Lithia Springs is coming off its first girls' state track and field championship in the school’s history, 
and track coach Corey Jarvis said both the girls' and boys' teams are primed for state runs in 2025.
Jarvis said the girls’ team wasn’t very deep last year, winning state with just eight athletes. The Lions have four returning athletes from that squad and have added four or five more.
On the boys’ side, Lithia lost some throwers but is returning several strong runners this year, Jarvis said.
Jarvis spotlighted six of his top upperclassmen athletes during the recent Spring Sports Media Day:
• Dasia Nails, junior, sprinter
• Nneka Onwumelu, junior, hurdler
• Calayah Montgomery, junior, sprinter
• Brenen Gachoya, senior, sprinter
• Malachi Evans, senior, sprinter
• Mekhai Johnson, junior, sprinter
Nails, Onwumelu and Montgomery were all part of the girls’ 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter relay teams that made it to state last year.
Evans is a sprinter who may also take part in relays and jumps this year. Johnson and Gachoya are sprinters who were on the 1,600-meter relay team that reached the state meet last year.
Asked about the difference between last year’s state championship girls team and this year’s team, Jarvis said last year’s team was sprinter-heavy while this year the Lions are more balanced.
“If you look at all our points throughout the whole year and even the past three years, to be honest, they were working out real heavy in the sprint from the 1 through the 4,” he said. “This year, we're going to kind of be stretched out. I believe that we’re able to get points more in our field events this year than we've been able to do in the past couple years. I think our jumps will be real good because we just got great athletes. … So hopefully we'll get more points from the field events than we ever had.”