GULF SHORES — After the dust settled on the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s state track and field championships at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium last weekend, 23 medals stayed in Baldwin County with local athletes earning nine gold, six silver and eight bronze medals.

During Thursday’s preliminaries, Foley junior Destiny Roper punched her ticket to the 100-meter dash finals with a time of 11.65 which broke the Class 7A state meet record set by Hewitt-Trussville’s Hope Igbinoghene in 2018 at 11.73. In Saturday’s championships, Roper matched the previous state record to claim gold on top of a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash.

Similarly, St. Michael Catholic senior Tia Acker, a University of South Alabama signee, broke the Class 4A state meet record in the same event with a preliminary time of 11.86 which topped the previous mark of 11.98 recorded by Guntersville’s Kayla Stewart in 2010. Her finals time of 12.05 was good for first by nearly 30 seconds and was part of a three-gold day on top of first-place finishes in the 200- and 400-meter dashes.

Also on the Class 4A stage, sophomore Annie Midyett helped the Bayside Academy Admirals finish as runners-up in the girls’ team competition with two silver medals (1600- and 3200-meter runs) and a bronze (800-meter run) individually to go along with a gold medal in the 4x800-meter relay. Classmates Catherine Doyle, Grace Dawson and Amelia Wells teamed up with Midyett to record a time of 10:05.37 which topped a 2012 school record by more than 10 seconds.

Bayside Academy sophomore Madeline Dudley also brought home a medal with a second-place finish in the high jump with a 5’ clearance. Her season-best mark of 5’ 2” sits only two inches away from an 11-year-old school record.

Representing Foley throwers in Class 7A, AJ Prim earned one silver and one bronze and Emily Wolf recorded one gold and one silver where her first-place finish also set a school record in the shot put. Wolf, a Montevallo signee, registered a mark of 41’ 2” on her final shot put of the event extended her own record by another foot to go along with a discus throw of 127’ 6” for second.

Prim, a Mississippi Gulf Coast football signee who previously set the school record in the discus, used a throw of 159’ 3” to take second at state after he took third with a shot put of 51’ 4.5” which was five inches shy of his best mark that sits second all-time in Lion history according to athletic.net.

The Elberta Warriors also had a pair of multiple medal winners on the Class 5A circuit where Cameron Ossler earned three bronze medals from both hurdle races and high jump and Morgan Thrift earned silver in shot put and bronze in discus.

Ossler finished the 110-meter hurdles in 15.50 and the 300-meter hurdles in 40.23 where the latter time set a school record. His 6’ 2” clearance in the high jump also set a new school standard where he set the 110-meter hurdle school record earlier this season. Thrift’s 33’ 6” shot put also set a school record and her 102’ 1” throw in the discus landed her a second trip to the podium where she previously set the school record in that event as well.

After they grabbed Gulf Shores’ first indoor state titles, senior Lydia Reno (37’ 10.5” in shot put) and junior Lily Zlab (5’ 4” in high jump) did the same on the Class 5A outdoor circuit, this time on their home turf. Both Reno and Zlab also set the school records in their respective events earlier this season.

On the Class 6A stage, Spanish Fort’s Hunter Hall, a Western Kentucky signee, claimed gold in the discus throw with a mark of 153’ 4”. He also previously recorded the school record in the event at the St. Patrick’s Day meet which was also held at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex.

Hall was joined in representing the Toros on the podium by junior Winston McGhee who earned bronze in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.87 which set the school record by three seconds. McGhee was named to the AHSAA All-Star cross country team and also competed in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs at the state meet.

Fairhope was represented on the podium by junior Walker Rux whose 6’ 2” clearance in the high jump bested a school record that was set at 6’ by Antonio Bracy in 2017 and matched by Emerson Fritz in 2019 and Jason Connolly earlier this season.

In the team competitions, the Bayside Academy girls’ team was joined by girls’ squads from Foley (5th in 7A), St. Michael (7th in 4A) and Gulf Shores (9th in 5A) in recording top-10 finishes. On the boys’ circuit, Elberta finished sixth in 5A and Spanish Fort took eighth in 6A.

Other girls’ team standings included Elberta in 13th and Spanish Fort in 21st. Other boys’ teams standings included Foley in 13th and Fairhope in 18th, Bayside Academy in 26th and Gulf Shores in 34th.