Oak Ridge senior Jordan Graham is the number two seed in the boys 100-meter dash in the state track and field meet on Thursday, and senior Erin Van Berkel is the number two seed in girls discus.
Graham had the second-best time—10.90 seconds—in the boys 100-meter dash during the Division 1 Large Section 1 Championships at Hardin Valley Academy on May 11.
The top seed in the state meet in the boys 100-meter dash, Elijah Young, a junior at South-Doyle High School, also comes from Section 1. Young had the fastest time, 10.76 seconds, at the sectional championships at Hardin Valley on May 11.
Van Berkel had the second-best throw—117 feet and 9 inches—at the sectional championships at Hardin Valley earlier this month.
As in the boys 100-meter dash, the top seed in the state meet in girls discus also comes from Section 1. The top seed is Jefferson County High School junior Jaycee Schroeder, who had a throw of 127-10 on May 11.
Graham also competed in the boys 100-meter dash in the state meet in 2017, when he finished 15th as a sophomore with a time of 11.70. He shaved 0.80 seconds off that time in this year’s sectional championship.
This is the second consecutive trip to the state championship meet for Van Berkel. She finished fourth in the state meet last year with a throw of 118-05.
Also qualifying for the state meet on Thursday are Oak Ridge junior Cameron Malone, the 16th seed in the boys triple jump at 40-08.75, and the boys 4×100-meter relay team. They are the 13th seed at 43.39, and they finished fourth at the sectional championship.
Other area athletes competing in the state track and field meet on Thursday are Anderson County High School seniors Brittany Bishop and Mollie Longmire.
Bishop was the state champion in girls pole vault last year with a jump of 12 feet. She is the number one seed in the state meet this year, with a qualifying jump of 13 feet at the Section 1 championships, two feet higher than her closest state competitors. Bishop was also the state champion in 2017, also with a jump of 12 feet, and she was fourth as a freshman in 2016 (10-06.00).
Bishop is also the top seed in the girls 100-meter hurdles, with a qualifying time of 14.67 seconds. She finished sixth in the state meet last year, with a time of 15.28 seconds. She was also sixth as a sophomore in 2017, with a time of 15.44 seconds.
Longmire is the seventh seed in the girls 1,600-meter run, with a qualifying time of 5:08.19. She finished fourth at the sectional meet.
The 2019 TSSAA State Track and Field Championships are at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro from Wednesday, May 22, to Friday, May 24. The Division I Large Classification meet is Thursday, May 23. You can see this year’s track and field meet schedule here.
Learn more about the Tennessee Spring Sports Championships, the Spring Fling, here.
See the sectional meet results from May 11 here.
In other girls results from last year, Genevieve Schwartz, who was then a senior at Oak Ridge, finished 12th in the state in the girls 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:31.38, and Maddy Moody, who was then a junior at Anderson County, finished third with a time of 5:11.04. The Oak Ridge girls 4×100-meter relay team finished 12th in that meet with a time of 50.38, and Moody finished sixth in the girls 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:25.46.
In other boys results from last year, the Oak Ridge boys finished sixth in the boys 4×800-meter relay with a time of 8:16.34 and ninth in the 4×100-meter relay at 43.01. Parker Fulton, who was then a senior at Anderson County, finished 14th in the boys long jump (20-07.75).
The Oak Ridge boys 4×800-meter relay team finished ninth the year before, in 2017, at 8:14.63, when former Wildcat Jacob Etheridge finished 12th in the state in the boys 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:39.27. The Oak Ridge girls 4×800-meter relay team also finished ninth that year (10:02.58), and the girls 4×200-meter relay team finished 12th (1:47.72).
The boys 4×800 team was seventh in 2016, and the 4×100 team was ninth.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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