All-Bi-City: State success produces crowded field in track

After a couple of seasons in which success at the state level was minimal for teams in the area, it all came back around in 2016.

There were strong individual and team performances across the board, resulting in a crowd at the top. For that reason, there were co-girls and boys athletes of the year and co-boys coaches of the year for the 2016 Ledger-Enquirer All-Bi-City track team.

On the girls side, Smiths Station’s Alonie Sutton set a new state record in the triple jump en route to an individual AHSAA Class 7A state championship. Shaw’s Kareema Grier won a GHSA Class 5A state title with a 54.59 time in the 400-meter dash. They are both girls athletes of the year.

They are joined by Smiths Station coach Cassidy Stecenko, who led the Lady Panthers to a fifth-place finish at state, as girls coach of the year.

For the boys, Northside’s freshman phenom, Jonathan Myrthil, picked up two second-place finishes at state in the 800 and the 1,600, and Central’s Karon Delince broke his own state record in the 200 but settled for second place, and added a third-place finish in the 100. They are co-boys athletes of the year.

They are joined by Northside coach Joe Sanders and Central coach Charles Fortune, who each led their teams to seventh-place finishes, as boys co-coaches of the year.

Sutton picked up a second-place finish at the state meet in 2015, but she admitted this week that she isn’t a good loser.

“I guess that’s what motivated me to push myself to win this year,” she said with a laugh.

It worked, she went 39-feet, 6-inches in the triple jump, setting a new state record to win the title.

“She had three great days,” Stecenko said. “This year, she was just like, ‘I’m going to win.’ ”

In addition to Sutton, Stecenko got a state championship from Myra Mack in the 400. Multiple records were set, a number of girls medaled, and the team ended up fifth overall.

“It’s the highest we’ve finished in a few years,” she said. “At sectionals, we didn’t have the best meet, so I was a little worried that we wouldn’t place as well (at state). But when we got there, our girls were very focused.”

Shaw’s Grier matched Sutton and Mack, winning a state title in the 400 with a time of 54.59. She also notched a 47.25 as part of the 4x100 relay team.

Delince was a returning state champion on the boys side, while Myrthil was new to high school altogether. Neither won titles, but both were right in the conversation and give themselves plenty of hope at winning next year.

Delince broke his own record in the 200 that he set last year, running a 21.38, but was bested by one person. He also finished third in the 100 at 10.66 and fourth in the 4x100 relay.

Fortune said that when you’re a returning state champion, everyone wants to prove they can beat you, and Delince worked hard to remain near the top.

“We pushed him to understand that you have to work even harder, and he did,” Fortune said.

“I put more time on the track, worked harder, got stronger in the weight room, all that,” Delince said.

His team finished seventh overall. Fortune credited that to the team’s killer instinct.

“We didn’t have a lot of depth, but they had that killer instinct,” he said. “They said that if I’m going to be beat, it’s going to be by someone who is just better.”

For Myrthil, it was his first taste of high school competition. He entered the season expecting to be one of the lower competitors, doing his best to train and improve. Instead, his coach learned quickly he could compete with the best.

“When he came in and we saw him practice, we knew we had something special,” Sanders said.

“When I realized I could do so well, it pushed me to work harder,” Myrthil said.

Myrthil ended up claiming second in both the 800 at 1:55.08 and the 1600 at 4:18.78. He has three more years to try and get those numbers down and grab a title, and that’s just what he plans to do.

Meanwhile, Sanders was thrilled with his team’s ability to get back into the state conversation, a place it hasn’t been in a few years.

“This team didn’t have as much experience on the winning side,” he said. “They had struggled, but they worked hard. This year, they came together, got faster and stronger and more sure about themselves. They were a hard team to beat.”

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 9:44 PM with the headline "All-Bi-City: State success produces crowded field in track."