Zy Edwards couldn’t believe what she was watching.
She saw Kenzie Henderson come from 50 meters behind and sprint past a competitor in the third leg of the 4x400-meter relay final at the Class A Division I meet on Saturday. And then she watched Sydnie Henderson take the baton and run past another runner on her way to winning the race.
“When I saw Kenzie pass that girl, I was like, ‘Dang’ because I’ve seen Kenzie run fast, but not that fast,” Edwards said. “And when Kenzie passed the baton to (Sydnie) and (Sydnie) got to the last 100 meters, I basically said, ‘It’s over with.’”
Oglethorpe County’s 4x400 relay team won with a school-record 4:02 to propel the girls track team to its third state title in four years. The Lady Patriots scored 81 points to defeat Bleckley County, which finished with 74, to join the 2021 and 2022 teams with state titles.
“That is gratifying as a coach to see your kids perform at the highest level and then to see a lot of kids around them not, makes me feel gratified, but it makes me also appreciate my kids so much,” OCHS coach Tim Stoudenmire said.
The victory means that Stoudenmire and his wife Penni, who serves as the assistant coach, will retire on a high. They’ve already said they won’t return as coaches next year.
“It feels really amazing that I could get one more state championship with Coach Penni and Coach Stoud in their last year,” Kenzie Henderson said.
The 4x400-meter team’s performance capped a stellar weekend for the Lady Patriots, who qualified only eight athletes for the state meet.
Denim Goddard won the triple and the long jumps for the second consecutive year, setting a personal best of 19-02.25 in the long jump final.
She then took an official visit to Austin Peay and missed OCHS’ spring awards ceremony, where she was honored as the Lady Patriots’ Most Outstanding Performer on Monday night.
Kenzie Henderson won the high jump for the third consecutive year and Zy Edwards set a school record with a throw of 40-01 to win the shot put by 2 feet over the second-place finisher.
“I just prayed. I’ve been praying that I could throw 40,” Edwards said. “I felt it in myself that I had it in me, and after my last throw, I came out and found out I did break a school record. I worked really hard to get this far. I just wanted to make my coaches proud.”
The Lady Patriots needed all the points they could gather to surpass Bleckley County, which entered the meet as the favorite. But one of Bleckley County’s relay teams dropped the baton and didn’t finish the race, costing the Lady Royals valuable points.
“We followed them like hawks all year long, and track meets are not won on paper, they’re won on the track, and we felt like all year long that they had more quality points in a state meet setting than we did,” Stoudenmire said. “We did the math going into it and we knew that we had a chance, but we knew that we would need a break and we knew that we were going to have to overperform.”
Stoudenmire looked back on Monday at the past five years and discussed how he thought the 2020 team could’ve won state if COVID-19 hadn’t canceled the season. And he talked about last year’s state meet, when a rules violation cost the Lady Patriots another title.
“Last year was really hard, really humbling, but it gave us a little edge and made us work harder this year,” senior Abby Jones said.
Track dynasty
OCHS girls track has dominated Class AA and Class A Division I since 2019.
- 2019 — Class AA state runnerup
- 2020 — Season canceled (COVID-19)
- 2021 — Class AA state champ
- 2022 — Class AA state champ
- 2023 — Class A Div. I state runnerup
- 2024 — Class A Div. I state champ
OCHS state finishes
- Denim Goddard — state champ in triple, long jumps
- Kenzie Henderson — state champ in high jump, fourth in 300 hurdles
- Zy Edwards — state champ in shot put
- Abby Jones — 11th in discus
- Sydnie Henderson — second in both 400 and 800 meters
- 4x100 relay team (Goddard, Carlee Appling, Kenzie Henderson, Karman Bermudez) — fifth place
- 4x200 relay team (Goddard, Bermudez, Sydnie Henderson, Appling) — third place
- 4x400 relay team (Bermudez, Appling, Sydnie Henderson, Kenzie Henderson) — state champ