Pike County well at State

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

The Pike County track team went to the state competition on the campus of the University of Alabama over the weekend and was able to return with two bronze medals four their trouble.

Junior Sam Diggs and sophomore Eric Gosha both took third in their respective events. Diggs scored a 6-foot-1 leap in the high jump that was good enough for third place and Gosha improved his first-place sectional long jump to 21-feet, nine inches for the bronze as well.

Both athletes seemed happy to be at the meet and savored the chance to be around some of the best high school athletes in the state and country.

"It was fun being around a lot of people in the track community," Diggs said. "I just feel like it was a great privileged for us to come out of there with medals.

"A lot of people didn’t even know where Pike County was, so I was proud we took something back with us," he continued. "Daleville and some of the other small towns from around here, we all stuck together. It was great overall."

"It was fun because when we got through running or competing you got to talk to a lot of people," Gosha said. "We liked to lounge with all those track folks."

Neither trackster had it easy in their event. Gosha, scratched on his first two attempts and had to lay it all on the line in his final jump. The sophomore came through with flying colors however notching his longest.

Diggs was simply impressed with the level of competition in front of him. The winner of the Class 4A gold medal jumped an astounding 6-11 and broke the state record in the event.

"I hadn’t ever seen anyone jump that high," Diggs said. "I got nervous and thought everyone was going to be jumping that high, but I just tried my best and got the third."

Diggs and Gosha were also members of the PCHS 4 X 100 relay team that missed medaling my less than a tenth of a second as Lawrence County edged a very fast field out by a hair for the gold. Pike County scored a 44.35 in the event as Diggs and Gosha were joined by Anthony Davis and Kevin Marshall in the heat. All members are underclassmen and will be able to compete again next year.