The Marietta girls and Walton boys took this week’s Cobb County Championships and head into the back-half of the season with surging momentum. The Marietta girls accrued 117.50 total points and earned 50 of those points in the distance events. Sophomore Mary Nesmith earned 10 points in the 3200 meter Run with a first-place time of 10:40.97. Harrison’s Samantha McGarity placed runner-up with a 10:50:32 and Blue Devils teammates Maddie Jones and Nora Hart added another nine points with fourth and fifth-place finishes. Nesmith (10), Jones (8) and Hart (3) added another 21 points in the 1600 meter run. Nesmith took the top time with a 4:53.70 and Jones’ runner-up clocked a 5:00.06. Hart’s 5:08.64 finish was good enough for sixth-place. Nesmith provided another eight-point result with a runner-up finish in the 800 meter run (2:14.86) and South Cobb’s Oluwatosin Awoleye earned the top time with a 2:09.32.
On the boys side, Walton’s 107-point finish was fueled by 30 points in the throwing event, 26 points in the distance and 20 points in the jumps. The Raiders also racked up 21 points in the sprints and 10 in the relays to overcome a scoreless outing in the hurdles. Walton seniors Omer Inan and Lota Ugokwe finished first and second in the shot put to rack up 18 points. Inan hurled a 53-10 and Ugokwe landed a 53-2. Inan also placed first in the Discus with a 147-5.
On Friday and Saturday, Archer High School hosted the 2024 Archer Invitational. The event will feature 36 total teams with eight out-of-state teams and 28 Georgia programs. The host Tigers will headline the field with Brookwood, Buford, Discovery, Grayson, Collins Hill, Lanier, Lithonia, Newton, Norcross, North Gwinnett, Parkview, Seckinger, Shiloh and South Gwinnett as major Gwinnett programs. The Archer Invitational will also showcase Cobb County’s Kell and Wheeler and powerhouses Veterans, Cambridge, Athens Academy, Sonoraville, Spalding and Salem. Last year, the Archer girls and Shiloh boys earned Team championships at the event with the Lady Tigers edging Marietta and Shiloh out-pacing North Atlanta and fifth-place Archer. Newton won the boys title with 77.5 points and host Archer finished runner-up with 65.5 points. On the girls side, out-of-state Collierville (TN) edged Archer and Newton—who each tied for second with 64 points. Anna Warren won the 3,200 (11:37.03) for the Archer girls, who also took first in the 800 relay (1:42.56). Archer’s Aaron Jones won the boys 110 hurdles (14.55) and 400 hurdles (53.98), and teammate Zeno Goss won the 800 (1:57.35). Grayson’s Kijana Callwood won the girls discus (133 feet, 7 inches), and Seckinger’s Naysa Brewer won the girls shot put (42-3).
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