BIRMINGHAM- The opening month of the indoor track season was a good one for the James Clemens track team placing well in three big events on the 2021-2022 season to race through the recent holidays. The Jets saw action in both the Magic City Invitational and Holiday Invitational held in December and a kickoff to 2022 in the annual Icebreaker Invitational the first week of January. All three events were held at the CrossPlex in Birmingham.

In the early December Magic City Invitational the Jets showcased their talents with three third place finishes. In girls, Tramani Osley took the bronze medal in the long jump (15-feet, 8-inches). She also had a non-medal fourth place finish in the triple jump (33-04.75). In boys, Chad Coulter posted a time of 7.07-seconds to claim the bronze in the 60-meter dash. Jaylen Drake, currently ranked third in Class 7A in the shot put, took third in the vent with a throw of 49-08.

In the Holiday Invitational held in mid-December, the Jets were shutout of medals, but some superb performances were presented by the Jets, which included Dylan Dryer a fourth place finish in the 800-meter (1:59.76) and a near-medal effort by Jaylen Drake in the shot put (49-00).

As for the early January Icebreaker Invitational, which featured 148 teams and 2,502 athletes, new school records in both relay and individual events were posted by the Jets, some of which came from the cross country participants last fall for James Clemens. Despite just missing out on a medal winning performance, the 4×800 relay squad (Dylan Dryer, John Luke Stovall, Cole Robinson and Brexton Hathawy) set a new school record (8:18.43). Medal winners included Kayla Willett in the girls 3200-meter with a time of 11:5107 for the gold medal along with sophomore Dylan Dryer who also picked up gold with a time of 1:57.29 in the boys 800-meter. Bronze medals were picked up by Chad Coulter in the 60-meter with a time of 7.00 and the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:32.71. The relay squad consisted of Chad Coulter, Kameron Barnett, Johnathan Campbell and David Ross.

Dryer’s 800-meter time was not only a personal best, but a school record time as well. The No. 1 state ranked in the event had a race to remember. Out of the block he was knocked to the track and the race was recalled. Upon receiving the start gun a second time around, he established himself in the front pack and went onto a winning time. “My start wasn’t the best and I ended up tripping and falling to the ground,” said Dryer. “I thought to myself I needed to believe in myself and decided I could accomplish something today.”