The Southeast Bulloch track and field team recently held their annual Plankenhorn Relays, which is named in honor of former Yellow Jacket track standout Derrick Plankenhorn, who passed away in 2003.

One of the standout performances from the event was Jacket senior Hayden Bartels, who broke the school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:58:69.

 “Hayden broke a record that is 20 years old,” said coach Laurie Pitts. “He is a very focused athlete who sets a goal, works for it, and is completely unphased by temporary setbacks with his very matter of fact attitude about competing.

“He'll analyze his performances briefly, then he's off to work on whatever it takes to do better. In this past Friday's 800-meter race he was focused only on the clock and making the time he wanted. He did what he set out to do and it was a beautiful thing to witness.”

“It was very shocking to break the record,” Bartels said. “I didn’t really mean to break it in the race, and did not think I ran fast enough. I was just trying to break two minutes. I was very surprised when I was told I had just broken it, and it felt unreal.

“I’m going to keep training for speed, because that’s what I think I need to improve most, and stay consistent with my running on weekends. I want to keep bringing my 800 time down closer to 1:56, and getting on the podium at state. I also want to break our own school record in the 4x800 and get a top-3 finish at state.”