By Greg Oshust

goshust@mdjonline.com

POWDER SPRINGS - Marietta took a step towards a third consecutive region title as it took the lead in the team standings after the first day of the Region 5AAAAA boys track and field championships Tuesday at McEachern.

After four events, with finals held in the high jump, long jump, discus and 1,600-meter run, Marietta scored 41 points to take a 19-point lead over second-place Etowah (22), while Cherokee was third (19).

The meet began a day late after it was rained out Monday.

The Blue Devils got a big boost from wins by Shakon Fleming in the high jump and John Cox in the long jump, as well as a second-place finish from Andrew Nelson in the 1,600 run.

"After four events, we have a nice little cushion," Marietta coach Nick Houstoulakis said. "All the signs are good for us."

Host McEachern (18) was fourth, followed by North Cobb (16), East Paulding (15), Woodstock (10), Kennesaw Mountain (9), South Cobb (5) and Harrison (1).

The top two finishers in each event qualify for the state meet May 13-15 in Jefferson.

Fleming was one of the athletes who punched his ticket for Jefferson with his win in the high jump. The junior and Etowah's Brandon Goodman both jumped 6 feet, 4 inches, but Fleming was awarded the region title on a tiebreaker based on the fewer number of jumps missed.

Cox will join teammate Fleming at the state meet after winning the long jump with a jump of 21-6 , only three-quarters of an inch ahead of the runner-up, Kennesaw Mountain's Randy Perryman (21-6).

North Cobb's Alec Clifford was the only other local winner in the 3,200 run. He ran a time of 4 minutes, 23.02 seconds to finish ahead of Nelson (4:23.37).

East Paulding's Caleb Whitener was the winner of the discus, claiming the event with a throw of 155-11 , ahead of McEachern's Tarik Milner (153-5).

While Marietta is currently atop the team standings, McEachern is lurking right behind the Blue Devils after a sensational performance in the running event preliminaries positioned the Indians for a strong run at the title.

McEachern finished first in five of the seven running event prelims, with the Indians qualifying two athletes in five events.

"We hope to get a lot of points in the running events and a few points in the remaining field events," McEachern coach Phil Hoskins said. "We're in very good shape. We'll see what happens (today)."

But Marietta is still in good shape itself going into the running event finals, with the Blue Devils qualifying two athletes in five of the seven prelims.

"McEachern is going to be very tough, but we have a lot of guys qualified in the running events, so we are in good shape," Houstoulakis said. "It's going to be very close at the end."

McEachern's winners in the running event prelims included Cornelius Savage in the 110 hurdles (14.59) and 300 hurdles (38.35), Jaron Roberson in the 400 (49.42), Mallory Richardson in the 200 (21.97) and the Indians' 400 relay (41.88).

Other top qualifiers were Marietta's Charles Francois in the 100 (10.66) and North Cobb's Clifford (1:59.85).

The region meet will conclude today with the running event finals, as well as finals in the three remaining field events: shot put, triple jump and pole vault.