GULF SHORES—The Spanish Fort Toros track and field team won the first track and field state title for a Baldwin County school Saturday at Gulf Shores.

“Getting the first state track and field title in Baldwin County is great,” Spanish Fort head coach Chris Schmidt said. “There was pressure, but I expect the best from myself and my athletes. You always have to believe in yourself and in the team. And these guys understand that it really takes a lot of hard work and now they know it was all worth it.”

Schmidt said there’s a big reason it’s called “Track and Field,” with an extra emphasis on the “and.”

“You have to do well in everything to win. You have to have an all-around team,” he said. “It wasn't just one individual. We needed points in everything from everybody and we just about did that.”

The Toros came into the final event, the 1,600 meter relay, 3.5 points down.

“Going into that last event, I didn't know what to expect. Scottsboro is a wonderful program, great coaching staff. I knew it would be close, but I thought it would be closer between us and Valley. Then Scottsboro came alive in all the field events and kept it close.”

It turned out to be a dramatic moment. The all-senior quartet of Tyler Winston, Garrett Schumacher, Dalton Young and Brent Duke got ready for their final event for SFHS.

“We were down by about 3.5 points so going into that first leg I was already sweating,” Schmidt said. “Then Schumacher brought us up to second place, but Scottsboro was so close. Then Young got it and he was about 20 meters behind, but he went by them and gave us about a 30-meter lead and then, you know, Duke, all he had to do was finish it for us. When you have guys going 51,51,50 and 50 - you know you’ve got a chance and well, it makes you feel pretty good.”

The finish resulted in a 7.5-point boost to top Scottsboro 93.5-87. Valley took third and St. Paul’s fourth in the 5A division.

As exciting as the final event come-back was, Schmidt said, that it took a total team effort.

“Thank God we're really blessed on the track and in the field. The field event guys really stepped up for us. Kent Warlick and Andrew Hollingsworth nailed some crucial points for us in pole vault which really made the difference. We knew we would have to score at least 10 points in field events and we scored 10.5. And also, Ethan Rich really stepped up big. He was third in the state for javelin and he really helped the team with that big finish.”

On the distance side, Schmidt said Brett Hanke, Trevor Stephens and Ben Redman played important roles by racking up points in each event they were in.

“All three of those guys came through big. Hanke was in four events and he scored in all four. Benny was in four, scored in four and Trevor sealed the deal by scoring all the events he was in.”

Duke winning the 400 meters and Young taking second in the 100 were major contributions as well, he said.

“The guys in the 4X8 and the 4x4, they got us 20 points right there. And of course going one, two and four in the 400, that was huge with (Brent) Duke, (Dalton) Young and (Garrett) Schumacher coming in the top five, that was 23 points from one event. Brent’s win in the 400 and Dalton finishing second in the 100 for us, that was big, too. So it really was a real team effort, a real community effort. All the support from parents and the school made it possible.

In 3A, Bayside Academy’s girls took third place in their first state meet at the higher level. Altamont was first with 95 points followed by TR Miller at 81. The Lady Admirals came in next at 71.

Individually, the Lady Admirals were led by vaulter Sophie Bru who set a state meet record of 9-9 to win the 3A girls pole-vault title. BA teammate Shelby Builta won two state event titles with a 122-4 throw in the javelin and a 117-10.5 throw in the discus.

For the Admirals, Caleb Josephs won the state vault with a 12-6 jump and Stewart Shoemaker took a hat trick winning the 3A boys 1600 Thursday with a time of 4:37.95 and doubling up on Friday with state-title wins in the 800 and 3200.

For more information and complete state track meet results, go to: www.ahsaa.com