ROCKINGHAM — For the second straight time to open the season, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ track and field team placed atop the standings in Wednesday’s home Sandhills Athletic Conference meet.
Scoring 85.33 points, the Lady Raiders edged Pinecrest High School, which collected 84.67 points. Also competing were third-place Lumberton (46 points) and fourth-place Seventy-First (29 points).
Richmond’s boys’ team was also in action, earning a second-place finish with 56 points. Pinecrest took first overall with 112 points, while Lumberton (44 points) and Seventy-First (17 points) finished third and fourth, respectively.
“It was a great day for track,” head coach Reggie Miller said. “The weather was warm but not as hot as the first meet we had last week. I am proud of both the girls’ and boys’ effort in our home meet, which was our first home meet since 2019.
“We are improving every day,” he added. “Every kid competed at a high level and left everything on the track.”
Of the six scoring categories, the Lady Raiders led three of them: sprints (16 points), relays (18 points) and throwing (15 points). Richmond’s girls also collected 15.33 points in jumping, 11 points in hurdles and 10 points in distance.
The Lady Raiders won both the 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter relays with times of 53.4 seconds and 1:51.4, respectively, to earn 12 points. The team collected six combined points in the 4×400-meter and 4×800-meter races.
Sophomore Isis Covington impressed for the second meet in a row, tying with Lumberton’s Chadon Foreman in the 100-meter dash. Both sprinters clocked in at 12.5 seconds.
Sophomore Andrea Ellerbe took second in the 200-meter race (26.8 seconds), just six-tenths of a second behind Seventy-First’s A’jaylah Yates. Akeya Harrison finished fifth in the race, earning a solo point for Richmond.
Ellerbe, C’Nedra Hinson and Jocelyn Hunter finished third through fifth, respectively, in the 400-meter spring, combining for six more points.
Senior Jakerra Covington throws the shot put, which she won, during Wednesday’s meet. (Kyle Pillar)
Senior Jakerra Covington, who usually does sprints and jumping, was limited to the shot put due to an injury. Having never thrown before, Covington won the shot put and six points with a distance of 32’-0”.
Aaliyah Spencer added five points by winning the discus (69’-10”) and placed fourth in the shot put (25’-6”). Janiah Young’s 57’-0” toss in the discus was also good for fourth place.
Aniyah Tanksley was part of a three-way tie for first place in the girls’ high jump, clearing the bar at 4’-6”. Janiya Blue’s mark of 13’-10” in the long jump, and Jamaya Bryant’s 28’-8” tally in the triple jump were both good for second place.
In the hurdle events, Bryant, Williams and Tanksley went three through five in the 100-meter hurdles (six points), and Tanksley and Bryant earned third and fourth place marks in the 300-meter hurdles (five points).
Junior Maylyn Wallace had a pair of second-place finishes in the 800-meter and 1600-meter races. She clocked in at 2:43.7 in the 800-meter, followed by a time of 6:06.9 in the mile run.
Left to right: Trey Thomas, Zay Wall and Bryan Stanback swept the 110-meter hurdles. (Kyle Pillar)
For the Richmond boys’ team, it was the hurdlers who racked up a match-high 23 points. The Raiders tallied 14 points in jumping, eight points in both sprints and relays and three points in throwing.
Sweeping the competition for the top three spots in the 110-meter hurdles for 13 points were senior Bryan Stanback, sophomore Zay Wall and junior Trey Thomas. Stanback crossed the finish line first with a time of 17.1 seconds, followed by Wall (18.1 seconds) and Thomas (18.2 seconds).
Stanback and sophomore Emerson Wall also competed in the 300-meter hurdles, placing one and two, respectively. Clocking in first was Stanback with a time of 43.3 seconds for six points and Emerson Wall edged Pinecrest’s John Carter, ending in 44.7 seconds.
The Raiders also placed in three of the top five spots in the long jump, seeing Emerson Wall lead the field with a distance of 20’-0” and six additional points. Zay Wall was just behind him in second, leaping out 19’-5”, while junior Chris Ellerbe finished fourth at 17’-4”.
Emerson Wall added two points in the triple jump, placing fourth, with a mark of 36’-1”.
Richmond’s 4×200-meter relay team passed Pinecrest in the final stretch to win the race with a time of 1:37.7, a full second ahead of the Patriots. The Raiders took third in the 4×100-meter relay (47.1 seconds).
Adding to the team’s point total were sophomores Jamarion Bryant and Taye Spencer in the 100-meter dash. Bryant won the race and six points with a time of 11.3 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than Lorenzo Chavis (Lumberton), and Spencer earned a point with a fifth-place finish (11.8 seconds).
Sophomore Emoni McBride tacked on a point by finishing fifth in the 200-meter dash (24.5 seconds).
Sophomore Emerson Wall leaps out to his first-place mark of 20’-0” in the long jump. (Kyle Pillar)
The final points of the afternoon for the Raiders came from thrower Jerry Cogg, who earned a third-place finish in the shot put. He threw the 12-pound ball a distance of 35’-10”.
The Richmond track and field teams will host their second and final SAC meet next Wednesday against Jack Britt, Lumberton, Purnell Swett. Miller said the program’s three seniors will be recognized ahead of the meet, which will start at 4 p.m. inside Raider Stadium.
