Independence’s Tang, Summit’s Miller post top finishes at Class AAA state meet – Main Street Media of Tennessee
Sarah Tang rewarded her coach’s faith Thursday, as the Independence thrower closed out her high school track and field career with a pair of top-three finishes at the Class AAA state meet at MTSU’s Dean Hayes Stadium.
Tang’s first shot put attempt was good enough to get her into the finals, and her last earned third place, before she finished second in the discus.
“She usually builds,” Independence coach Megan Hardin said regarding the Alabama-Huntsville signee, who cranked out a 36-foot, 6-inch effort to open the competition but came up short of that mark in her next two attempts. “I absolutely had confidence. I knew it was coming.”
Throwing in the second flight of the field of 16 competitors, Tang moved into the final nine on the basis of that throw – then popped a 37-11¼ on her final try to secure the No. 3 spot on the medal stand.
“She’s so mentally tough,” Hardin said. “She knows what she has to do. She knows her skills, her craft. She was zoning. You knew her big one was coming.”
Tang knew, too.
“I knew I had one better in me. Once I got to the finals, I had to mentally be in the right place,” she said. “I was trying to make that last throw the best throw.”
After finishing behind Jefferson County’s Elissa Longmire (40-0) and Maryville’s Ashley Parrish (38-8) in the shot put, Tang’s 117-5 in the discus left her trailing only Longmire, who finished with a 132-5 effort.
The two medals give Tang six for her career, as she placed sixth in the discus and eighth in the shot last year to follow a sophomore year during which she placed second in the shot and seventh in the discus.
“Last year, the weather was lousy,” she said. “Coming back this year was a good way for me to finish my career.”
Summit junior Abby Miller (left) battled White Station’s Khari Webb to the wire during Thursday’s Class AAA 300-meter hurdles, with Webb getting the win by one-tenth of a second. CHRISTINA MOORE / ROBERTSON COUNTY CONNECTION
• Summit junior Abby Miller finished second in the 300-meter hurdles Thursday, running a 43.52-second time that was just off the 43.41 winning time of White Station’s Khari Webb but more than a second ahead of Memphis Central’s Denver Winters (44.65). Miller took more than a second off her Section 3 championship effort of 44.89 in her latest run.
