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Photo courtesy of Tom Esslinger.
Huskies bring home girls and boys state championship titles Feb. 6 sweeping the Class 7A indoor state meet at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Kelsey Martin competes in the girls 7A triple jump during the AHSAA State Indoor Track meet held at the Birmingham Crossplex on Feb. 6. Martin placed first overall in the competition.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Armoni Goodwin places first in the boys 7A 60-meter dash during the AHSAAState Indoor Track meet held at the Birmingham Crossplex on Feb. 6. Goodwin set a new state record of 6.84 for class 7A.
Hewitt-Trussville High School added to its trophy case in a big way in a six-hour span.
In the school’s history, the indoor track and field program had a single state championship to its name: a girls state title in 1999.
The Huskies brought home two more blue maps to place alongside it on Feb. 6, as they swept the Class 7A indoor state meet at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
“I really had trouble finding the words to even explain it,” said Hewitt-Trussville coach Tom Esslinger, the first-year coach who joined Hewitt-Trussville’s program following many successful runs at Homewood.
The boys and girls meets came down to the final meet, with Hewitt-Trussville prevailing in each. On the boys side, the Huskies finished with 77.5 points to Vestavia Hills’ 73. The girls won by a mere half point, edging Hoover 101-100.5 in a thrilling finish.
The state tournament is typically held over two days at the CrossPlex, but with COVID-19 restrictions, the entire meet was held in the latter part of Feb. 6.
“To come out on top of it is definitely one of the happiest moments of my coaching career,” Esslinger said. “More importantly, they saw all their hard work — starting back in the summer — pay off. It’s surreal. I still can’t even wrap my head around it.”
There were only 7A teams in the building during the meet, and the field events were being scored live as well, meaning that everyone knew where they stood entering the last few events.
“That was exciting,” Esslinger said. “There wasn’t as much time to sit around and think about all these pressure situations. They just happened. It was a lot of fun with it playing out that way.”
The final event of the evening was the 4x400-meter relay, an event no team had run in indoor competition all season. The girls knew they just needed to finish one position behind Hoover to hang on for the title, and that’s exactly what they did. Hoover won the relay, but the Huskies crossed the line in the Bucs’ shadow to finish second and to realize the achievement of their goal.
The boys 4x400 relay team placed fourth, good enough to clinch the title for them as well.
“We made history,” said Julian Collins, who played a big part in helping the boys team bring home the program’s first state title.
Collins brought home a pair of state titles, setting a personal best by jumping 49 feet in the triple jump and reaching 24 feet, 7.25 inches in the long jump, which is a state meet record.
Collins is accustomed to doing the long jump before the triple jump, but he adapted well to the circumstances.
“I came out in triple jump pretty hard and jumped 49 feet, and that was a big PR for me. That kind of carried my momentum throughout the rest of the meet,” said Collins, who also placed fifth in the 60-meter dash.
Kelsey Martin posted a big effort as well, setting personal bests in all three of her individual events. Like Collins, she took home individual state titles in the triple jump and long jump competitions. Martin reached 38-6.75 in the triple jump and 18-4 in the long jump.
Martin was second in the 400-meter dash as well, clocking a 57.3-second time.
“I had never done it in that order before, so I was just focused on one event at a time,” she said.
Hewitt-Trussville had a couple other state champions. Lea Townsend won the girls shot put competition with a throw of 42-3.5. Armoni Goodwin, known mostly for his accolades on the football field, clocked a 6.82 in the 60-meter dash to set a new state meet record.
“To see it play out where they get these accolades and awards, it’s really just the best thing about the job, seeing the result after they worked so hard for it,” Esslinger said.
Four other Huskies earned all-state recognition by finishing in the top three of their individual meets at state. In the boys shot put, Tanveer Raza and Jacob Copham finished second and third, respectively. Maci Mills earned the distinction in two separate events, placing second in the 1,600 and third in the 800. Sophia Knox came home second in the 3,200.
Also scoring points for the Huskies were Brianna Beckham (60 and 400), Tori Mack (60 hurdles), Bobby Stanbery (60 hurdles and 400), Avery Cahoon (800), Jacob Jones (800), Nathan Knox (1,600), Mitchell Phillips (3,200), Andrew Colburn (high jump), Sydney White (high jump), Cameron Smith (pole vault) and Erika Myrick (shot put).
The girls 4x200 and 4x800 relay teams were also second, along with the 4x400. The boys finished third in the 4x200 and 4x800 as well.
Jailah Loving, Ethan Womack, Wil Edwards, Amelia Brady and Peyton Sanders also competed for Hewitt.
In Esslinger’s first year in charge of the Hewitt-Trussville program, he led the Huskies to bring home multiple state titles in the same day. Collins and Martin agreed that in what is, in many respects, an individual sport, Esslinger emphasizes the team dynamic.
“He’s brought the team together and made us see that we could do this and we pulled it off,” Collins said.
The Huskies are now looking ahead to the outdoor track and field season, which was set to kick off the last weekend of February. Martin is among those eager to get sized for a state ring, but she’s not satisfied just yet.
“I want the trophy again,” she said.
