There was no state championship trophy brought home this year by the T.R. Miller track teams, but there was a state runner-up trophy that came home.
At the class 3A state track meet Friday and Saturday in Selma, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers finished second to Bayside Academy while the Tigers boys placed fifth.
The Lady Tigers scored 80 total points while Bayside placed first out of 26 teams with 116 points. Montgomery Academy took third placed with 71 points.
On the boys side, T.R. Miller scored 45 points finishing behind state champion Greensboro’s 106 points, Hanceville’s 76, Montgomery Catholic’s 75 and Trinity’s 56.
The second place trophy for the Lady Tigers and fifth place for the boys ended a three-year run for the Tigers bringing at least one championship trophy home.
The Lady Tigers won their first championship in 2010 and claimed back-to-back championships after winning the title again last year. T.R. Miller finished runner-up in 2009.
The T.R. Miller boys team took the runner-up trophy last season after winning titles in 2009 and 2010. The T.R. Miller boys teams have won seven state championships since 1991 and five since 2003. The team won two 4A titles in 1991 and 1992 while taking five 3A titles in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2010 and runner-up in 2011.
After one day, T.R. Miller’s Lady Tigers were in third place with 23 points behind first place Bayside’s 46 and Winfield’s 24 ½. The boys of Brewton were in sixth place with 24 points.
T.R. Miller track coach Eddie Brundidge said he was real pleased with the way the girls competed at the state meet.
“We would have liked to win it all again, but I can’t say enough about the girls team,” Brundidge said. “We have now been runner-up or state champs for the last four years now. We came in with another good meet Friday and Saturday. We knew it would be tight and we would need to be at our best to beat Bayside. Give Bayside credit, they had a lot of depth in a lot of different events and they had some good performers. They deserved it.”
Brundidge said the girls team would be losing only three seniors from this team in Leah Brundidge, Amber Nelson and Taylor Guthrie.
“We only have three seniors, but those three in the last four years…I just can’t say enough about them and what they have done,” he said. “They helped T.R. Miller girls track on the map. They won two state championships and two runner-up trophies, so they leave our other athletes something work to for the next four years.”
As for the boys, Brundidge said a lack of depth this year hurt their chances at another title.
“We knew going in we would be a little lacking in depth,” he said. “I knew Greensboro had a good team coming out of regionals. We didn’t have a lot of boys this year as far as numbers, but we did get in. I thought we had a chance to make top-five and we did that. We would have liked to have been higher, but like the girls, we only have three seniors in Kameron Winn, Nick Adams, and Ivory Miller. All three of those have done a good job for us. We were just lacking in depth.”
Brundidge said he plans to reload and get some younger kids out for next season.
“We want to make a run at it next year,” he said. “I just appreciate all the effort from the three seniors in each group. I appreciate all them and wish them the best.”
Earning points for T.R. Miller’s girls at the meet was: Majestie Walker, who finished eighth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:05.36.
In the 1600-meter run, Karisa Nelson placed second with a time of 5:15.79 and Allie Nelson took seventh with a time of 5:42.74. Karisa Nelson also placed 14th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:40.03. In the 3200-meter run, Karisa placed second with a time of 12:02.01 while Allie placed sixth with a time of 12:40.49. Breann Huff placed 18th with a time of 15:21.56.
In the 100-meter hurdles, Taylor Guthrie placed third with a time of 16.76 followed by Amber Nelson’s 17.09 for fourth place. In the 300-meter hurdles, Guthrie took second place with a time of 48.43 while Amber Nelson placed fifth with a time of 50.25. Morgan Rowell placed ninth with a time of 52.77.
In the 4×100-meter relay, T.R. Miller placed fourth with a time of 52.86 and took fifth in the 4×800-meter relay with a time of 10:57.48. In the pole vault, Amber Terry placed fourth with a vault of 8-feet.
Guthrie placed fourth in the long jump with a jump of 15-5 ¾ and Lateysia Montgomery placed seventh with a jump of 14-11. In the triple jump, Amber Nelson placed second with a jump of 34-7 while Brundidge placed 18th with a jump of 28-3.
In girls shot put, Brundidge placed 11th followed by O’Nesha Hall in 16th and Kelsey Thompson in 22nd. In the javelin, Brundidge placed eighth. In the discus, Lauren Bradley took 14th with a throw of 73-7.
For the Tigers boys team, Rob Stokes placed fourth with a time of 4:45.15 in the 1600-meter run while the 4×100-team placed fourth with a time of 44.79. In the 800-meter run, Stokes took 11th place with a time of 2:10.68. In the 3200, Stokes took sixth with a time of 10:36.01.
The 4×800-team placed 17th and the 4×400 team took 18th while Nick Adams placed fourth in the pole vault with a vault of 10-6 and Miller Vickery placed fifth with a vault of 10-6 as well.
In the triple jump event, Kameron Winn placed fifth with a jump of 40-1 and Ahmad Taylor placed 10th. David Barragan placed 20th.
In the shot put, Zach Whitworth took 12th place with a throw of 38-5 ¾. In the javelin, Adams took third with a throw of 160-10 while William Whittle placed ninth with a throw of 136-6.
In the 110-meter hurdles, Winn placed sixth with a time of 16.50 and placed seventh in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 44.22.
In the high jump, Mark Bryant placed second with a jump of 6-feet while Jerric Woods placed ninth with a jump of 5-4. In the long jump, Bryant placed 12th with a jump of 18-6 ½.