Oxford sweeps boys, girls county track championship; six records smashed, including some of the oldest on the books
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – When Chris Ferguson sailed over the pole vault bar at 13-feet-7 Monday afternoon his heart soared to the skies and his coach’s sank. But they were both really happy.
The Ohatchee junior broke the county pole vault record in the Calhoun County Track Meet with a jump that cleared the bar by a comfortable margin and the record he broke was held by none other than the coach who helped him break it.
Matthew Moore has been helping pole vaulters around the county this year and set the bar – literally – at 13-6 four years ago almost to the day when he was vaulting for White Plains.
Ferguson, the state indoor 3A champion, won Monday’s meet at 13-0 and immediately went for his coach’s record, which he cleared on the first attempt with plenty to spare.
“I’m just really happy,” he said. “Finally. I’ve been thinking about this all year. I was finally able to beat Matt’s record.”
No sooner had Ferguson got to his feet on the landing pad than Moore raced in and tackled him, the traditional celebration on the advanced levels for a vaulter who just gets a PR.
“He told me before we even started warming up today if I got the record he was coming up for me,” Ferguson said.
“As an athlete I was sad because that was my record, I didn’t want my record to get broken,” Moore said. “Naturally, as an athlete, I want mine to be the top always, but as a coach helping him and seeing him grow as he’s competed, I prepared myself for today being the day my record would probably go down. I told him it’s coming; you’ll have a day when everything clicks and it all comes together. That was definitely today.”
Ferguson’s record was one of six county standards that were broken on the cool and sometimes breezy day, several that were among the oldest on the books.
The two oldest broken records were done in part or whole by Anniston’s Christian Myles. The senior broke the 800 meter record that stood since 1985 – the year of his father’s birth – and ran the anchor leg on the 4×400 relay that broke the mark that had stood since 1986.
Oxford’s Noah George ran a sub-10-minute 3200 and broke that record that was older than the car he drives. He gets around town in a 1995 Toyota Camry that once belonged to his late grandfather; the record was set in 1991. He was born in 2004.
The two girls records that were broken were a little more modern. White Plains’ Maddyn Conn broke the girls 1600 record that stood since 2016 and Ohatchee’s Jorda Crook broke the javelin mark that stood since 2019.
The oldest county record still on the books is Jacksonville’s Darrell Malone’s 1985 100-meter record.
“I was impressed with how many that were broken,” said Oxford coach Landon Delozier, whose teams swept the boys and girls team titles. “I wasn’t shocked because most of these kids who broke records today the last two to three years you could see it coming.
“I know across the county all the work all these kids put in and because they put so much effort and so much time in over the last two or three years it was going to happen. We’ve got a wealth of talent in Calhoun County and were able to capitalize on it today.”
Myles broke two of the longest-standing records in the county meet. He won the 800 in 1:59.51, nearly four-tenths of a second better than the old mark set by Anniston’s Michael Brooks in 1985.
He sacrificed himself in the 3200 for a bid to break Anniston’s 1986 meet record in the 4×400 and ran the anchor leg on that to bring the team that included JaVon (Budda) Thomas, Jaylon (J-3) Cunningham and Jayden (Money) Lewis the record. He might have broken a third record if he hadn’t stumbled hitting the rail on the back curve while winning the 1600.
“I was telling my brother today was the day I was going to run a 1:59 (In the 800); I felt it,” said Myles, a senior who burst on the scene as the eighth-grader who secured Anniston’s first county cross-country title in 2017. “I wasn’t there in practice, but I had it. It feels so good.
“This is outstanding. You never know what’s in your hand until you realize it. It can be done if you put in the work. People think it’s hard because we’re 4A, but you still can make stuff happen. Oxford’s a 6A team, but that 6A doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s you as a person.”
George had run 9:43 outdoors earlier this year so breaking 10 minutes “wasn’t the biggest thing in the world to me” in the 3200, but you knew something was driving him as hard as he was sprinting in the final 100 meters.
When he hit the tape right before the clock hit 10, he had beaten the old county record in his event that was set 13 years before he was born by a second and a half.
“I knew I was going to be right on that 10-minute mark so I was pushing to get below the 10:01 county record he had been thinking about all year.
Conn wanted to beat her outdoor PR (5:17 at Gadsden City) in the meet. She didn’t get that, but she did get the county record (5:25.26), edging Oxford’s Katie Keur at the wire by 0.11 seconds with White Plains teammate Anna Strickland right behind. All three of the top finishers in the race beat the old record (5:38.31 by Jacksonville’s Rebecca Hearn in 2016).
