Published: May 10, 2008 12:40 am            

Cats' Grass in 800 final

Dalton High distance star Daniel Grass ran a personal best 800 meters Friday at the GHSA Class 4A state track and field meet to win his heat and go into today’s finals as the No. 1 seed.

Grass, a senior who ran a 2:02.22 to win the Region 7-4A title, posted a sterling time of 1:58.5 to win his heat and has a good shot at claiming a state title today. The 800 is scheduled to be run at 3:10 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Jefferson.

Catamounts speedster Cameron Hudson ran a 14.8-second 110-meter hurdles, finished fourth in his heat and also qualified for the finals today at 2:20 p.m.

“Everybody is doing personal bests,” Dalton coach Scott Thompson said. “I can’t ask for anything more than that. I’m ecstatic. We’ve got 25 or 30 people down here supporting us and that’s great for our kids.”

Grass barely missed qualifying in the 400-meter run, posting a personal-best 49.4 and finishing fifth, but only the top four runners advance to the finals.

The Cats’ 400-meter relay team (Ethan Bennett, Garrett Hamby, Justin Weaver and Ahmed Farag) turned in a personal best 43.4 seconds, but finished sixth in its heat and failed to qualify for the finals.

Mitchell Snyder had a personal-best effort with a 2:08 in the 800 only to finish seventh. The Cats’ Kareem Hawkins tied his personal best with a 40.7-second effort in the 300 intermediate hurdles, but failed to qualify for the finals.

Dalton’s 1,600-meter relay team (Farag, Grass, Bennett and Weaver) turned in a 3:26 for the group’s best effort of the season and finish fifth, one spot from qualifying for the finals.

Northwest Whitfield, which got a state-record performance from champion Nate Woodason and a runner-up effort by Jake Bridges in the pole vault on Thursday, was off to a slow start on Friday.

Cameron Griffin ran a solid 15.0-seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, finished seventh and failed to qualify for the finals. In the 300 intermediate hurdles, Griffin was disqualified for a false start.

The Bruins, who were in third place following the first-day events, two points behind co-leaders Marist and Alexander, did not get their 400 relay team into the finals either.

David Jarjoura ran 22.96 and did not qualify in the 200-meter dash. The Bruins’ 1,600-meter relay team posted a 3:28.35 for a seventh-place finish and did not reach the finals.

        

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