On a day of upstarts and underclassmen, Hixson's cast of young sprinters made sure to claim their spot among the qualifiers for next week's state track meet.
The Wildcats' 4x400 relay team finished first at Tuesday's Class A/AA sectional at Red Bank, and the 4x200 group placed second, both securing spots in next week's Spring Fling for the first time in more than 10 years. Knoxville Fulton won the 4x200.
The top two in each event automatically qualify for the state meet, while other finishers must hope for at-large spots.
Hixson's 4x400 team of Justin Johnson, Allante Novene, Clarencio Holmes and K.J. Yates easily won that event, and the 4x200 squad included Tre Herkley in place of Johnson. The 4x100 team finished a close third, and Holmes is the long senior in the group.
"You want to win, certainly, but the big thing today is to get in that top two to make sure you qualify for next week," Hixson coach Houston White said. "We weren't ready for the 4x100, but we had a pretty good pep talk after that race and were much better in the last two relays.
"We don't want to settle for just being the best team in Chattanooga. We want to go beyond that."
The Central girls' relay teams also were impressive, with Alesha Colbert, Chancis Jones, Jasmine Fritz and Daisha Callahan winning the 4x200 and finishing second to Knoxville Austin-East in the 4x100.
Jones also set a sectional record in the triple jump, beating the old mark by six inches, and won the long jump as well. Callahan, the only senior on the relay team, also won the 100-meter dash and was third in the 200.
East Hamilton's Ladarious Watkins, a 6-foot-5 junior, said he began competing in track as a way to stay in shape for basketball. But after winning the high jump by clearing 6-4, despite the fact his school doesn't have a jumping pit for practice, he admits to getting more serious about his current sport.
"I have to go to Ooltewah sometimes to practice, or I just practice before our meets wherever we're running," Watkins said. "This is my first year to even compete, but now that I won the event today, I have a lot more confidence going into next week that I can compete at that level."
Red Bank's Chelsea Mills won the girls' 200 dash and finished second in the long jump, and Lions senior Kameno Watson won the boys' 200 and finished second in the 100.