TIFTON, Ga. — Three area athletes took first place during the Georgia Olympics in Jefferson and the Turner County Rebels merited their second straight second place as a team.

The Olympics, the state track finals for high school boys in the state, saw Jatavion Boone of Turner, Ziaire Andrews of Irwin County and Chandler Eckler of Fitzgerald all take home the gold. Eckler achieved his in pole vault while Andrews won the 100 dash and Boone took the 110 hurdles.

The Rebels had 62 points in the Class A public ranks, trailing only the 99 points of Commerce. They edged Montgomery County for the spot. The Eagles had 60 points. Fourth went to Hancock Central with 51 points. Irwin County competed in Class A public as well and scored 21 points to finish ninth. Fitzgerald, the only other area school to point at state, had 18.5 in Class AA for a 12th place team finish.

Eckler’s height of 14 feet was six inches better than the runner-up, Will Simmons of Bleckley County, who posted 13’06” in the meet results posted on GA MileSplit. Boone was similarly dominant in the hurdles. He ran in 14.94 seconds, nearly a half-second ahead of Warren County’s Jarvis Collins, whose time was 15.36. Andrews also won by a big margin in his event. He had a time of 10.75 seconds. Javonta Wilcox of Telfair County was second at 11.08 seconds.

Boone was one of many Turner athletes who finished highly. He also recorded a second place finish in the 300 hurdles, one of three Rebels to finish as runners-up in their events.

Besides Boone was Ontaria Wilson, who missed out on winning the 400 dash by the slightest of margins. He finished in 49.52 seconds. The winner, Clayton Harvey of Montgomery County, ran it in 49.51 seconds. Wilson had another second place in the triple jump, leaping 43’10”. First place in that event went to Hancock Central’s Ladarus Lundy at 44’0.25″. Boone’s runner-up was the 300 hurdles, where his 40.1 seconds was second to the 39.59 of Terrell County’s Blake Mathis.

Turner had third place finishes from Tamorrian Terry in high jump and the team of Jatavius Greene, Trendarius Henderson, Terry and Wilson in the 4×400. The 4×100 team of Boone, Henderson, Wilson and Terry were fourth. Other points came from Lawton Merriweather, (eighth in the 400), Henderson (sixth, 110 hurdles and seventh, 300 hurdles), Wilson (seventh, long jump), Boone (eighth, triple jump) and Malik High (seventh, shot put).

Andrews nearly repeated his championship feat for Irwin in the 200 dash. This time, he and Telfair’s Wilcox had their roles reversed. Wilcox ran in 22.27 seconds, Andrews finished in 22.37. The Indians had one more score at state, a sixth place finish in the 4×100 relay with Cartavion Benyard, Steven Thomas, Kobe Barnes and Andrews.

Fitzgerald additionally had a fourth place finish from Darrius Hampton in discus, sixth place from Willie Ross in high jump and eighth from Hampton in high jump.

Tift County’s lone representative at state, R.J. Merriweather, was 13th in high jump.