Campbell Track Teams Eye County Championships

The Cobb County track and field championships get underway Saturday morning at Walton High with both the boys and girls possessing realistic shots of bringing home first place trophies.

The Spartans, led by sprinter Corey Ashbourne and hurdler Trey Fluellen, will need a big effort to get past heavyweights Walton and Pope, while McEachern, Kell and Marietta will also field strong units. Kelli Hardnett and Monti Willis pace the Lady Spartans, who will face big challenges from both Wheeler and McEachern.

The field event preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. with the running event preliminaries following in the afternoon. The finals will begin at 5 p.m. on Monday.

Mike McCloud is in his 18th year as the boys head coach while girls head coach Kyle Turner is in his 10th season with the program. Both teams finished second at last weekend’s Stephenson Invitational Relays in Stone Mountain.

Taking individual first place honors were Ashbourne (400 meters), Fluellen (110 meter high hurdles), Hardnett (long jump) and Willis (100 meter hurdles), while the boys 4x100 relay team of Arviel Jenkins, Qadeem Salaam, Davier Brewster and Fluellen also took top honors.

On the diamond, the young Campbell team with just three seniors is showing promise. After winning a mere two games last spring while playing in a Region 6-AAAAA filled with East Cobb powers, the Spartans are happy to be back in Region 4-AAAAA this season.

The team won three of its first five games in 2011 and split its first 10 non-region games this season. The start of region play this past week was somewhat sluggish with a pair of losses to Kennesaw Mountain and Harrison prior to Friday’s scheduled game against Hillgrove.

“We’re looking to establish ourselves and build,’’ said fifth-year coach Ron Wendt. “There’s definitely a good future in front of us.''

In this past week’s 15-5 win over Whitefield Academy, T.J. Whitt went 3-for-3 at the plate with a double, while Alex Jardine, Austin Green and Cory Hawkins also had multiple hits in the win.

Things are also looking up for the girls tennis team, which had scored wins this week over Pebblebrook (5-0), North Cobb (4-1) and McEachern (5-0) prior to Friday’s match versus Hillgrove.

Coach Jennifer Sandlin’s team won four of its first six matches, which marked the best start in school history.

In other Campbell on-field action, the girls soccer team recently scored a 6-0 victory over Pebblebrook with goals coming from Jemila Mitchell, Jeri Wheeler and Anika Mitchell.

The boys lacrosse team registered a recent 8-4 win over South Cobb as Micah Hayden tallied five goals and Jamez Taylor added two. Alex Cooke was solid in goal in the victory.

Finally on the links, Vitthal Parker has scored the low nine-hole golf round of the season for CHS with a score of 39.