Even though most the Clayton County teams and athletes did not cap their respective seasons with a state title or gold medal, they were right there with the best in Georgia.

However, Morrow’s Ayrian Evans was the only athlete to become a state champion. In May at the Georgia Olympics, Evans redeemed himself from a second-place finish in 2011 with a time of 21.19 seconds for first place in the 200-meter dash.

During that weekend, everyone else just came close, including Morrow’s 4-by-400 relay team which finished third behind Sprayberry and Mays, respectively.

In Class AAA competition, Drew’s 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relay teams both finished third.

Individually for the Titans, DeAndre McBride placed second in both the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.56, and the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.94.

In Class AAAA, Jonesboro’s Taurean Ferguson finished second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.32 seconds. He also won a bronze medal in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.06 seconds.

A week earlier at the GHSA Girls State Championships, North Clayton’s Lorenda Holston finished second in the Class AAAA 100-meter dash with a time of 11.98 seconds. In the triple jump, Forest Park’s Bria Matthews placed third with a distance of 38-10.

On the basketball court, the Drew Titans were the only team from the county to advance to the championship game since 2003. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stop Columbia from winning a third straight Class AAA title.

Derrick Frye led Drew with 13 points in the 65-46 shortcoming in March.

In Class AAAA, both Jonesboro teams were eliminated in the Final Four. The Lady Cardinals lost to Southwest DeKalb and the Cardinals fell to Miller Grove for the second straight year.

If the Cardinals had won, it could’ve potentially been their fourth meeting of the season with North Clayton but the Eagles fell short 74-67 to Southwest DeKalb.

Current Georgia Tech freshman Marcus Hunt scored 28 of his 40 points in the second half of his final game as an Eagle.

“He definitely went out with a bang,” North Clayton coach Martisse Troup said. “He showed why he is one of the top players in the nation. He’s truly going to be missed at North Clayton High School.”

Then earlier this month, Lovejoy made its second straight appearance in the title game but fell short 21-14 to Norcross for the first Class AAAAAA state championship.