The Henderson Lady Cougars are the 2023 DCSD Middle School Girls’ Track and Field Champions. Adara Davis (right) was named the Girls’ MVP.
Sixteen points in the final two events propelled the Henderson Lady Cougars to an 89-78 win over four-time defending champions Chamblee Lady Bulldogs to capture the 2023 DeKalb County Middle School Track and Field Championship at Godfrey Stadium on Monday night.
Chamblee led 44-38 heading into Monday’s finals only to see Henderson take the lead for good scoring six points in the 200-meter dash (Chamblee had no entry in the finals) with a third-place finish by Adara Davis to go up 79-73 with just the 4×400-meter relay remaining.
Henderson went into that final race needing five points to seal the school’s third DCSD County Championship. The team of Pearl Vonwalsung, Tiana Pringle, Colette Dickerson and Sophia Davis entered the finals with the fourth best time (4:36.61) in the preliminaries and ran a 4:26.25 in the championship final to capture the gold and the team championship.
Henderson’s Sophia Davis captured the gold in the triple jump on Saturday with a leap of 31-03.00.
Chamblee finished fourth and finished second in the championships for the third time to go with seven overall titles in 15 of the Championships. Chamblee added a gold on Saturday with a win in the 4×800-meter relay (11:07.85).
Henderson moved ahead 68-58 with a pair of second place finishes by Sophia Davis in the 400-meter dash (1:03.84) and Adara Davis in the 100-meter dash (12.90). Chamblee rebounded with 14 points in the 800-meter run via a first-place finish by Addison Morris (2:35.79) and a fifth-place finish by Abigail Mueller (2:41.53) to tie the meet at 73 going into the final two events.
McNair’s Rhimani Duffie (left) was the meet’s fastest girl as she captured both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Henderson’s Adara Davis (right) was second and third in the two races. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Champion finished third with 56 points behind gold medal performances from Sanaa Stanton in the long jump (17-01.00) who also picked up a silver medal in the 200-meter dash (26.58), and the 4×100-meter relay (51.00) team of Akellah Bernard, Destinee Oliver, Stanton and Makayla Smith.
McNair came in fourth in the team standings behind a record setting performance in the 4×200-meter relay with a time of 1:48.58 breaking the mark of 1:48. 96 set a year ago by Champion in the premiere of the event at the Championships. McNair’s Rhimani Duffie was the only individual participant to win two individual gold medals with wins in the 100-meter dash (12.70) and 200-meter dash (26.11).
Other gold medal winners included Ariyahna Hinds-Perry in the shot put (36-00.00), Bethune’s Jahzara Joseph in the 400-meter dash (1:02.03) and Peachtree’s Sarah Jane Shipley in the 1600-meter run (5:54.41).
Henderson’s Adara Davis was named the Most Valuable Participant after finishing second in the 200-meter dash and running the anchor leg in the 4×100 (silver) and 4×200 (bronze) relays.
Henderson’s Elma Ruffin was named Coach of the Year as Henderson won its third title and first since 2013.
See links below for the complete results/history/records: