Siegel's Laura Bean came in first in the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races. TMP/D. Hunter

All nine high schools in the county were well represented in one of the final meets before the postseason part of the schedule.

By the end of the meet, La Vergne and Riverdale proved that for this year, they were the best in Rutherford County. The Wolverines got a big contribution from Robert Hill, who scored 29 points, to win the male title with a total of 169.

While, the Lady Warriors dominated the female division with 262 points, including 28 apiece from Jessica Azor and Rockesia Mintlow. Their next closest competitor was Siegel with a total score of 145.

As with most meets, there were several outstanding performances and events spread around all of the participating schools.

For the males, Riverdale was lead by the duo field star T.J. Chesterfield and track star Paul Balfour, with each of them scoring 26 points for the Warriors. Chesterfield ruled the field events with wins in the long jump and the triple jump. He also finished third in a heated showdown with Siegel’s Derek McClardy, and Oakland’s Cody Brown.

“I felt good coming in,” Chesterfield said of his performance. “My legs felt good. I’m been working hard and it’s paying off.”

He stays after practice to work on his technique and form for all of the events he competes in, he said.

As for McClardy and Brown, they have a friendly rivalry that dates back to their middle school days. However, this was McClardy’s day as he broke a school record with a jump of six feet, eight inches.

“We just go back and forth,” McClardy said. “We are good friends off the track, but we know during the meet its time to jump.”

He added he has been working on his steps and that helped him with his record-breaking performance. “It was just mind-blowing to jump 6’8”.” His mom told him during the season that was a goal he needed to jump at.

The meet included all of the schools in the county, regardless of classification. One of those was MTCS, who had an athlete that has turned some heads in Class AA this season. On Saturday, he showed the bigger schools that he can run with them.

Asa Bowman scored 30 of the 38 points for the Cougars, which led the entire meet. Bowman won the 800, second in the 400, and third in the 100 and 200.

“It shows were I’m at and where I stand with the bigger school,” Bowman said of facing the larger schools.

The 400-meter race was a classic between Bowman and Hill, in which Hill won with a time of 0:49:94 and Bowman was not far behind with 0:49:97.

“At the end, I thought I had him, but he got me in the last 10 meters. Down the backstretch I was just running with pure guts,” Bowman said after the thriller.

Turning to the females, Azor won the 100, shot put, and finished second in the high jump, while Mintlow won the long jump, and finished third in the high jump, and the 100 and 300 hurdles. The Lady Warriors mastered the relay races with wins in all of them except the 4 x 800, in which they lost to Siegel.

Speaking of the Siegel long distance female runners, the Stars were led by the energetic duo of Laura Bean and Shelby Hardison. They both finished 1-2 in the 1600 and 3200. Bean said they are best friends and training partners off the track.

“It meant a lot,” Bean said of the 1-2 finish, “That was one of our goals.”

Most of the teams have one meet left for the Sub-Sectional on May 10.