Track and tennis take center stage at Spring Fling on Thursday

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The soggy conditions which pushed baseball and softball games back on Wednesday night were made worse by the time Thursday morning rolled around. More bands of heavy rain and thunderstorms prompted the postponement of all baseball games and most softball contests by the afternoon hours.

Track and Field

Hardin Valley senior Sidnee Stanton is your back-to-back girls triple jump state champion after out-leaping Columbia Central’s Kyla Rohling by eight inches. Stanton, a Tennessee Tech signee, was joined on the podium by teammate Brooke Taylor, who took third place with a mark of 35′6.75″. Taylor and Stanton switched places in the girls long jump standings. Taylor finished second behind Northeast’s Cierra Bowser, while Stanton came in fourth with a jump of 17′2″.

The Hawks continued their great showing with a silver finish in girls shot put. Gracie Waite placed second behind Ravenwood’s Reghan Grimes with a throw of 37′6.75″. Emma Gives of Morristown West and Ellisa Longmire placed fourth and fifth in the event, respectively. On the boys’ side, East Tennessee was well-represented on the podium. Maryville’s Adrian Gumm placed second with a throw of 55′6.5″, while Farragut freshman Bryce Thompson finished fifth. Sevier County’s Jace Henderson rounded out the medalists with an eighth place throw of 47′5.5″.

On the track, both boys and girls teams of Hardin Valley’s 4x800 meter relay teams placed second. Maryville’s boys 4x200 meter relay team of Tezz Dozier, Markel Fortenberry, Davis Ernsberger and Eli Cobble placed 2nd behind Memphis Central’s state record-breaking team. The same Rebels squad placed fourth in the 4x100 relay later in the day.

Farragut’s Parker Willis took home silver in the girls 800 meter run with a time of 2:16.26 while her teammate Tyler Ebbert took 2nd in the same event with a 1:57.02 run.

On the girls side, Maryville’s 4x400 relay team of Brooke Burgin, Katie Workman, Jasmine Mayden and Aliyah Kennedy took home gold by a hair. The Rebels relay team beat out Brentwood by 28 hundredths of a second to win the state title. Farragut’s team of Lexi Foley, Sarah Lynn, Avery Strickland and Parker Willis placed third. In the boys event, Hardin Valley’s team of Aiden Shaw, Ethan Blaylock, Ben Smith and Austin Rome took bronze with a run of 3:23.37.

Tennis

Knoxville Catholic continued its strong showing at Adams Tennis Complex on the MTSU campus Thursday. A day after claiming the team title, Catholic’s Maeve Thornton - last year’s singles champion - advanced to the semifinals with a default win to open the day’s action. The Irish junior beat Ensworth’s Avery Franklin 8-2 to move on to Friday’s state title match against Ensworth’s Riley Collins.

In the Division II AA Doubles tournament, Catholic underclassmen Lillie Murphy and Eleni Liakonis beat a freshman duo from Ensworth and will also play for a state title Friday morning against Baylor’s Helen Guerry and Agda Laakso.

CAK’s Allie Faulkner will take on Aleya Wooten of St. George’s Friday at noon for a state title in the Division II Single-A singles tournament. Farragut’s Riley Cassity is taking on Grace Stout of Ravenwood at noon for a shot at a state title in the girls AA singles tournament.

Copyright 2022 WVLT. All rights reserved.