Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 5/6/16. Cleveland High School’s Mel Obadiah (bm) receives the baton from Cole Shiffer and runs it in to take second in the 4×800 during the Little Caesars championships at Red Bank High School on May 6, 2016. Track season is moving ever closer to the crucial meets leading up to the high school state championships. Few athletes probably were smiling wider Friday at the Little Caesars Individual Championships at Red Bank than Arts & Sciences multi-event star Lennex Walker.
Walker won the 100-meter hurdles in a personal-best time of 14.31 seconds, took top honors also in the triple jump (38 feet, 1 1/2 inches) and the long jump (17-7 1/2) and finished second in her final event, the 300 hurdles, in 46.15.
She won the triple jump and was runner-up in the long jump and both hurdles events in the Class A/AA state meet last year, and Friday she bettered her 2015 state-meet times in all but long jump. She’ll take it.
“It was a good day. I set a goal at the beginning of the week when we trained to get a 14.4 in the hurdles. I got that,” Walker said. “And I’m trying to get back into the 38s in the triple jump, and I did that. Came up a little short on the hurdles. I think it was kind of just fatigue from the other events, but I’ll be all right.
“I’m not disappointed. I’m just a little upset right now. But I did well. I don’t really have anything to be mad about. I hit the best marks this season at this meet. So pretty good day.”