“I was surprised,” Conn said. “I didn’t do as good as I wanted, but I felt like I tried my best.”
Crook is throwing the javelin for the first time this season. She expected to throw in the mid-100s at the meet – her best coming in was 104 – but not anything like she delivered. She just felt confident when she let her winning second attempt fly.
“I didn’t think it was as far as it was,” she said. “It looked far, but I didn’t expect it to be that far.”
Look for the javelin to replace the 100 in her regimen as the track season moves forward.
In the team competition, Oxford’s boys ran away with their fifth straight title while the girls won for the first time since 2014, ending Alexandria’s three-year hold on the title.
The Yellow Jackets won 10 events and scored 228 points. Ashton Mitchell won two events (long jump and triple jump) and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4×100 relay.
The Lady Jackets won four events and edged runner-up Alexandria by five points. Keziah Mickler won both sprints and ran down Anniston on the anchor leg of the 4×100 relay to win by 0.005 seconds. Eight teams won at least one event in the girls meet.
“We’ve started off this season with a lot of new people that are just now entering the sport and they’re just figuring it out and they’re starting to hit their stride,” Delozier said. “We’ve got a lot of new girls especially, middle schoolers. We have a ton of middle schoolers on our varsity team and they’re coming out and putting up varsity 6A numbers. It’s really special because of the newness and it leads to a very promising future.”
CALHOUN COUNTY TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
BOYS MEET
Team scores: Oxford 228, Anniston 144, Alexandria 88, Ohatchee 67, Piedmont 46, Pleasant Valley 41, Jacksonville 34, White Plains 16, Weaver 12, Donoho 9, Wellborn 6, Saks 2.
Event winners
4×100: Oxford, 43.28
4×400: Anniston, 3:30.55 (county record, old record 3:32.95 by Anniston, 1986)
4×800: Oxford, 9:03.21
100: Jayden Lewis, Anniston, 11.29
110 hurdles: Cristian Gibson, Oxford, 16:07
200: Antonio Hicks, Oxford, 22.94
300 hurdles: Kendric Croft, Oxford, 42.14
400: JaVon Thomas, Anniston, 51.92
800: Christian Myles, Anniston, 1:59.51 (county record, old record 1:59.88 by Michael Brooks, Anniston, 1985)
1600: Christian Myles, Anniston, 4:35.59
3200: Noah George, Oxford, 9:59.47 (county record, old record 10:01.14 by Morgan Silvers, Oxford, 1991)
Discus: Connor Hall, Alexandria, 116-9
High jump: Ish Bethel, Piedmont, 6-0
Javelin: Jordan Dobbins, Oxford, 152-4
Long jump: Ashton Mitchell, Oxford, 21-4.5
Pole vault: Chris Ferguson, Ohatchee, 13-7 (county record, old record 13-6 by Matthew Moore, White Plains, 2018)
Shot put: Brian Rivas, Oxford, 41-1
Triple jump: Ashton Mitchell, Oxford 42-7
GIRLS MEET
Team scores: Oxford 148, Alexandria 143, White Plains 113, Ohatchee 69.5, Anniston 53, Piedmont 38.5, Pleasant Valley 36, Donoho 31, Weaver 26, Jacksonville 25, Wellborn 11, Saks 7.
Event winners
4×100: Oxford, 53.37
4×400: Anniston, 4:28.11
4×800: Alexandria, 11:01.64
100: Keziah Mickler, Oxford, 12.84
100 hurdles: Ella Parris, Pleasant Valley, 18.75
200: Keziah Mickler, Oxford, 27.02
300 hurdles: Chaci Whitfield, Oxford, 49.75
400: Jordyn Walker, Alexandria, 1:01.21
800: Anna Strickland, White Plains, 2:24.42
1600: Maddyn Conn, White Plains, 5:25.26 (county record, old record 5:38.31 by Rebecca Hearn, Jacksonville, 2016)
3200: Maddyn Conn, White Plains, 11:56.88
Discus: Tyasha Hunt, Alexandria, 98-1
High jump: Angel Bozarth, White Plains, 4-10
Javelin: Jorda Crook, Ohatchee, 128-6 (county record, old record 118-5.5 by Haley Dempsey, Oxford, 2019)
Long jump: Angel Bozarth, White Plains, 15-2.5
Pole vault: Lexi Ray, Piedmont, 8-6
Shot put: Gracie George, Ohatchee, 35-8
Triple jump: Estella Connell, Donoho, 32-8 [*** read more]
