By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

BIRMINGHAM – Competing along with Class 7A teams, Calera, Helena and Pelham all got the chance to get some good experience at the 2019 Icebreaker Invitational to really signal the start of the 2019 indoor track and field season.

All three of those 6A teams may have been going up against the state’s best talent, but each was able to see plenty of success in several different events.

For the Pelham Panthers, Katie Strozier, Alex Wilkins and Erin Long all had strong performance, while the girls 4X800-meter relay team finished second.

Long was one of the Panthers’ biggest highlights with two separate top 10 finishes.

Long, who also finished 13th in the 60-meter hurdles, was able to finish seventh in the high jump, while finishing eighth in the long jump.

Strozier’s lone event was the 400-meter dash and she made it count with a fourth-place finish after running the race in 59.45 seconds.

Wilkins also competed in just one final and was able to get a medal with a third-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:20.85, which was less than two seconds off the winning time.

For Helena, it was Allison Tanner who was able to make some noise with two top five finishes on the day. She was able to pull off a fourth-place finish in the high jump finals and a fifth-place finish in the triple jump.

Senior Kirsen Gardner also continued her stellar career for the Huskies with a fourth-place finish in the shot put finals.

TJ Funches was the biggest highlight for the boys thanks to his finish of ninth in the high jump, while also finishing 12th in the triple jump.

Calera’s big highlight came from Nia Maye in the 60-meter dash and 400-meter dash, finishing inside the top 15 of both events.

Maye, a junior, was able to finish ninth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.07 seconds, while finishing 14th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.58.