Post Season Basketball Awards
Following a stellar 25-5 season for the Ware County girls basketball team of coach Mandy Lingenfelter, the postseason accolades piled up. Junior Shondell Vickers was selected to the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s All-State girls team for South AAAAA. Junior Arviniece McDonald was selected as an alternate. Vickers will also play in the junior all-star game on April 1 at Brunswick High School. Lingenfelter was selected to be the head coach of the South AAAAA All-Star team.
Vickers was also named to the All-Region 2-AAAAA first team with sophomore Mataea Boyd. Lady Gators senior Kennedy Sanders was named to the second team.
Baseball
Coach Tony Yeomans’ Gators baseball team faced strong competition this year during a tough season. Despite wins over Glynn Academy, Appling, and Brantley, Ware fell on hard times on the diamond until they started region play against Statesboro. The Gators swept three games from the Blue Devils with shutouts in two of the games.
All Ware County baseball games are broadcast live on the radio. You can listen to all the Gators baseball action with legendary coach James Conley and In the Game SEGA publisher Shawn Smoak on WWUF, 97.7 The Wolf.
Track and Field
At the Seventh Annual Swamp Relays held at Ware County High School on March 11, coach Alesia Gibson’s girls track team fared well. Arviniece McDonald took second in the girls 100-meter and third in the 200. The Lady Gators also took second in the 4×400-meter relay and third in the 4×100 relay. In the field events, Tyteyannah Bailey took second in the long jump, while senior Traveshia Birden took third in the discus.
For the boys, Matthew Hamilton took second in the 800, Logan Millard took second in the 3,200, and the boys relay teams took second in the 4×400 and third in the 4×200.
In the field events, Tre Cobb won the discus with Jordan Howell finishing second. Austin Sweat took second in the pole vault for the Gators.
Ware County will host the Region 2-AAAAA track meet in mid-April with the state tournament scheduled for May 11 at Carrollton High School.
In an 11-team home meet a few days after the Swamp Relays, the Gators boys finished first, and the Lady Gators took second behind Jeff Davis County.
Among the top finishers for the Gators were the No. 1 4×100 relay team of Bailey, Mataea Boyd, Demya Gibson, and McDonald. McDonald finished second in the 200; Chyna Bacon was second in the 300-meter hurdles; Bailey finished second in the long jump; Hannah Boggan was second in the pole vault; Bre Etheridge was third in the triple jump; Kayla Youngblood finished third in the 1,600; and the 4×400 relay team of Bacon, Gibson, Shanya Washington, and Youngblood finished third.
For the Gators boys, Tre Cobb won the discus, while Howell finished second. Austin Sweat won the pole vault followed by Hudson Spurlock and Kooper Thomas. Logan Millard was first in the 3,200 and second in the 1,600. In the 400, Sharod Cobb took first with Shaquan Bellamy finishing third. Sharod Cobb also won the 300, and Alex Sayles was second in the 200.
The meet included teams from Berrien County, Brunswick, Coffee County, Colquitt County, Glynn Academy, Pierce County, Jeff Davis, McIntosh County Academy, Lanier County, and Valdosta.
SE-SF-0417-Ware
By Rob Asbell
Photos courtesy of WCHS
