Coach Dixon: ‘best GRC boys track team in the history of the school’

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Photo courtesy of Kelly Crume Photography

Boys track team celebrates the school’s first-ever region track trophy after placing second in one of the state’s toughest regions.

The GRC Cardinals excelled against arguably some of the best competition at their 3A Region 6 Meet on Saturday, May 20. The boys team brought home the school’s first region track trophy ever with its runner-up performance.

“The team did so well,” said Coach Dodd Dixon. “They did not crumble under pressure like I have seen some teams do. This year’s team responded to the challenge, rose to the occasion achieved the goal and that is why they are the best GRC boys track team in the history of the school.”

A few of our very own Cardinals came out on top despite the dense fields of athletes they had to compete against.

Senior Corbin Ison walked out of the meet with three medals from three different events “The rain made running a challenge but I still pushed to compete the best I could,” says Ison. “The team competed amazingly, and I’m very happy with how all of us did.”

With the second place finish in the 110m hurdles, Ison will advance to the state meet as the top two in each event from every region get to advance to the state games. 

Outside of the top two from every region, the next 10 fastest times will also get a shot at competing at state.

The 4x400m relay team got the job done as well and brought home the gold. The team of Liam Parido, Josh Wilson, Corbin Ison, and Jerone Morton outran the competition by a mere two-hundredths of a second.

“We worked hard all season for this race,” says Wilson. “Win or lose, we were set on leaving it all on the track.”

Morton was the anchor for the 4x400m relay, edging out Frederick Douglass. Morton took home the 400m sprint first place as well with a time of 51.20.

“I just want to thank God for giving me the strength to run the race,” says Morton “I was extremely blessed to come out and help the team in my first year running.” 

Junior Joey Hill set a new school record en route to his long jump region champion title, jumping a 21’-07.50”.

“I feel great about my long and triple jump,” says Hill. “I obviously wanted to perform better in my other events but I’m extremely excited to get to compete at the state meet and perform one last time before the season is over.”

Tyliek Maxwell competed well, bringing home three silver medals. Maxwell was second in long jump, triple jump, and high jump scoring 24 points for the team.

The boys 4x800m relay team of Liam Parido, Shai Scarboro, Aidan Larkin and Lennon Smith also scored at the beginning of the meet, placing 6th against some of the top-ranked teams in the state. 

This is one of the largest teams that GRC has sent to the state meet with six athletes qualifying in multiple events individually.

All athletes who qualified will compete at the state meet June 3 at University of Kentucky’s track and field facility.

A full list of region placements may be found HERE.