MURFREESBORO — Luke Mussard helped Dobyns-Bennett start off the TSSAA Class AAA track and field state meet in record fashion as part of a relay team Thursday at Middle Tennessee State University. He then added a title, all his own. The Indians’ 4x800 relay team of Eamon Ailshie, Caleb Hagood, Gavin Thomas and Luke Mussard set a new meet record of 7:44.
30 to finish ahead of runner-up Hardin Valley at 7:47.44 and Science Hill at 7:54.21.
Mussard added more state gold to his bounty. He ran 4:16.15 in the 1,600 to beat Cleveland’s Owen Clemons by two seconds.
While the Indians weren’t able to defend their 2023 state championship, they finished a strong sixth in the team standings. Brentwood won the boys’ title 96-59 over runner-up Memphis Central and Science Hill was third with 56 points. Dobyns-Bennett Kamerion Marshall was runner-up in the high jump as the Indians scored 41 points as a team.
He cleared 6-feet-4, two inches shy of the winning leap by Ravenwood’s Donovan Starr. Brayden Simpson earned a pair of third-place finishes at 14.51 seconds in the 110 hurdles and 39.
04 in the 300 hurdles. Samantha Degrace cleared 5-feet-4 to place third in the girls’ high jump. Science Hill’s Emmett Watson from Science Hill led the other local efforts.
He won the gold in the boys’ long jump and got the silver in three running events. Watson and Sterling Weldon from Nolensville each finished with a best effort of 23-feet, 4-inches. Watson earned the title on a tiebreaker o.
