Camden's Caroline Cassidy defends state title in 400-meter hurdles in AAA state meet

           Camden – Caroline Cassidy and Leiyana Rose won state championships in their respective events to lead the Camden High School girls track and field team to a fifth-place finish in the AAA state meet on May 17 at Lower Richland High in Hopkins.

           Cassidy defended her state title in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1 minute, 04.24 seconds. Rose won the long jump with a leap of 5.71 meters.

           Cassidy and Rose were also part of the 4x400-meter relay team that finished second. Other members of the team were Ihliviah Greene, Arion Jefferson, Nahlivia Greene, Reeves Beckham, Avery Barnett and Angelique Gibbs.

 Fourth-place finishers for the Bulldogs were Aubrielle Cook in the high jump and Sullivan McCoy in the javelin, while Christina Lawson finished fifth in the shot put.

           Camden’s other points came from Toni Lyles in the 100 hurdles and Jefferson in the 400-meter dash with sixth-place finishes.

           The Bulldogs finished fifth out of 30 teams scoring points with 48 points. Seneca won the title with 91 points while Daniel was second with 85, Powdersville third with 78 and Philip Simmons fourth with 64.

Others who qualified for state were Rose in the 100 dash, Cook in the 100 hurdles and the 4x100 team of Cassidy, Ihliviah Greene, Nahlivia Greene, Jefferson, Amarah Outen and Kailana Jackson.

           On the boys side, Camden scored six points. The Bulldogs were led by the 4x4 relay team of Treyon Wright, Noah Redfearn, Maxwell Ford, Kendale Cooke, Derrick Loney and Kalen Brown. which finished fourth. Cooke placed in the 400 with an eighth-place finish.

           Cooke also competed in the 200 dash and Zechariah Dozier qualified for state in the discus.

           The Bulldogs finished 28^th out of 32 teams scoring points.

           Those who qualified for the state meet did so by finishing in the top eight in the AAA lower state meet held May 11 at Camden High.

           Cassidy won the 400 hurdles at lower state and McCoy won the javelin while the 4x4 team won as well. Interestingly, Rose finished seventh in the long jump.

           Other Bulldogs who qualified for lower state based on their performances in the Region 6 meet were Jefferson in the 100, Outen in the 100, Ihliviah Greene in the 200, Aubrey Thompson in the 800-meter run, Hope O’Bradovich in the 1,600 run, Rebecca Marchessault in the 400 hurdles, the 4x8 relay, Hannah VanDewark and Amia Macklin in the high jump, Leah Hendrix in the discus and Julia Ann Rushing in the javelin.

           On the boys side, the 4x4 relay team was victorious. Others who competed for Camden in lower state were Cooke and Javon Wesley in the 100, Ford and Loney in the 400, Jaden Hayes in the 400 hurdles, the 4x1 team, the 4x8 team, Deandre Bennett in the high jump, Jordan Crim in both the long jump and the triple jump, Kingston Morris and Worth Thomasson in the javelin and Grayson White in the shot put.

           White actually finished third in the shot and Crim third in the triple jump. That qualified them for state, but neither competed.

           The Camden girls had seven region champions in the region meet on May 1 in Camden. Rose won the 200, Thompson won the 800, O’Bradovich won the 1,600, Cassidy won the 400 hurdles, the 4x4 relay team won, Cook won the high jump, and McCoy won the javelin.

           The two region champions for the boys were White in the shot put and the 4x4 relay team.