MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Both literally and figuratively, Jeremiah Flemmons has covered a lot of ground in a very short amount of time. Before this spring the East Hamilton senior had never competed in varsity track and field. On Tuesday, the gifted 6-foot-4, 195-pound athlete claimed the first state championship - in any sport - in the 13-year history of the school, winning titles in the TSSAA Class AA triple jump, high jump and 110-meter hurdles at Middle Tennessee State University.
Flemmons, who entered the state meet with the state's top qualifying distances and times in those events, also finished third in the long jump.
"It feels really good to know that I'm the first person to win a championship and hopefully leaving future athletes at my school with the knowledge that they can achieve this too," said Flemmons, an Austin Peay football signee who had more than 1,000 yards of total offense in that sport last fall.
"My college coaches said running as many track events as I could would be a big help in keeping me in good shape, so I decided to try it out," said Flemmons, who last ran track as a 12-year old. "I woke up at 5:45 this morning for no reason, and got to the stadium around 9:30 to get ready, so it's been a long day. I was sort of bummed about finishing third in the long jump, but overall I think this was a pretty good day."
Despite not having a jumping pit to practice those events, Flemmons won every event he entered this season, including personal bests of 43-feet, 7.25-inches in the triple jump, 6-feet 8-inches in the high jump and 22-feet, 9.25 inches in the long jump.
"It was a challenge for him in the beginning, but he's got so much natural athletic ability that he was able to go out and just beat people on that alone until his technique improved," said Hurricanes coach Gerald Jones. "We let him run the 100 (meters) a few times and he won every race in that event too. After awhile we just let him choose which events he wanted to concentrate on for the state meet.
"It's pretty amazing when you think about the fact that he had never competed in these events and was able to not only never lose in any of them, but to also get here and win multiple championships against some of the best athletes in the state."
Signal Mountain's Kara Wilson joined Flemmons as the first local athletes to win state championships at this week's Spring Fling as she claimed titles in the AA girls' long jump (17-feet, 7.25-inches), triple jump (35-feet, 3.75-inches) and 100-meter hurdles (15.82).
Her performance helped lead the Lady Eagles to their eighth team title in the last nine years.
Signal Mountain's Gavin McGowan won first-place in the AA pole vault (12-feet, 6-inches), while the Lady Eagles' Charlotte Harrison was second in the girls' AA pole vault and both the Signal Mountain boys' and girls' 4x800 relay teams claimed first place.
Brainerd's Danielle Dunning won the Class A 100 meters (11.97), while the Panthers' Talijah Witt finished second in the boys' 100 as well as 200 events and teammate Montez Deloney was second in the triple jump and third in the 300-meter hurdles.
South Pittsburg's Logan Hargis finished second in both the 110-meter hurdles and 300-hurdles in Class A, with Tyner's Zashun Hubbard taking third in the 110 hurdles. Sequatchie County's Carter Bradford won the Class A 1600 meters and was second in the 800, McMinn Central's Maddox Mayfield won the girls' Class A 400 meters and East Hamilton's Rayne Heathington earning a runner-up finish in the girls' AA shot put.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.