Turner County Track Athletes Overcome Injury, Inexperience

Written by: Phil Jones

This month’s Farah and Farah athlete is actually two athletes, each of whom helped lead a herculean effort for the Turner County boys and girls track teams, despite inexperience and injuries. Ta’Liyah Martin and Nikemious Morris are sophomores at Turner County, and each played a big role in leading their respective Titans teammates to a region championship.

Martin previous had played basketball and softball for Turner County, but she decided to start running track last year. Right out of the starting blocks, she suffered a leg muscle injury, which is not good for any student athlete, but especially a track athlete.

“I injured my quad muscle at the region track meet last year, but then I reinjured myself at the start of this year,” Martin told ITG Next.

In case you’re wondering, the quad, or quadriceps, is the group of muscles in the front part of the upper leg. It’s the largest muscle group in the body, and for anyone who injures that muscle, it can be debilitating. For a track athlete, especially a hurdler, it can mean the end of a season, or even a career. That’s almost what happened with Ta’liyah.

“I almost quit track,” she said. “I felt like I may need to stop running track, because I kept injuring myself.”

But the soLhomore decided to stay with it and work through it.

“I would rest a little, and then keep working,” Martin said.

Her perseverance paid off.

“She fought through it, and came out as a region champion,” Turner County track coach Ben Simmons told us.

Simmons said despite the injuries, Martin played an important part in the Turner girls winning the region championship.

“Ta’Liyah won the region championship in the 300M hurdles, placed third in the 100M hurdles, and placed third in the triple jump,” he said.

But Martin wasn’t finished.

“We had an injury to one of our relay members, so Ta’Liyah had to step in as part of our 4x100M relay team,” Simmons continued. “We put her on the third leg of the team, and she took that baton and took off.”

The results were a region championship for the girls 4x100M relay team.

“Ta’Liyah was a big reason for the relay team winning that region championship,” Simmons said.

Simmons added that he expects Ta’Liyah to qualify for the state meet in the hurdles, as well as continue to lead Turner’s track team for the remainder of her career at Turner County High.