ATHENS, GA - The GHSA State Track Meet can be long day for athletes that qualify for multiple events.  The day started for freshman Emma Dobson, the anchor leg of our 4x800m relay team, by arriving at the track at 7:30am to check in and warm up for a 9:00am start. She then had to wait until 4:20pm for her chance at the 800m final and 5:45pm for the 3200m finals.  That can be a lot of downtime to think about your next race, but it was a welcomed recovery period compared to the 15 minutes she had between the events at Sectionals. In the girls 800m finals, Emma was seeded 9th and it hasn't been her strongest event at all this season.  Fighting a chaotic start of 16 girls, Emma found herself in 11th after the first lap, but a late surge in the last 350 meters put her on the podium with a 5th place finish of 2:22.97 which is a PR and breaks the school record set by Megan Dew in 2016. Following the race and medal ceremony, Emma returned to the team tent to try and ...

  ATHENS, GA - This is it.  The State Track Finals are here and this year we are running on the brand new Spec Towns Track at the University of Georgia.  This state of the art facility just opened for competition a month ago and the first major competition comes in the form of the 2026 GHSA State Track & Field meet.  These athletes have been pushing their limits since the season opened in February, and for the distance runners, they have been training since XC season ended in November.  Of all the Chestatee athletes that saw competition this year, only 5 qualified for the State Finals, and all 5 of them are Lady War Eagles. The first to qualify was our 4x800m relay team, which was on the radar ever since finishing their first meet within 10 seconds of a school record that had been untouched since 2014.  Despite setbacks of inconsistent weather, illness, and injury, these girls kept at it and finally broke the school record at 6-3A Regionals while qualif...

  JEFFERSON, GA - The GHSA 3A Sectional B Meet took place on May 2.  The day started cool and overcast, but the sun would come out in bursts throughout the afternoon to heat up the track and then go into hiding.  What was supposed to be a one-day meet turned into a two-day meet with GHSA moving the field events to Friday due to the threat of inclement weather in the morning of May 2.  All of the running events stayed as planned, starting at 2:30pm with the 800 relay. Last week at the 3A-6 Regional Meet there were 6 relay teams looking to qualify in 4 spots.  Today, there were 16 teams looking to advance to the State Meet in one of 8 spots...all at the same time.  That's right, there was no multiple heats.  All sixteen relay teams ran the same race, on the same track, at the same time...and the Chestatee girls did not disappoint!  Freshman Bella McClenathen ran the lead leg, Junior Crystal Vaca ran the second leg, and Senior Kayleigh McBride ran th...

  CLEVELAND, GA - While bright sunshine was just as prevalent on Day 2 as it was on Day 1, there was a drastic increase in temperature.  Those scanning the surface above the track could see the heat rising as the clouds in the distance offered no relief from the blazing sun.  In Day 2 of competition, the Chestatee distance team had a number of runners in the 1600m and only Emma Dobson qualifying for the 800m final for the War Eagles. In the girls 1600m, Emma Dobson got off to a slow start as 3 runners immediately made a push to the front and to start pulling away from the group.  After falling back a few spots, Dobson was never able to make a strong push back towards the front with an aggressive effort from North Hall and White County runners and she finished 6th with a 5:32.19 and will likely not advance to the 1600m Sectionals as the 2nd alternate.  Junior Leilani Moreno ran in the first heat and finished overall in 11th with a PR of 6:06.69.  Senior Kayl...

  CLEVELAND, GA - It has been 12 years since a Chestatee girls team set a school record in the 4x800m.  Breaking that record was an immediate goal tasked to this team from the moment they ran their first race together earlier this season.  After coming within a second of the record, sickness and absences sidelined the goal...until today.  While competing in the 3A-6 Regional finals, Isabella McClenathen, Crystal Vaca, Kayleigh McBride, and anchor leg Emma Dobson etched their names into the Chestatee record book by finishing 3rd with a 10:30.38, beating the 2014 record by almost 9 seconds. The girls seemed more excited about breaking the record than realizing that their team also qualified to compete at Sectionals next week at Jefferson High School.  The girls were given their splits and they went to work.  Freshman Isabella McClenathen and Junior Crystal Vaca were steady and were under their pace time to allow Senior Kayleigh McBride and Freshman Emma Dobso...

  BOGART, GA - It was a hot, humid, and sunny day for the George's Low Country Table Invitational at North Oconee High School.  The only place to escape the blazing sun was under the bleachers as athletes were forced to compete in the warmest meet of this season.  Because of the heat, there were no significant PRs as the track was running slow, but we did see some good things out of the meet. Freshman Emma Dobson led the distance girls with a 1st place finish in the 1600m with a season best time of 5:25.59.  Fellow freshmen Isabella McClenathen finished in 8th with a 6:09.05 and Ximena Garcia completed her first 800m distance in her career in 23rd with a 9:25.31. In the boys 1600m, Andrew Laborde led the team with a 24th place finish with a time of 6:04.17.  Miguel Valdez finished in 26th with a 6:07.92 and Brayden Keller finished next in line in 27th with a 6:58.83. The other shining moment of the meet came in the girls 4x800 relay when the Lady War Eagles (McC...