The Chamblee Middle School Lady Bulldog track team won their eighth county championship and fifth in six years. (Photo by Mark Brock)
It came down to the final race, but the Chamblee Lady Bulldogs regained the DeKalb County Middle School Track Championships title by upending defending champ Henderson 89-84 at “Buck” Godfrey Stadium on Monday.
Chamblee had a string of four consecutive county titles broken by the Henderson Lady Cougars a year ago. The Lady Bulldogs held an 84-74 lead heading into the meet’s final even, the 4×400-meter relay. Chamblee had 12 Top 8 finishes in the meet.
Henderson had two teams make the final which gave the Lady Cougars the opportunity to catch or pass the Lady Bulldogs for the title. Lydia Talbert ran the anchor leg in the relay and despite an injury managed to hold off the Henderson duo to get enough points to secure the win.
Henderson finished second (8 points) and sixth (3 points) but it was not enough as the Chamblee team finished fourth (5 points) to give the title to the Lady Bulldogs 89-85.
Henderson was within 74-71 heading into the final two events. Championship MVP Lydia Talbert won her second event of the day running a 26.24 to take the gold medal in the 200-eter dash to put Chamblee up 10 points as Henderson’s Colette Dickerson finished sixth (28.20).
Talbert also claimed the 100-meter dash (12.78) winning two of the four gold medals by the Lady Bulldogs. Lea Chapman knocked off two-time champion Sarah Jane Shipley to win the 1600-meter run (5:36.09) to go with a silver in the 800.
The fourth gold came from the 4×800-meter relay team as the group ran a 10:58.96 to give Chamblee the gold for the third consecutive year.
Henderson picked up two gold medals in the meet led by Sophia Davis as she claimed the gold in the triple jump (32-08.00) for the second consecutive season. Dickerson added a gold in the 400-meter dash (1:02.24) to aid the Henderson cause. The Lady Cougars had 13 Top 8 finishes including five silver medals.
Chamblee’s Lydia Talbert won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes to lead Chamblee to the county championship and MVP honors. (Photo by Mark Brock)
McNair finished third in the meet with 56 points with Top 8 finishes in 11 of the 13 events including a second consecutive gold medal in the 4×200-meter relay (1:52.19). The Lady Mustangs also garnered one silver medal and three bronze medals overall.
Beacon Hill came in fourth in the team standings with 53 points with 10 Top 8 finishes led by Lucy Duncan’s 17.25 mark in the 100-meter hurdles in the first-year event. The Lady Bulldogs also had one silver and three bronze medals.
Salem finished fourth with 49 points led by a gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay (52.33). The Lady Lions had seven Top 8 finishes including two silver medals to go with the gold by the relay team.
Champion picked up a gold medal in the long jump as Jalaina Alford (15-04.50) took the long jump title. Champion had 11 Top 8 finishes in the meet.
Peachtree’s Sarah Jane Shipley scored 18 of her team’s 21 points as she ran to gold in the 800-meter run (2:30.19) for her third gold medal in three years. She had won the 1600-meter run the past two seasons but came in second this year.
Stephenson sixth grader Tytianna Harris (37-09.00) won the shot put gold and Chapel Hill’s 4×400-meter relay squad (4:32.66) took the gold.
The Lady Bulldogs title was their fifth in six years and coupled with the Bulldogs win on the boys’ side gave Chamblee a sweep of the meet for the second time in three years. Chamblee is the first school to complete the sweep twice. Tucker (2015) and Henderson (2008) are the other schools to sweep.
Chamblee Coach Terrance Jett was named Coach of the Year.
See the links below for the complete championships results and records: