GHSA track: Dublin’s Johnson, girls 4×200 relay team win gold at state

Athletes representing the Heart of Georgia brought home some gold, silver and bronze from this past weekend’s GHSA track and field state championship meets in Albany and Rome. 

Top Laurens County performers included a handful of High A state champions out of Dublin High School, whose Na’Sir Johnson won the discus state title on Friday with a top fling of 170 feet, 10 inches. The Lady Irish 4×200-meter relay team followed Saturday by winning the program’s third-straight state crown in the event, with Caitlyn Nesbitt, Azoria Lovett, Kayden Hope and Tahara Diallo combining to clock a time of 1:43.73, and coming a fraction of a second shy of breaking their own previous record. 

Dublin’s relay team also medaled silver in the 4×100, with Lovett and Diallo joining Caitlyn Nesbitt and Ra’Nyya Washington in a runner-up finish to Bleckley County. Nesbitt was also runner-up in the 100-meter dash. 

The Irish boys relay team of Micah O’Neal, Cornellius Rozier, Tristian Bell and Jamie Lang logged a strong fourth-place finish in the 4×200-meter relay. 

Caleb Jackson was the top performer among East Laurens delegates, reaching the podium in two separate events as only a slight runner-up to Prince Avenue’s Christian Garrett in the shot put, and fourth-place finisher in the discus. 

A West Laurens squad featuring Zion Stanley, Zion Payne, Ethan Hightower and Ty Cummings captured the bronze medal in the 4×200-meter relay. 

Other Laurens County athletes to advance from preliminary rounds to the finals included the following:

Dublin 

• Washington – fifth, triple jump 

• Sirius Tobridge – 10th, long jump 

• Jadon Parker – 14th, discus 

• Johnson – 16th, shot put 

• Lovett – fifth, 400M dash 

• Ketoyria Clark, Lovett, Janiya Freeman, Tahara Diallo – seventh, 4×200 relay 

• Jerrica Charleston – 10th, shot put 

• Jordan Renfroe – 11th, shot put 

East Laurens 

• Ty Snead – eighth, high jump 

• Amiyah Buie – sixth, 100M hurdles 

• Deanna Lowther – eighth, shot put; 16th, discus 

West Laurens 

• Juvon Hill – fifth, triple jump 

• Stanley – seventh, 110M hurdles 

• Bryson Campbell – 13th, pole vault 

• Armoni Anderson – 15th, 400M dash

• Keira Davis – seventh, high jump