WINSTON-SALEM — A trio of Lady Raiders combined to earn four total Sandhills Athletic Conference championship titles in their respective events during Tuesday’s conference championship meet.
Participating in the event at the JDL Fast Track, Richmond placed third overall as a team with 53 points.
Winning the team championship was Pinecrest High School (81 points), followed by Union Pines High School (68 points).
The Lady Raiders also competed against schools from the Southern Carolina Conference, but only points and times from the SAC competitors were factored into the final standings.
As a team, Richmond also recorded three second-place finishes, two third-place marks, five fourth-place postings and two more fifth-place performances.
Senior Akeya Harrison was the frontrunner for the Lady Raiders, winning two individual titles while also earning a second and fourth-place finish.
Both of Harrison’s wins came in field events, starting with the long jump. She jumped out to a final distance of 16 feet, 3.25 inches, beating Shidaya Billings of Scotland High School by less than an inch.
Following that win with another in the triple jump, Harrison was one of three Lady Raiders to finish in the top four. Her championship jump of 32 feet, 6.75 inches was five inches farther than second-place finisher Reagan Scepurek (Pinecrest).
Sophomore teammates Anayjah Dumas (29 feet, 2.75 inches) and Ja’Mya Fuller (29 feet, 2 inches) took third and fourth, respectively.
Richmond’s other two championship performances also came in field events, courtesy of senior Honesty Horne and freshman KaMora Watkins.
Horne won the shot put with a throw of 31 feet, 10.5 inches, almost a full three feet farther than Nicole Norman of Union Pines (29 feet, 2 inches). Watkins clinched the high jump title, clearing the bar at 4 feet, 10 inches.
Harrison rounded out her big afternoon on the track in the 300-meter dash (46.64 seconds, 2nd place) and the 55-meter sprint (7.67 seconds, 4th place).
Fellow senior sprinter Isis Covington impressed in the open 55-meter, taking second overall with a time of 7.50 seconds. Briana St. Louis of Union Pines held on for the win by 0.28 seconds.
Richmond’s other second-place finish came in the 1000-meter run, seeing sophomore Mariana Mendez cross the finish line in 3:30.65. She added a fourth-place time of 5:55.32 in the 1600-meter race.
Adding more points with a third-place time of 1:57.09 was the Lady Raider 4×200-meter relay team. Contributing were Covington, Fuller, Kym Wall and Taylor Newton.
Newton, Watkins, Wall and Tenaziah McNeil earned fourth-place in the 4×400-meter relay (4:48.42). Fuller also took fourth place in the 55-meter hurdles (10.20 seconds).
The Lady Raiders’ two fifth-place marks were recorded by Fuller in the long jump (15 feet, 3 inches) and Dumas in the 55-meter hurdles (10.85 seconds).
Up next for the Lady Raiders will be the NCHSAA state championship meet, which will be held in Winston-Salem on Feb. 10 and 11.
