EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth of a 13-part series looking back at the year in local sports. The series will culminate with the top 10 stories of the year on Jan. 1.

April was great for the Spalding High spring teams as several won region championships in the month. The Jags baseball team, the Spalding High golf team and the Lady Jags track and field team won consecutive region crowns.

The Spalding High Lady Jags track team reached the region championship for the second straight year, scoring 1281⁄2 points to win by an astounding 241⁄2 points.

“When the season started I was the only one who thought these kids could do it,” said track and field coach Dolores Owen at the time, who molded and reshaped her team one practice and one meet at a time.

Led by high-point winner Dominique Nock, the results were obvious early as Spalding High scored 1341⁄2 points to outdistance their nearest competitor in the nine-school field, Sandy Creek, by 121⁄2 points in the 2012 Region 4-AAA meet at Sandy Creek High School.

Spalding, which held a 171⁄2-point lead over the host team going into the final day, had to overcome some adversity early when one of its runners in the first event of the day was flagged for raising her hand in the starting block and another was disqualified in the 800m run for moving her hand in the starting blocks.

“I always told them when the chips are on the line, it’s time for the tough to get going,” said Owen at the time.

The team responded admirably. First Spalding’s 4x100 relay of Nock, Grenishia Daniel, Shaquoria Reid and Veronica Anderson ran a 49.16 to place third. Then Blair Dunaway (6:01.94) and Stephanie Estrada (6:13.44) posted finishes of third and sixth place, respectively, in the 1600-meter run before a sixth-place run of 1:06.36 by Daniel in the 400.

Daniel had to be helped off the field by two teammates after pulling a leg muscle during the run.

Nock followed with a first-place run of 12.21 in the 100-meter dash, while Reid (12.88) scored two more team points with a seventh-place finish in the same event. SHS did not have a runner qualify for the finals in the 110-hurdles, but Dunaway (2:41.53) and Jasmine Bradley (2:46.06) kept the team rolling along with fifth and seventh-place finishes, respectively, in the 800-meter run as Spalding held a 131⁄2-point lead over second-place Sandy Creek and a 171⁄2-point lead over third-place Eastside-Covington through the 800.

Nock (25.52) and Anderson (26.21) ran to second and fifth-place finishes, respectively in the 200 as Spalding kept the heat on the rest of the field. Then came the performance of the day for Spalding, a runner-up finish by Daniel (46.97) in the 300-meter hurdles — despite the pulled muscle.

The final girls team standings included Spalding (134.5) in first, followed by: Sandy Creek (122), Eastside-Covington (101), Eagle’s Landing (92), Drew (73), Henry County (251⁄2), Jackson (20), Stockbridge (20) and Locust Grove (16).

Other noteworthy local events in the month of April:

*The Spalding Jaguars baseball team finished the regular season with a 19-6 overall record (15-1 in region play) and won the Region 4-AAA championship for the second year in a row. The 2012 Jags make school history as the first SHS baseball team to win consecutive region crowns.

*The Faith Christian Academy golf team was able to advance to the state tournament behind a career performance by Justin Lewis in a sub-state playoff match over Young American Christian.

*The Spalding Jaguars boys soccer team finished April with a 12-4-1 record and earned a No. 2 seed in the Class AAA state soccer playoffs.

*The Spalding Jaguars boys golf team finished April by winning its third straight region championship, with Jake Harpe finishing as low medalist.