LAURINBURG — Also in action on the day the North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced it was indefinitely suspending all interscholastic sports was the Richmond Senior High School girls’ track and field team.
Although the Sandhills Athletic Conference event was held on March 12 at Scotland High School, the official results were posted late last week.
The Lady Raiders and head coach Reggie Miller made easy work against their two other SAC opponents, earning first place with 254 points. Earning second place was Seventy-First High School with 151 points and host Scotland rounded out the scoring with 83 points.
Purnell Swett High School was originally slated to compete, but the Lady Rams were a no-show following Robeson County Schools cancelling all events the day prior.
Richmond’s best performances came in the jumping events, which landed the Lady Raiders 83 points. Miller’s team also impressed in sprints (60 points), relays (40 points), hurdles (31 points) and distance (27 points).
As a team, the Lady Raiders recorded eight first-place finishes.
Having herself an afternoon was junior Jakerra Covington, who racked up three of those top placements. She won the 100-meter dash (12.10 seconds), took first in the high jump (5 feet, 2 inches) and her mark of 17 feet, 7 inches was good enough for first place in the long jump.
Covington was also part of the 4×100-meter relay team that finished first overall, making the lap around the track in 48.70 seconds.
Richmond swept both the high jump and triple jump events. Behind Covington in the high jump were second and third place finishers Allexis Swiney (4 feet, 8 inches) and Kibreanna Stewart (4 feet, 6 inches).
Swiney and Stewart would take first and second, respectively, in the triple jump with marks of 33 feet, 5 inches and 32 feet, 3 inches. Teammate Janiya Blue took third with a distance of 29 feet, 3 inches.
Swiney’s mark of 17 feet, 1 inch helped her to a second-place finish in the long jump.
In the 4×200-meter relay race, one of the Lady Raiders’ strongest events, Monasia Kearns, Andrea Ellerbe, Bree Wall and Isis Covington took first place with a time of 2:26.89.
Ellerbe, a freshman, impressed with a pair of second-place finishes. She finished the 400-meter dash in 1:05, followed by a time of 26.70 seconds in the open 200-meter race. Kearns, who is in her senior year, finished second in the 100-meter dash, just behind Jakerra Covington with a time of 12.78 seconds.
Other first-place wins for the Lady Raiders included Zamiya McInnis’ time of 20:05 in the 3200-meter run, and the 4×400-meter relay team composed of Sierra Ramsay, Jocelyn Hunter, Adrianna Dawkins and Aniya Robinson took first.
Sanaja Tillman earned second in the 3200-meter race (20:06), while Ramsay took third in the 400-meter dash (1:05.94).
Mercedes Ingram helped the team with a third-place finish in the 800-meter run (2:59) and Stewart added to her impressive day with a third-place mark in the 100-meter dash (17.91 seconds).
Taking third overall in other events were Wall (200-meter dash, 27.83 seconds), Jamaya Bryant (300-meter hurdles, 53.56 seconds) and Rayana Shubert (discus, 85 feet, 1 inch).
There is no word from the NCHSAA at this time as to when high school sports may resume.
