Baylor's Grace Carlson finishes the girls 3,200 meter first in a time of 12:21, over GPS's Courtney Edens, back left, at the McCallie track Thursday.As teams begin to tune up for state qualifying track meets in the next two weeks, McCallie may have just found another point-scoring weapon.
Already solid in the hurdles, distance races and field events, the Blue Tornado proved they also have plenty of speed in the sprint events. Led by freshman Alex Trotter, the Blue Tornado won the three individual sprints as well as the 4x100 relay and defeated rival Baylor 95-51 Thursday at McCallie.
It was the Tornado's 10th straight dual meet win over the Red Raiders.
"It's really good for our kids that we have such a strong rival in Baylor," McCallie coach Mike Wood said. "It doesn't matter if it's at the state or here in just a little dual meet, competing against a rival always pushes our kids to do their best.
"This was a good way for us to gain confidence and find out who can help us in different areas as we move toward the region and state qualifiers."
Trotter won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and helped the 4x100 unit place first. He was one of three McCallie athletes to win multiple events: Senior Iman Isang won the 110 and 300 hurdles, and Julian Nunally won the discus and shot put.
"We have more depth in the sprint events than usual," Wood said. "We feel good about where we are right now. We have good throwers and jumpers and we know we have some depth in the distance events, and now we're feeling better about our sprinters."
McCallie won 12 of the 18 events and took took first and second in seven. Showing their depth, the Blue Tornado claimed the top three spots in four events.
Baylor's girls defeated GPS 95-51. GPS was missing three key athletes, including University of North Carolina signee Tori Kemp, who strained her hamstring at last weekend's Vol Classic in Knoxville. But Lady Red Raiders coach Bill McMahan said he felt his team still could have won against a healthy set of Bruisers.
"I don't want to take anything away from the effort by our kids," McMahan said. "I was really pleased with the effort by all of our kids. You always want to do well against your rival.
"I know GPS didn't have Kemp, and she's the best athlete in the entire state in track, but I really believe even if they had competed we could've come out on top in a dual meet setting."