Airline made it two in a row on Thursday as the Vikings won their home meet--the Viking Relays. AHS scored 149 points and were led by Jayden Williams, who pulled a distance triple by winning the 800m (2:06.62), 1600m (4:45.52), and 3200m (10:49.81).
"Jayden Williams has come into his sophomore season on a mission," Airline head coach Schirra Fields said. "He consistently works to get better and is always excited about the workout no matter the difficulty. At our meet, we wanted to see if he could handle the load of an 800, 1600, and 3200 and he dominated."
Besides Williams, Coach Fields credited Coach Angel Turnbow with her development of the distance runners on Viking Drive.
"Coach Turnbow has done a phenomenal job with building our distance runners," Fields said. "Although, we are young, they are eager to learn from her expertise. Our girls are building confidence each week. I also credit Coach T and Coach Roberson for building the relationships that have allowed us to get more girls out on the track."
Last week, the Lady Vikings fell short by two points in making it a sweep at the Shamocus Patton Memorial Relays. This week, Turnbow's Lady Vikings were able to seal the deal in front of the home crowd.
"One of my favorite quotes is 'A champion is defined not by their wins, but how they can recover when they fall,'" Turnbow said. "We battled back after we fell to Benton last week! We worked harder in order to come out on top."
Turnbow mentioned freshman Shelby Ledet, who won the high jump with a jump of 5-4, all three sprint relays, and sophomore Ke'Zyriah Sykes, who won the 100m hurdles (15.68) and was second in the 100m (12.56).
Ledet's jump ties her for No. 8 in the nation among freshman girls.
"We had a lot of bright spots, but those were just a few," Turnbow said.
"I'm really pleased with the direction our team is heading," Fields said. "On the boys side, I love our senior leadership with Ladarius Epps and Jeremiah Boudreaux and our younger guys are taking notice."
Boudreaux remained perfect on the season in the hurdles. He won the 110m hurdles (14.74) and 300m hurdles (39.17). Both times are better than his times at last week's meet, which was not much of a surprise due to the miserable weather conditions in Week No.1.
Boudreaux also finished fifth in the 100m with a time of 11.09.
Other notable Vikings were Zion Smith (18 points), Ladarius Epps (16.5 points), Austin Bonny (16 points).
The meet's high point athlete was Evangel's Tyreek Robinson, who won the 100m (10.99), 200m (22.48) , and finished second in the long jump (22-1). Robinson also ran a leg on Evangel's winning 4x100m relay team which ran a (43.39).
"At this point, we are trying to finalize the pieces that are going to help us compete for a district championship with both the boys and the girls," Fields said. "Our points are more diverse this year and I think that's going to benefit us greatly a month from now. I'm super proud of both teams thus far."
