MADISON – Junior distance runner Colby Walters led the French Camp Academy boys to a third place finish at the MHSAA South State 1A track meet last Saturday at Madison Central High School. The Panthers finished with 65 points, trailing Mississippi School for the Deaf with 94 points and Sacred Heart with 87.
The French Camp girls were eighth with 37 points. Sacred Heart finished first with 116 points.
French Camp will compete in the state meet Saturday at Pearl High School. The boys team finished second last year behind Mound Bayou John F. Kennedy.
Walters provided 20 points for French Camp at South State with victories in the 800 and the 1600. In the 1600, he ran second for two laps behind Heath Flathau of Sacred Heart, who had won the 3200 earlier in the day.
“I stayed on his shoulder the whole time until we got to the third lap, then I decided to go around him,” Walters said. “When I got to the fourth lap, I knew he wasn't going to pass me.”
He finished in 5:01.03, more than four seconds ahead of Flathau and 16 seconds better than he had ever recorded before. His time at the Region 3-1A meet a week earlier was 5:27.12.
“I had the right mind today,” he said.
Walters also did much better in the 800, finishing in 2:15.14, nine and a half seconds better than at the region meet and seven seconds faster than runner-up Cedric Bibbs of Montgomery County.
The French Camp boys had two other first place finishes at South State, junior Jason May in the pole vault and junior Willis McCord in the discus.
May cleared 10 feet, the same as he did last year when he won a silver medal at the state meet. Sophomore Ben Woolhouse of Tupelo Christian is the defending champion in the event with a height of 11 feet last year and May expects that it will be between the two of them again this year. May has a personal best of 10-6.
McCord won the discus with a throw of 122-11, five inches better than Jacquez Lee of Sebastopol. He also finished fifth in the shot put.
Junior Ami Sherrif easily won the 800 for the French Camp girls in 2:43.52, more than eight and a half seconds faster than runner-up Christina Danford of Sacred Heart. Sherrif bettered her region time by nearly 10 seconds. She was fourth at last year's state meet.
The top four in each event qualified for the state meet. The only other boy to qualify was David Duarte, third in the 3200 and fourth in the 1600. He was eighth in both races at last year's state meet.
Senior Emi Holman qualified for the Lady Panthers with second place in the discus.
