mountain in third with 71.
Chamblee’s Clara Silvestri won gold in the pole vault by tying the record of 9 feet, 6 inches set by Lakeside’s Carla LaRotta in 2011. It was her second consecutive gold in the even at the Championships.
Arabia Mountain which made a run with the wins by Simon (400) and Taylor (100 hurdles) closed out the meet winning the 4×400-meter relay in 3:58.81 by six seconds over second place Decatur.
Other winners include a second gold medal for Arabia Mountain’s Candace Taylor (long jump, 17-11.00), Towers Catherine Forbes (triple jump, 35-02.00) and Cedar Grove’s Lelah Easterly (high jump, 4-10.00)
It was the third title in the past six DCSD Championships for Chamblee (2015, 2016) and broke a string of three consecutive titles for Miller Grove (2017-19). The 2020 Championships were not run due to the season being cancelled. It was the second title for Chamblee Head Coach Hakim Felts.
Championships New Records/Ties
Shot Put – 2019 Janae Profit, Dunwoody – 41-11.00
Janae Profit, Dunwoody – 44-07.00
Discus – 1994 Lesheal Johnson, Columbia – 143-04.50
Janae Profit, Dunwoody – 44-07.00
Pole Vault – 2011 Carla LaRotta, Lakeside – 9-06.00
Clara Silvestri, Chamblee — 9-06.00
4×800 Relay – 2021 Dunwoody – 9:58.11*
*–New Event in 2021
See link below for full results of the 2021 DCSD County Track and Field Championships: