While the indoor track season is still young, Baldwin County athletes are already making plenty of noise in all three phases of the sport and a handful set school records at the Holiday Invitational in Birmingham last weekend.

Foley’s Destiny Roper secured the school’s 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdle records, the Daphne men’s 4x400-meter team ran the school’s best time and Gulf Shores’ Lydia Reno registered the school’s longest shot put.

Altogether, the Lions had six school records fall last Saturday, Daphne secured four more records after four were broken at the previous week’s meet and Gulf Shores broke one according to school records on athletic.net.

Foley sets six records Saturday

On top of setting the school record in the 4x400-meter relay at 4:04.78, Aliyah Williams, Hope Collins, Jaylin Mitchell and Zi'morah Foster not only won their heat by 11.32 seconds but also recorded the fifth-fastest time in the nation to that point. The Lions’ previous best time was set in 2019 at 4:13.22.

Also on the track, Roper got out of the gates hot and set two school records in sprinting events. Her 60-meter dash time of 7.90 seconds broke Foster’s record set last year by 0.07 seconds and her hurdles time of 9.59 bested Amari Pickens’ previous record set in 2020 by 0.16 seconds.

In the field events, Foster’s best distance of 16’ 8” improved the long jump school record by seven inches after she broke Chloe Cesario’s previous record set in 2021. Last year as an eighth grader, Foster finished third at the outdoor track state championships.

Wolf smashes shot put record by three and a half feet

In the shot put circle, Emily Wolf was joined in taking down Foley’s previous best shot put. Wolf’s best throw of 36’ 4”, as well as Vivian Jones’ shot put of 33’ 3’, topped Shennell Kepple’s best mark of 32’ 10” from last year. Before that, Zaria Woodyard had held the shot put school record since 2018 at 29’ 6.75”.

Wolf, Jones and Kepple were all part of the Lions’ outdoor track team that racked up the most points in any meet across the state last spring.

Also in the relay realm, Foley’s 4x200-meter relay team broke the school’s best time, set just last year, by 0.85 seconds and crossed the finish line in 1:47.70.

Reno records Gulf Shores’ best shot put

The Dolphins’ previous longest shot put of 28’ 7.25” had stood as the school record since 2019 but Reno pulled out a 29’ 7.5” shot put to own the record herself.

Reno’s 12th-place finish was one of six top-25 finishes from Gulf Shores athletes last Saturday where Abigail Chamblin finished 23rd in the shot put with a best distance of 26’ 9.75”. Morgan McCartney and Lily Zlab tied for 11th in the high jump with a clearance of 4’ 8” and Daniel Foster finished 24th in the men’s shot put with a best hurl of 37’ 6.5”.

Daphne brings home four more school records

Through the first two meets of the season, the Trojans have set four school records in each competition where two came in running events, one in a field event and one in a relay last Saturday.

After the 400-meter dash record was broken by both Haile Moorer and Tiyana Richardson at the Magic City Invitational Dec. 2, Kamorya Johnson took a leg up with a time of 1:04.70 for a 2.89-second improvement on the school record.

Similarly in the 800-meter run, Isobella Lord and Annaleigh Miller recorded the second- and third-best times in school history at the Dec. 2 meet before Emily Walstad staked claim to the school record with a time of 2:45.44 for an eight-second improvement.

Gibbs sets one record, inches closer to another

Kennedi Gibbs’ triple jump of 31’ 3.25” set the bar as Daphne’s school record last Saturday and she also recorded the school’s second-best long jump at 13’ 4.25”, just an inch shy of the school record set last season.

The Trojan men’s 4x400-meter relay team improved on the previous school record set last season by more than 10 seconds and finished 20th overall at the Holiday Invitational. Daphne’s squad crossed the finish line in 3:56.15 to best the previous record of 4:07.39.

At the previous week’s meet, the girls’ 4x200-meter relay (1:55.34) and 4x400-meter relay (4:49.43) teams set records, Moorer ran the school’s fastest 60-meter dash time (8.48) and Thomas Walding did the same in the 3200-meter run (11:00.88).