Sampson well-represented at state

After a week full of rain all over the state, all five of the NCHSAA high schools in Sampson County ventured to North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro for the state championships in track and field. Some schools had a slew of athletes across sprints, distance, hurdles, jumps, and even field events, while some schools had fewer. PRs were set, tears were shed, and history books were rewritten at the weekend’s events, and Sampson County was a part of it all.

The schedule of events nearly mirrored itself from Friday to Saturday, but with a different mix of divisions competing each day. Friday saw 1A and 3A, while 2A and 4A had their events on Saturday. A light sprinkling dusted the atmosphere early on Friday morning, threatening a chance of more rain. While that weather held off in favor of sunshine and high heat, the humidity played its part in the first day of events. Saturday morning briefly saw heavier showers that gave reprieve to athletes and spectators alike shortly after the morning’s events kicked off, setting the stage for another muggy, hot day full of track and field.

Friday

A majority of Sampson County’s runners, throwers and jumpers competed in the first day’s events, as the 1A schools combined for 11 dashers, hurdlers, jumpers, vaulters and throwers. Lakewood led this effort by having eight individuals across track and field events, while Hobbton added a triple jumper, and Union had a runner/jumper and just a jumper.

With the events taking place all over the stadium’s grounds at N.C. A&T, a fan of Sampson County sports needed to pay attention so as not to miss any of the athletes competing. Two of the county’s first competitors were Lakewood’s Devin Jones, a shot putter, and Union’s Tijayah Goodman, competing in the first of her two events, the 100-meter dash. After a tough race down the front stretch, Goodman found herself in ninth place with a time of 12.91 in her heat, just milliseconds off the 12.84 that was good enough for sixth place. The separation between eighth and ninth was .01 seconds, as Goodman did everything she could to fight her way toward a higher place. It was PR time for Jones in the pit, though, as he tossed the shot for a distance of 42-5.50, breaking his previous personal best on his second throw of the day. This handed the Leopard 13th place.

Next up were Lakewood’s Royal Wright and Davion Phillips, who both competed in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, with Wright running in the first heat and Phillips in the second. A rocky start for both led to the two Leopards taking 15th and 16th place, with Phillips being the fastest of the two with his run of 19.14, while Wright ran a 19.58. The two were the last men’s runners for Sampson County on Friday, with their teammate Essence Copeland being the sole women’s runner from the area competing in the 200-meter dash much later in the day.

After the runners and throwers had their time to shine, the focus was put onto arguably the best showing for the 1A schools for the weekend: the jumping events. As the next set of events got started, the sun had fully come out by this point, leaving a dank, muggy air to blanket the entire area.

At the high jump, Union’s Manny Adams and Lakewood’s Tilyn Monk were competing against each other and 13 other 1A high jumpers to see who came out on top. For Sampson County, Monk took the highest honors with his five-foot, 10-inch jump, landing him in fifth place. Four clean jumps, from 5-4 through 5-10 gave him this seed, but he failed on three straight with the bar at six feet. Adams found himself in 13th place, but just his jump was just two inches shy of Monk’s at 5-8. Goodman represented Union on the women’s side, grabbing herself a 10th-place finish with a jump of 4-8. It took three jumps to get her that spot, after not clearing on the first two, but she grabbed it on her final attempt. She was unsuccessful on all three attempts at 4-10, which would have given her a seventh or eighth-place finish.

Monk wasn’t done jumping for the day just yet, though, as he and teammate Marquis Owens took on the competition in the long jump pit together. Owens had Monk’s number, edging him out with a jump of 19-7.75 for 11th place, which beat Monk’s 12th-place jump of 19-5.

Just one flight of pole vaulters was held for the 1A competitors, which took place on the far side of the field away from most of the other competitions. Sampson’s representatives in this event were both from Lakewood, with Aden Blackwell and J’Kwon McKoy handling pole vaulting duties for the day. The Leopards went leaping to heights of eight feet and seven feet, six inches, respectively. An equipment malfunction and a twisted ankle for McKoy ended his day early on his three attempts at eight feet in an event that saw the winner place in the top 25 in the state this year.

The last two Sampson County competitors for Friday’s events were Hobbton’s Dai’vian Murrell and Lakewood’s Essence Copeland, with Murrell’s triple jump and Copeland’s 200-meter dash being the final events with a local presence for day one.

With the sun not making anything cooler, the occasional cloud cover offered reprieve for the athletes. After a long-awaited chance to jump, Murrell trekked down the lane and hit his three bounces on the way to the pit. His first attempt landed him with a 37-5.75, and he scratched on his next two, meaning that was his final score for the day, as he did not advance to the finals. Copeland finished her dash in 27.48 for 12th place, just behind conference rival Tateyawn Faison from North Duplin, who crossed the finish line in 27.31.

Saturday

With fewer local competitors in Saturday’s action, the day was less crammed than the one prior, leaving room for the two 2A teams in Clinton and Midway a bit of time between each event to take in the atmosphere of the event without missing anyone else local.

The only thrower from either team that qualified in 2A — Clinton’s Jayden Williams — elected not to throw in the day’s shot put events. Left on the schedule for the Dark Horses were Ja’Niyah Simmons in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, Ciara Stuart in the 300-meter hurdles, and the 4×200 and 4×400 women’s relay teams. Of those, Simmons was Clinton’s first competitor of the day for her 100-meter dash. Placing eighth in her morning heat earned her a spot in the afternoon’s run, where she placed seventh with a time of 12.60, a run that was .09 seconds faster than her morning go-round.

Simmons was the anchor for the women’s 4×200 relay team, which found itself in 12th place on the day with an impressive 1:49.68 run in the first heat, good enough for fifth place in that. Journey Powell, Phoenix Everett, and Ciara Stuart were the remaining members of the team. The Lady Dark Horses’ 4×400 relay squad, consisting of Rubi Davila, Giana Smith, Phoenix Everett and Jayla Pickett finished in 15th place with a 4:38.46. This ended Clinton’s showing at the day’s events.

Nathue Myles showed up for three events for Midway, participating in the 200-meter dash, long jump, and the 4×200 relay. Sam Dudley, Travis Gist and Kemari McNeil rounded out the relay squad, while Dudley also ran the 300-meter hurdles.

A run time of 25.67 in the 200-meter dash gave Myles 14th place in the event, but his 21-4 long jump gave him sixth place for Sampson County’s second-highest placing on either day, narrowly missing a podium finish for himself.

In what shaped up to be the weekend’s most exciting race for any local team, the Midway men’s 4×200 team mounted an enormous comeback in heat one of the finals, moving from fourth place at the beginning of the final lap to Myles leading the pack as he waltzed across the finish line.

The last Raider of the day to compete was hurdler Sam Dudley, who was keeping up with the competition down the front stretch as the race came to a close. After a mistimed jump sent him falling forward, he placed his hand on the final hurdle to move it out of the way, disqualifying him from the event.