Disqualification makes difference in deciding Kentucky state track champion
Male edged Tates Creek for the girls' team title at the Class 3A KHSAA State Track and Field Championships on Saturday, leaving the Commodores left to wonder what might have been if one event had transpired differently.
The Bulldogs won their third consecutive team championship and sixth overall after finishing with 75.5 points in the final standings, only 4.5 more than the Commodores.
RESULTS: CLASS 3A KHSAA TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tates Creek's disqualification in the 4-by-200 meter relay and the loss of a potential 10 points for what would have been a victory sank their hopes. Instead, Male took the 10 points and Tates Creek came up empty due to an exchange zone violation.
Had Tates Creek not been disqualified and things played out exactly the same way throughout the rest of the meet, the Commodores would have won their first state title, 81-73.5.
"The 4-by-2 DQ, it made my girls feel like they did something wrong but at the end of the day they were just trying to do what they were told," Commodores Coach Jonathan Hawks said. "I won't blame anybody. I'll take the criticism for it as far as my girls not getting in the right area at the time of the exchange. ...
"This meet today, it'll make my sprinters, it'll make my jumpers, it'll make all those girls hungrier, cause they take this personal. We'll come back stronger next year."
Tates Creek finished as a state runner-up for the second time in program history, matching the 2011 team in that respect. Only two girls who competed in the state meet on Saturday — Waveney Brooks and Kendra Thomas — will graduate from the program.
Myann Davidson, Rosalynd Hollingsworth, Kayla Smalley and Naturi Robinson comprised the winning 4-by-100 team that set a new overall state-meet record with a 47.35, topping the mark of 47.48 set by Bryan Station in 2014. Hollingsworth, a junior, finished 0.01 second behind Jeffersontown junior Kaleb McDonald in the 100-meter dash. She also set a new personal record with a 24.79 in the 200-meter, 0.27 seconds slower than McDonald in that race.
Hollingsworth also was part of the disqualified 4-by-200 team.
"I think for the most part (the day) was good but I think we could have done things that didn't happen," Hollingsworth said. "But I think we all did the best we could and we worked with what we got. ... We know that our time is the fastest for the 4-by-2 so I guess we just keep that in our minds. We're overall proud."
This story was originally published May 19, 2018 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Disqualification makes difference in deciding Kentucky state track champion."