CATOOSA — For schools the size of Cleveland, qualifying for the state track meet is never automatic. There are no endless rosters. No waves of specialists. No room for bad practices, bad handoffs or foot fouls.
Usually, there are just a handful of kids willing to put in the work required to reach the top tier of track and field competition.
That’s what made this year’s trip to Catoosa matter for the Cleveland Tiger athletes who went.
They did not arrive with overwhelming numbers, but they arrived with competitors.
And by the end of the Class 4A State Track Meet, Cleveland athletes had turned in performances that gave the small-town program something every school chases this time of year, moments worth remembering from the state meet.
Senior thrower Leland Kimbrough delivered one of the biggest finishes of the weekend for the Cleveland boys, placing seventh in discus with a throw of 142 feet even to earn a medal and score team points.
In field events, inches often decide everything. One clean release. One throw that didn’t wobble so it caught the wind correctly. One moment where months of work finally lined up.
The Cleveland boys also found success in the high jump, where Owen Hoppes and Elijah Randell each cleared six feet to tie for eighth place in Class 4A state competition.
For athletes from smaller schools, simply surviving the pressure of qualifying for the state meet can be difficult enough.
Hoppes also helped anchor Cleveland’s boys 4x800 relay team alongside Noah Barnett, Josiah Logsdon and Dawson Kelcey. The Tiger quartet finished 12th in the state with a time of 8:40.12.
While the boys battled in the field events and distance races, Cleveland’s girls brought raw speed. A lot of it.
Stevie Gabriel turned in one of the strongest allaround performances of the weekend for the Lady Tigers, competing in three separate sprint events against the fastest runners in Class 4A.
Gabriel finished 12th in the 100 meter prelims and 13th in the 200 meter prelims running 12.66 and 26.40 respectively.
Then came the 400. One lap. Full send. No room for mistakes. No place to hide. Gabriel rose to the occasion with a fifth-place finish in the state finals, clocking 57.97 to bring home four team points for Cleveland and bring home a medal as well.
Distance runner Kidan Logsdon added another strong showing for the Lady Tigers, finishing 11th in the 800 meters with a time of 2:25.23 before placing 14th in the 1600 at 5:40.41.
The Cleveland girls finished tied for 30th in Class 4A with four team points.
But team scores only tell part of the story. Because for these athletes from that little town on the north end of Keystone Lake, success is qualifying, then surviving the pressure of the state stage.
Sometimes it is lining up alongside beside the best athletes in state, then proving you belong there. This is what the Tigers did, so somewhere between the discus ring, the high jump bar and the final stretch of the 400-meter dash, Cleveland reminded everybody that small-town programs can still produce big-time moments on the biggest of stages.