Not even heavy evening storms that caused a delay of nearly an hour could darken a day in which numerous Chattanooga-area athletes won first-place medals during the Division II portion of the TSSAA’s state track and field meet Wednesday at the University of Tennessee.
A total of 12 local athletes, plus three more relay teams, were crowned state champions, and in the DII-AA boys’ competition, McCallie earned its second team title in three years by totaling 133 points to Montgomery Bell Academy’s 115.5.
The Blue Tornado were led by senior sprinter Andrew Smith, who repeated as state champion in both the 100-meter dash (10.25 seconds) and 200 (20.99), while classmate De’Shun Tipton repeated as the long jump champion (23 feet, 3.5 inches) and finished second in the triple jump, where he narrowly missed repeating as well.
Also helping to stack points by placing at or near the top of multiple events was Andrew Beroset, who won the 1600-meter run (4 minutes, 12.28 seconds) and was second in the 800 (1:50.39). Blue Tornado junior Elliott Haisten placed second in the long jump and third in the 110-meter hurdles, while teammate Ian Jacobs was third in the 1600.
McCallie’s 4×200 relay team also took first place (1:28.07).