Brentwood High School's boys track team enjoys winning its second straight I-AAA state championship. (Photo by Renee Yarbrough)
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By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Brentwood High and Brentwood Academy had a sweet sweep of the Division I-AAA and Division II boys state track and field championships, with both winning the team title on the final event at MTSU Friday.
New state I-AAA decathlon champion Jake Lazas overcame a fall in the 300 high hurdles to anchor BHS to a third-place finish in the 4x400 relay and repeat as champs. The Bruins edged Cordova 61 to 59 in a déjà vu to last year’s championship win in the final race.
BA senior Josh Davies ran the last leg of BA’s 4x400 to first place to beat race and DII runner-up MBA 145 to 144 points, sending retiring coach Charlie Harper out a winner with the Eagles’ record 17th title.
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| Brentwood Academy celebrates the school's record 17th state championship for retiring coach Charlie Harper. (Photo by Renee Yarbrough) |
“It couldn’t be any better, it really couldn’t,” Harper said. “You don’t know what to expect in something like this. So many things can go well, they can go badly. It’s just a culmination of a lot of hard work over a number of months and just everybody being committed to it.”
Said winning 4x200 relay team member Radir Anoor: “This is his last year -- we’re sending him out with a bang.”
Brentwood High senior thrower Steve Wade, an East Tennessee State University signee, repeated as I-AAA shot put champion and finished second in the discus to give the Bruins 18 points earlier in the day.
“It’s a great feeling together as a team to get a third place in the last race and get it together and win it,” Wade said. “… I know we had the same situation last year to pull it together at the last second.”
BA senior Bryson Lillard easily grabbed his third double-hurdles championships for an unprecedented six state hurdles titles. Eagles senior Josh Pleasant was the fastest runner in the DII 100 meters, and Brentwood Academy won three of the four relays in DII.
'One point's all that mattered'
It was perhaps fitting that Lazas and sophomore Eric Hoff, who started BHS off with 18 points Monday-Tuesday with a 1-2 decathlon finish, ended it for the Bruins on Friday night. Hoff, who also added 8 points as pole vault runner-up Thursday, ran the third leg in the 4x400 following Patrick Kellet and Andrew Wilson.
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| Jake Lazas takes the handoff from Eric Hoff, and the 4x400 relay finished third for Brentwood High's second straight state title (Photo by Peg Fredi) |
Lazas, a junior, even dropped out of two events Friday to increase his chances of more points in his hurdles race.
“I scratched in the triple jump and 110 hurdles to save my energy for the 300 hurdles -- and then I got 1 point,” Lazas said.
“One point’s all that mattered,” interjected Kellett. “We won by one point.”
Lazas said he came upon the hurdle with his alternate leg, which he hadn’t practiced, and went for it instead of stutter-stepping. Despite picking himself up off the track for a last-place finish, Lazas’ mom said he still managed a personal-best in the race.
In the 400, he turned on the burners as the team had to keep relay race winner Cordova from picking up a net six points.
“Oh my gosh, after that fall…,” Lazas said. “They all ran a perfect race. … It’s just an awesome feeling. That last 15 meters, just running to glory, to win state.”
BHS also got a third place from Paul Stuart and fifth by Nathan Thomas in the morning’s 3200 meters for10 more points. And the Bruins 4x800 also took third place for 6 points.
Wade, who broke a discus meet record this season owned by Blind Side player Michael Oher, had a strong toss of 173 feet, 2 inches in the discus but Houston's Hunter Harrison threw 175-10. Wade's winning shot put was 58-2, while Ravenwood junior Cameron Brown was fourth in shot and eighth in discus.
“I’m proud of my shot performance and the discus,” Wade said. “I know there was a lot of competition in the discus. But I’m proud of my mark. I got 8 points for the team in discus and 10 points in shot and that helped a lot to win state.”
BA 'pretty much had to win'
Davies suffered through a sinus infection and a hip injury Monday-Tuesday during the decathlon, where he finished runner-up in DII. But he turned in a second-place in the 300 high hurdles behind Lillard, was third in 110 hurdles, and then broke away from the field in the final relay.
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| Anchor Josh Davies finishes first in the 4x400 to clinch the state championship for the Eagles. (Photo by Peg Fredi) |
“It was a little nerve-wracking because we had to beat MBA,” Davies said. “They were up by one point, so we pretty much had to win to beat them. I was just in a zone.”
BA’s Victor Caro was runner-up in the long jump and Derek King was barely second in the 400. King got nipped at the line and fell trying to lean for the win.
“Usually my plan in the 400 is I come out pretty good, which I was for most of the race. I had it for a little bit and then the guy started catching up,” said King, a Vanderbilt football signee.
King and Carlos Calloway were fourth and fifth in the 200, while Will Reynolds and Davies were sixth in pole vault and shot put, respectively. Graham Shuler in fifth and Amos Mason picked up points in discus, and freshman Garrett Bull placed fifth in the 3200.
Phillip Booker was fifth in 110 hurdles and seventh in long jump, D'Montre Wade clocked fifth in the 100, Zeno Dupree placed fourth in the 400, and the 4x800 took third.
Junior Radir Anoor got BA ahead on the third leg of the 4x200 behind Calloway and Cody Russell, then Wade ran the anchor.
“I false-started in the 100 so I had to come back and redeem myself,” Anoor said. “I felt like I did a good job and helped our team get the win.”
Rashaan Gaulden, Zeno Dupree and Bryson Lillard ran the first legs in the 4x400, which won by 5 seconds over MBA.
“We knew we’d be in the mix. We thought it’d come down to the 4x4, and it did and we prevailed,” Davies said.
Lillard tore a piece of his hamstring and was sidelined the first five weeks of the season. He ended up with a personal-best 14.2 seconds in the 110 hurdles.
“It’s a blessing to be able to be in shape and to do that,” he said. “It’s just good to have the joy back and the energy back to do this.”
Lillard thanked God for blessing him with “something as little as state meet, because there are so many problems in my life that I go through.”
“I love my teammates they are awesome," the Bryan College track signee said. "We’ve been through a lot, but this year is really special.”
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| BA's Josh Pleasant wins the 100-meter dash in 11.11 seconds. (Photo by Renee Yabrough) |
Pleasant, a Tennessee Tech football signee, had finished third in the 100 last year. He said he got out of the blocks as planned and knew he was in the lead by the team he was up.
“It just feels good to come back and meet my goal to finally get first,” he said.
Harper said it hasn’t hit him yet that it was his swansong. He has said his wife had a bucket list, but added “we’ll negotiate that.”
“I’m just very grateful that I’ve had this opportunity, particularly at Brentwood Academy and of course throughout my career,” he said.
Said Pleasant: “He deserves this because he’s been with the program a long time and this means so much to him, for us to come out here and lay it all on the line for him.”
Check back later for more photos by Brentwood Home Page.
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| Brentwood's Jake Lazas hits hurdle in 300. |
Lazas tumbles onto the track. |
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| Lazas rolls and gets back up to finish. |
Lazas is 8th for a point. (Peg Fredi photos) |
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