Junior Caroline Haupt qualified for the Georgia High School Association Track and Field State Championship in Albany, where she will be joined by Purple Hurricanes teammate Lindsay Anderson.
Haupt ran a 15.37-second race, a personal record, to win the 100-meter hurdles and came in second in the 300 hurdles with a 48.60. Anderson won the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 25 seconds and ran a 5:45 in the 1,600 for fourth place -- two spots away from another state berth.
Haupt had experienced some unfortunate happenings in her past two quests to qualify for the state meet.
"She's had two bad years [of] luck. The first year, she was second in the 100 hurdles up until the last hurdle, and she tripped over it and fell," Cartersville coach Rusty Grimmett recalled. "Last year, when she was a sophomore, she stepped on a hurdle [during warm-ups] and twisted her ankle, and it swelled up big as a balloon and she didn't get to run."
Grimmett said Haupt had as good of a chance her first two years to qualify as she did this season.
"This year every thing came together, and she was able to run a good time," he continued.
Anderson, who plays soccer and runs track during the spring, has been running consistently for nearly two weeks and could knock a few seconds from her time.
"She's been done with soccer for probably about 10 days now and she's got some good training in and [worked on] some faster stuff, and she's dropped her time by about five seconds," Grimmett said. "Maybe we can get her down into the low 2:20s."
The GHSA girls state track meet is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday in Albany.