Christian Perez wins state decathlon while multiple athletes qualify for Tuesday’s state meet

It’s been quite a last couple of weeks for the Munford High boys’ and girls’ track and field teams.

On May 19 and 20 in Brentwood, senior Christian Perez became the first Munford track athlete to take first at a state meet when he won the decathlon. His teammate, junior Jace Hodgin, finished second.

A week later at the sectional meet nearly 20 Cougars and Lady Cougars qualified for the Spring Fling state meet, which begins Tuesday on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro.

 The Lady Cougars started the Sectional Meet off with a 1, 2, 3 finish in the pentathlon. By the time running events began at noon on Saturday, the Lady Cougars had picked up 92 points and held a commanding lead. Things only got better from there as the 4×800 relay team took 1^st and set a new school record doing it. The Lady Cougars scored multiple athletes in nearly every individual event. By night’s end they had piled up 181 points, nearly doubling up the second place Ripley Tigers, on their way to securing the Sectional Championship, a first for the girls’ track program.

The boys’ team, however, trailed the Ripley Tigers by 5 points after the first night of events, 65-60. When events began Saturday, the Cougars knew they would have to dig down if they wanted to win the first sectional championship in school history. Christian Perez (who had earlier won the Sectional Decathlon) started the day with a 2^nd place finish in the pole vault, the boys 4x800m relay team took 3rd, and Perez placed another 3^rd in the 110m hurdles. Braxton Sharp followed these events with a spectacular race to capture the 100m dash, leading from gun to wire. On the strength of these events, the Cougars surged into the lead and never looked back, taking the sectional championship 143 over runner-up Ripley’s 115.

State Qualifiers

BOYS

GIRLS ATHLETE

Boys Team Scores

17 Dyer Co. 5

Girls Team Scores

18 Melrose 2