By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The city of Millington is preparing for a major overhaul of it’s educational system this August.
But prior to the transformation from four schools to three institutions, members of Millington Municipal Schools are celebrating the historic achievement of the Millington Middle School Lady Trojan 4x200m relay team. Back on May 22, the quartet of Jhade Swain, Omonefe Aigbomian, Savannah Keys and Ehi Aigbomian won the gold medal at Fortera Stadium on the campus of Austin Peay State University with a personal record of 1:52.18.
Since 2016 the program under the leadership of Coach Thonda Taylor put the Millington Middle Stallions name on the statewide map starting with the gold medal finish of Aliyah Williamson in the 800m and 1600m races.
But the victory by the 2021 Millington Middle relay team is the first gold finish under the Trojan name.
“It’s pretty cool because we are the first Trojans to win this at the middle school,” Omonefe said. “We’ll have our name with that forever.”
Guided by Coach LaTesa Douglas, the quartet was a collection of talent that had to gel.
“It feels pretty good because we’ve come a long way this season,” Swain said. “We worked really hard. At our very first track meet, we didn’t have a 4×200 team. But at our next track meet, we had us and we performed very well considering it was our very first time doing it. Pretty much each team we did the race, we improved.”
Swain is the first leg of the relay.
“I’m very focused and I just to stay in my lane and get there as fast as I can,” she noted.
Swain hands the baton to her fellow eighth grader Omonefe to established the Lady Trojans’ place near the top.
“I’m focused on getting the baton and making sure it doesn’t fall,” she acknowledged. “There’s usually someone out there I have to catch. So I’m focused on getting the lead and keeping the lead.”
Next person to receive the baton is three-sport athlete and seventh grader Keys.
“I just try to keep the lead,” Keys said. “It looks like I am the slow one. But make use seem faster so we can have a better time.”
Keys deceptive speed gave the Lady Trojans an advantage all season. Then the younger Aigbomian blew the competition away.
“I focus on us making it, so we can bring it home for our team,” Ehi said. “I make sure that no one can catch us.”
In the State finals, Ehi had to track down one team to bring home the gold.
“I was really happy because at first someone was in front of us,” the sixth-grader recalled. “I was like, ‘I’m going to go win it for us.’”
The Lady Trojans came back with two State titles, a couple of second place finishes and one bronze medal overall to take second place in the team competition with 45 points. This is the second straight State championship that Millington has won the girls 4x200m relay.
Ehi won gold in the long jump at the 2021 competition.
“We’re accustomed to going to State and doing extremely well,” Taylor said. “I was still very pleasantly surprised. We went into the State competition the No. 2 team in the state maybe by two-one hundredths of a second (behind Robbinsville). We told the athletes, ‘Those are nothing but numbers on a paper. When you go out, you perform at your level best.’”
