TIFTON — Track and field at Tift County High School goes to sectionals Saturday, May 6, with a number of athletes to compete at Bethlehem High School. This will be the last meet before the state finals at Rome May 11-13.

Tift County fans may have to break out the map for this one. The host site is Apalachee, which reports a Winder address while geographically being a smidge closer to Bethlehem. Both are in Barrow County, which looks to be next on the list of areas to be swallowed up by Metro Atlanta.

Start time is 10:30 a.m. for field events, with track action running from approximately 2:30 p.m. until almost 8 p.m. Tift’s sectional includes schools from Regions 1, 2, 3 and 8.

“Now they’re going against competition that is going to be very stiff,” said head coach J.C. Clark. “They’re going to have to show up.”

Tift won three events at region. Bailee Williams was 1st place in both shot put and discus and Kayla Newton won pole vault. Jalon Miller had the best finish on the oval, a 2nd place 50.88 seconds in the 400.

Williams’ region shot put of 39-6 was best among all other qualifiers at this sectional, with the only person within three feet being Neely Rogan of Apalachee. Rogan threw 39-0.5.

“Bailee has been working the last two years to be in this position,” Clark said.

With an elevated number of athletes making the trip to the next round, Clark is nervously hopeful. “We have a chance to take a lot to state or we can take very little,” he said.

Antonio Burgess qualified for sectionals in both the 110 and 300 hurdles. Burgess was 3rd in the former and 4th in the latter. Diamond Wallace is another multi-event qualifier and will vie against competition in the 100-meter dash Lily Bruce qualified in the 100-meter hurdles and high jump.

Ava Wilson is in the 3,200, with Makali Hall in the 400 and Diamond Wallace in the 100.

Tift will be taking its boys 4×200, 4×400 and 4×800 combinations on the road, as well as the Lady Devils relay teams in 4×100 and 4×400.

On the field, Will Clark competes in high jump. Trevor Gebhart and Anthony Pace join Newton in pole vault and Dontae’ Jones will be in triple jump.

Heat sheets show Clark’s 6-2 as fifth best among competitors, but he arguably has some of the stiffest competition. Brunswick’s Riyon Rankin qualified at 7-2.

Clark was amazed at the level of performances during the region meet. Will Clark broke five minutes in the mile (4:56) and that was only good enough for 8th place. That same time would have qualified him for sectionals in 3rd place a year earlier. Similar bad luck plagued Blair Golden, who had a personal best 11:05 in the 3,200 and also 8th place. He would have won region with that time in 2022.

“In some regions, it gets you to sectionals,” said Coach Clark of Will Clark’s sub-5 time. Not here. “It goes to show South Georgia has some talent. South Georgia has some stud athletes.”

He sees the high level as a definite plus. Tift can learn from its competitors what it takes to reach an even higher level. Some of it is already paying off.

“We have some kids doing things we haven’t done in the last couple of years,” said Clark. He pointed to pole vault as an example, with one of top jumpers being a freshman and several qualifying for sectionals. “We also have our first sub-2:05 800-meter run in Trevor. We haven’t had one of them since J.D. Bengston.”

Will Clark is the first high jumper to clear 6-2 in three years. His coach knows he can do even more.

“Kids are showing up, but we have to keep putting in the work,” he said.