Vernon crowns four Area track champions

Vernon High School crowned four Area champions and advanced six more individual competitors and four relay teams to this week’s 3A Regional Track meet.
The top four finishers in each event at the District 7 &8 Area meet in Jacksboro earned the right to move on to Thursday and Friday’s Region 1 meet at Abilene Christian University.
Vernon claimed four Area titles in individual events. Julius Dawkins won the Triple Jump with a leap of 44-9 – seven inches better than the runner-up.
Jackson Aydelott ran away with the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.03 seconds – nearly a second ahead of the competition.
Key’Maria McBride won the Triple Jump with a leap of 37-7.25, a full two feet better than her closest competitor.
Klancy Sherrill won the 300M Hurdles in a time of 48.13 seconds, a half second ahead of second place.
Sherrill also qualified for regionals in two other events. She finished third in the high jump after clearing 5-0 and was fourth in the 100M Hurdles with a time of 16.79 seconds.
McBride also finished third in the long jump with a leap of 16-6.25. The Lady Lions Mari Johnson qualified for Regional as she finished in the shot put with a throw of 36-11.25.
Aydelott also qualified for regionals in the 200M Dash, taking second with a time of 21.64 seconds, just 0.11 off the top pace.
Other Regional qualifiers include Case Fleming, who took third in a photo finish of the 100M Dash with a time of 10.74 – three hundredths of a second behind the 10.71 that won; and Kameron Plyler, who cleared 6-2 in the High Jump to finish third behind former Vernon student/athlete Jay Oznick of Eastland with a 6-4.
All three boys relay squads advanced to Region. The Lions 4×400 relay team of Ty Scott, Plyler, Dawkins and Aydelott finished second with a time 3:25.52. The 4×100 relay team of Fleming, Plyler, Jerick Weaver and Scott turned in a time of 43.46 for third place, and the 4×200 relay team of Fleming, Plyler, Weaver and Dawkins took third with a time of 1:30.03.
The Lady Lions 4×200 relay team of Ka’Liyha Fanner, Sherrill, Zaleigh Sweet and McBride finished second with a time of 1:46.92 – 33 hundredths off the top pace.
Placing but not advancing to the regional meet were Beau Gearld, fifth in the shot put, and T.J. Thomas, sixth in the triple jump. Other Vernon athletes included Jevon Fanner seventh in the 400M and Isreal Espinoza eighth in the pole vault. Mija Johnson was 7th in the 100M hurdles. McBride was 8th in the 200M dash. Courtney Saylor and Jasana Goodrum finished seventh and eighth in the pole vault.
The Lions as a team finished in third place in the team standings at the Area Meet with 83 points. Brock won the title with 113 points.
The Lady Lions finished fourth in the team standings with 58 points.

Vernon’s Jackson Aydelott wins the Area championship in the 400M dash.