By Greg Oshust
Marietta Daily Journal Sports Writer
MARIETTA - McEachern's LaCresha Styles came away with a pair of gold medals in the sprinting events on the final day of the Georgia Games youth track and field championships at Marietta High School.
Styles, a rising junior at McEachern, won the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash in the Intermediate Girls division.
Styles, who is competing for the Titans track club of Marietta, led from start to finish in the Intermediate Girls 100 and crossed the finish line with a personal-best time of 11.85 seconds, equaling the time she ran June 14 at the USATF Georgia Association Junior Olympics and an improvement over the 12.15 she ran when she finished first in the preliminaries Friday.
Finishing second behind Styles was Pebblebrook's Alisha Murray, competing for the SACA track club, who finished with a time of 12.43.
"I felt a lot better than (Friday)," Styles said. "I had a really, really good start and I was able to keep my top speed."
Styles was also dominant in the 200 as won with a time of 24.74 and finished nearly three seconds ahead of runner-up Carrika Boyd of the Middle Georgia track club (27.54).
South Cobb's Ashley Harris was another multiple-event winner as she won both the 100 and 200 in the Young Women division.
Harris won the Young Women 100 with a time of 12.18, with Victoria Jackson of SACA finishing second (12.33) and clinched the 200 with a time of 25.21 to edge out runner-up India Tate of SACA (25.73).
Murray won the Intermediate Girls 400 with a time of 59.25, finishing over two seconds ahead of Campbell's Jasmine Blount (1:01.85).
Lassiter's Julienne McKee was the only other Cobb high school standout to win an event, winning the Intermediate Girls triple jump with a jump of 35 feet, 11 inches.
It was also a good day for former Marietta sprinter Marcus Potter, who finished second in both the 100 and 200 in the Young Men division.
Potter, who was competing for the Titans, narrowly missed a win in the 100 as he overcame a false start and crossed the finish line with a time of 11.00, only four-hundredths of a second behind Hughston Taylor of the Southside Pioneers (10.96).
"I felt good, but I had a false start, but I got off to a good start on my second try," said Potter, who is a rising sophomore at Shorter College in Rome.
Finishing behind Potter in third place was his former Marietta and current Titans teammate Brent Phillip, a rising senior at Marietta, who posted a time of 11.03.
"I wish I had gotten off to a faster start, because I don't have a strong finish, but I felt pretty good and I tried to do what I could," Phillip said.
Former Pope standout Zandi DeBowles of the Titans finished second in the Young Women 400 with a time of 59.88, finishing behind Dminia Stokes of SACA (58.74).
Lassiter's Alexandria McKee finished third in the Intermediate Girls 100 hurdles (15.90), while Pope's Will Johnson placed third in the Young Men 110 hurdles (15.58).
goshust@mdjonline.com
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