CAMERON — Mild temperatures greeted the Richmond Senior High School girls’ indoor track and field team during its season opener on Saturday.
The Lady Raiders took third overall as a team out of 11 programs competing in the Viking Polar Bear meet at Union Pines High School.
Richmond and head coach Reggie Miller secured 52.5 points. Pinecrest High School won the meet (142.5 points), followed by the host Lady Vikings (137 points).
The Lady Raiders earned 15 points in distance events, 11 points in sprints, 8.5 points in jumps, 7 points in hurdles, 6 points in throws and 5 points in relays.
Junior Mariana Mendez secured all 15 points in distance events with a first-place time of 3:35.15 in the 1000-meter run. She placed fourth overall in the 1600-meter race (6:01.46) for five more points.
Three runners picked up points in two of the three sprinting events — junior Amariah Gibson and sophomores Brooklyn Jemison and Kymaria Wall.
In the 55-meter dash, Gibson set a personal record time of 7.94 seconds. She placed fifth and added four points.
Wall and Jemison crossed the finish line in 5th and 7th place, respectively, in the 500-meter sprint. Wall (1:39.04) notched four points and Jemison’s PR of 1:41.90 added two points.
Over at the sand pits, three junior jumpers earned points in two different events. Junior Quanna Bostick set a PR distance of 14 feet, 2.5 inches in the long jump, tying her for third and 5.5 points.
Fellow juniors Fallon Little and Anayjah Dumas went seventh and eighth, respectively, in the triple jump to combine for three points. Little landed at a distance of 26 feet, 5.5 inches and Dumas followed with 25 feet, 8.0 inches.
Those two Lady Raiders also collected seven points for the team in the 55-meter hurdles. Dumas set a new personal best time of 10.56 seconds to finish fourth (five points), while Little was seventh (10.86 seconds, two points).
Richmond’s lone thrower to add to the point total was sophomore Ella Parker, who took third in the shot put (25 feet, 11.5 inches). She gave the Lady Raiders six more points.
Closing out the team’s scoring were Zoie Hill, Zykira Steele, Riley McDonald and Gibson in the 4×200-meter relay. The four runners finished fourth (2:00.28) and netted five points.
The Lady Raiders will get back to action next Saturday, Dec. 9, at Pinecrest High School. The meet is tentatively set to start at 10 a.m.
The Richmond Observer will publish the Richmond boys’ team’s results and a photo gallery of Saturday’s meet soon.
