By Gary Corsair
Sports Editor
The fast and furious starring sprinters Brett Hanna and Elio Murillo opened to rave reviews as Hayesville won both the boys and girls multi-team track and field meet at Andrews last week.
Hanna and Murillo, aka the Blur Brothers, served notice that Hayesville track and field will be a must-watch spectator sport this spring with sizzling performances as the Yellow Jacket boys racked up 213 points to easily top Andrews, 143, and Smoky Mountain, 99.
Hanna and Murillo literally finished neck-and-neck with identical times of :22.72 in the 200-meter dash to share first place and break the school record of :22.71 set by Brian Smith in 2016.
The 100-meter dash was nearly as thrilling, as Murillo zipped to a :11:10 blue ribbon with Hanna hot on his heels at :11.15.
Hanna capped his 27-point day by winning the 400-meter dash in :53.12.
Speaking of speed, Hayesville practically owned the 100-meter dash with Murillo, Hanna and Tre Graves finishing first, second, third and Mason Ray placing sixth.
Jack Dorsey also had a big day for Hayesville. He won the 100-meter hurdles, :17.62 and 300-meter hurdles, :46.52.
Hayesville’s boys also had first place finishes from Noah Carter in the 1600-meter run, 4:57.62, and 4x800-meter relay, Eli Cheeks in the 800, 2:12.21, and 4x800 relay, shot putter E.J. Mapasua, 47’ 11”, and the 4x400 relay team of Ethan Beechum, Josue Salas, Tre Graves and Mason Ray, 4:03.10. Braylen Thompson and Porter Hood were victors in the 4x800 relay.
The girls meet was closer, as the Lady Yellow Jackets totaled 133.5 points to top challengers Andrews, 109, Smoky Mountain, 106, and Swain, 106.
Ava Shook led the winners with blue ribbons in the 400-meter dash, 1:03.42, high jump, 4’ 8”, and two relays - the 4x400 and 4x800.
Teammate Savannah Burch also scored triple blues by winning the 800-meter run in 2:41.71, anchoring the 4x800 relay and running the first leg of the 4x400 relay.
Burch and Shook joined Marlo Joyce and Micalynn McClure in taking the 4x400 relay with a time of 4:40.92.
Joyce teamed with Skylar Lockaby, LaRiyah Carr and Libbie Moore to taking second in the 4x200-meter relay.
The girls dominated the 300-meter hurdles with 18 points with runner-up Marlo Joyce, Eva Jones taking third and Khylei Alberta finishing fourth.
“We are really proud of how both teams performed last week at the meet,” Hayesville Coach Amy Trout stated. “The temperature was pretty cool so the conditions were not optimal but they still performed at a high level. We even had two really hard-working athletes that broke a 10 year old record.”
Hayesville’s boys also scored points in:
• 100-meter hurdles - Daxon Bruggers sixth.
• 100-meter dash - Tre Graves, third and Mason Ray, sixth.
• 200-meter dash - Mason Ray, third and Tre Graves, fourth.
• 400-meter run - Ethan Beechum, second and Josue Salas, fifth.
• 1600-meter run - Porter Hood.
• 4x100-meter relay - Team, sixth.
• 300-meter hurdles - Jake Armstrong, sixth.
• 800-meter run - Hayden Hunt, fifth.
• Discus - Landon Trout, third and E.J. Mapasua, fourth.
• Long jump - Tre Graves, third; Daxon Bruggers, fifth and Jameson Dawson, sixth.
• Shot put - Landon Trout, third and Robert Gorham, sixth.
• Triple jump - Eli Cheeks, second; Jameson Dawson, fourth and Donovin Soto, sixth.
• High jump - Donovin Soto, third.
Hayesville’s girls also scored points in:
• 100-meter dash - Skylar Lockaby, third and LaRiyah Carr, sixth.
• 100-meter hurdles - Khylei Alberta, fifth and Eva Jones, sixth.
• 300-meter hurdles - Marlo Joyce, second; Eva Jones, third and Khylei Alberta, fourth.
• 400-meter dash - Libbie Moore, fourth.
• 200-meter dash – Libbie Moore, second; LaRiyah Carr, fourth and Skylar Lockaby, fifth.
• 4x100-meter relay - Libbie Moore, LaRiyah Carr, Khylei Alberta and Skylar Lockaby, fourth.
• 4x200-meter relay - Skylar Lockaby, LaRiyah Carr, Marlo Joyce and Libbie Moore, second.
• 800-meter run - Raelyn Wood, fourth.
• Discus - Jasmine Brooks, sixth.
• Long jump - Lucy Trout, third.
• Triple jump - Lucy Trout, third.
• High jump - Ellie Black, fourth.
Hayesville’s track team competes at Robbinsville at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26.