After winning one event and finishing last in two others during the first five events Monday, the three-sport Bear standout claimed his second top finish in Tuesday’s final five events at the Middle Tennessee State University track.
Coming into the state meet with the third best qualifying score, Stovall was in 11th place after the first half of the competition. With better results Tuesday, he was able to move up a couple of spots and finished the 10-event battle in ninth place.
The 6-foot-4 Stovall, who won the triple jump on Monday, claimed the high jump honors Tuesday with a leap of 6-feet, 2 inches. He also finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 38-feet, 4.25 inches. The versatile Bear took seventh in both the long jump and 110-meter hurdles, but was 11th in the 1500-meter run.
His final score of 5,471 was 221 points shy of his qualifying score and put him eight points shy of eighth place in the final standings.
Brentwood junior Jake Lazas ran away with the state title with a 6,865 total, while his sophomore teammate, Eric Hoff, took second at 6,293.
Ooltewah’s Randall Freeman brought home a fourth place finish with 6,005 points.
Stovall will now turn his attention to the State Track Meet which begins Thursday and in which he and five Bear teammates will be going for the gold in seven events.
Along with Bradley football teammates Rue Goldston, Justin Houston and Steven Dodd, Stovall will be a part of the Bear 4x100 and 4x200-meter relay teams that will run preliminary races Thursday in order to qualify for Friday’s finals.
Stovall will also compete in the state triple jump and high jump competitions.
Kyle Baltimore will represent Bradley in the pole vault event, plus is a member of the state qualifying 4-800-meter relay team along with Jake Curtis, Akeem Humphrey and Harold Smith Jr. Keith Cooper will wear the Black-and-Gold in the 400-meter dash.
Walker Valley’s Bradley Davis is the top qualifier in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.58, just eight one-hundreds of a second off the state record.
Davis and Dodd will also run in the 200m dash Thursday, while Mustang Patrick Shultz will race in the 3200-meter run Friday morning.
The Girls State Meet will open this evening with a half dozen local young ladies participating.
Cleveland High has a pair of relay teams in the 4x100 and 4x200. Atarah Abdullah-Muhammad, Hayley Haas, Marissa Langford and Qetuwrah Abdullah-Muhammad team up for the 4x100, while Hope Haas slides into Langford’s spot for the 4x200.
Langford will also go after the 400-meter dash title, while Qetuwrah Abdullah-Muhammad will run in the 100m. Walker Valley’s Brianna Prugh qualified for the 800-meter run.
The girls’ finals are set for Thursday.
