TCA claims 2 track championships

Trinity Christian Academy came home with at least two new school records and a pair of state championships in the Division II-A state track and field meet at Spring Fling last week.

Sprinter Kaleb Williams, who’d shaved his 400-meter dash time to under 50 seconds in the regional meet the previous week, managed to shave another second off his time in time for the state champion.

Because of that, he brought the gold medal home to the Lions with a time of 48.92 seconds.

Williams was a part of TCA’s other state championship when he was the second leg of the 4X200 relay team that also included Owen Atwood, Brayden Waller and Zane Atwood.

Together, they set a new school record in that event at 1:28.95.

The championships were a couple of highlights for the Lions and Madison County at Spring Fling last week.

Here’s a recap of how Madison boys’ soccer and University School of Jackson softball finished their weeks competing for state.

After beating Westview 2-1 in the state quarterfinals, the Mustang soccer team moved on to take on Gatlinburg-Pittman in the semifinals.

Madison and Pittman have actually met a few times in recent years in the state tournament.

It was Pittman who got the better end of the deal this time around as Madison fell 3-1 to end its season in the state semifinals.

For the Lady Bruin softball team, they began the week by beating Knoxville Grace 9-7.

But the next day, they had a hard time getting going in a losing effort, falling to Silverdale Baptist 10-0 in five innings in a game that was delayed multiple times because of weather.

Fortunately, it’s a double-elimination tournament, so they weren’t eliminated yet.

They played Lakeway Christian Academy – coached by North Side graduate and former Huntingdon coach Jay Lowery and his sister-in-law and TCA softball legend Ellen (Renfroe) Reed – with the Lady Bruins coming away with a 2-0 win to set up a rematch with Silverdale for the championship.

USJ played a better game the second time around, competing with the team from Chattanooga and actually leading until the bottom of the fourth. But a five-run bottom of the sixth inning extended Silverdale’s lead, and USJ couldn’t catch up in the seventh, giving the Lady Bruins a runner-up finish in the state tournament.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news