By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

BIRMINGHAM – We are right in the thick of the 2018 track and field season and one of the biggest regular season events of the year took place at the Birmingham Crossplex on Saturday, Jan. 6, as several teams flocked to the Ice Breaker Invitational. 

Both Thompson and Spain Park have incredible athletes competing in cross country, outdoor track and field and indoor track and field, and both teams proved as much in one of the biggest regular season track and field meets of the season.

Thompson

As she did the entire cross country season, McKenzie Hogue led the Warriors with two top-2 finishes in the event to continue showing her dominance at running.

Hogue, a junior, picked up the first-place finish in the 3,200-meter race finishing in 11:20.07, which was more than 13 seconds ahead of second place.

Her second-place finish came in the 1,600-meter race where she ran a time of 5:14.62, which was eight seconds behind first and four seconds ahead of third.

Zakiria Holifield, a sophomore for the Warriors, also had a strong day in two events. She finished 13^th in the 60-meter dash finals with a time of 8.08.

She also finished in 20^th in the 400-meter dash finals with a time of 1:02.16 as the speedy runner had a nice showing. Senior Alandria McCurdy also fared well in the race with a finish of 25^th thanks to a time of 8.26.

Junior Madison Wright had an impressive showing in the 60-meter hurdles finishing the race in 10.26, just over a second slower than first place.

Elizabeth Sutton, a sophomore for Thompson, did well in the pole vaulting finals with a height of 8 feet 6 inches completed.

In another field event, senior Ebony Butler finished in second in the girls’ shot put finals with a distance of 36 feet 5 inches.

Moving over to the boys’ events, Jace Jones started things off with a strong second-place showing in the 1,600-meter race. The sophomore, who had a strong showing at the cross country state championship, finished the race in 4:30.46.

Jones also picked up a finish of 17^th in the 3,200-meter race due to a time of 10:26.33. He finished one spot ahead of teammate Brandon Lee, who finished the race in 10:26.33.

As a team, the Warriors placed second in the 4X400-meter relay race with a time of 3:27.84. The time was .23 seconds behind Smiths Station’s time of 3:27.61 as Thompson was edged out in a photo finish.

In the 800-meter finals, the Warriors ended up with two top-10 finishers. Timothy Osborne, a senior, finished the race in 2:00.81, while fellow senior Thomas Cousins finished in eighth with a time of 2:02.96.

Freshman Jared Hurst and senior Phillip Lewis had impressive performances in the high jump finals. Hurst finished with a distance of 5 feet 10 inches, while Lewis had a total of 5 feet 8 inches.

Antonio Brown finished in 15^th in the boys high jump finals with a length of 19 feet 2 inches, while Gavin Gray finished in 21^st with a total of 18 feet 10.75 inches.

Gray also had a nice race in the triple jump finishing in ninth with a distance of 41 feet 2 inches.

Viktor Turek had a solid showing in the boys shot put finals with a distance of 45 feet 6.25 inches, which was good enough for fourth place. Keagan Eason, a freshman, finished in 21^st in the event with a distance of 40 feet 10.75 inches.

Spain Park 

The biggest highlight for the Spain Park girls was Holland Lidikay. The sophomore took home 24^th in the 1,600-meter race with a time of 5:53.12.

Jacob Warner had an impressive day for the Spain Park boys finishing in 10^th in the 3,200-meter finals with a time of 10:09.24 and in seventh in the 1,600-meter finals with a time of 4:33.03 to give him two top-10 finishes.

Kameron McDaniel also had a top-10 finish for the boys with his 10^th place finish in the 400-meter race. The junior ran the race in 51.75 seconds.

In that same race, senior Zander Kazzie took home 30^th with a time of 53.39 seconds.

McDaniel had another impressive showing in the 60-meter dash finishing in 12^th with a time of 7.13 seconds.