ROCKINGHAM — Competing in front of its home crowd for the second time this season, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ track and field team placed third during Thursday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference meet.
With the conference championship and regionals right around the corner, head coach Reggie Miller’s team opted to limit its participation in some events due to student-athletes already qualifying.
Finishing the day with 50 points, the Lady Raiders trailed Scotland and Union Pines high schools, which both collected 58 points.
Scoring in 10 different events, Richmond earned five first-place wins (25 points), four second-place finishes (12 points), three third-place marks (8 points) and five more fourth-place spots (5 points).
The Lady Raiders won the 4×200-meter relay, the discus and shot put, along with the triple jump and open 200-meter dash.
In the 4×200 relay, Richmond impressed with a time of 1:43.35, well ahead of second-place Scotland (1:51.72).
Helping earn 15.5 points in throwing events, Shadea Harrison won the discus with a final throw of 83 feet, 4 inches. That distance was over 10 feet further than the next challenger.
Honesty Horne chipped in five more points in the shot put, winning with a mark of 31 feet, 9 inches. Ella Parker was second in the event (27 feet, 9 inches) and Jasmine Jennings’ distance of 26 feet, 7 inches tied for third.
Rounding out the top spots was Akeya Harrison, who won both the triple jump (34 feet, 6 inches) and the 200-meter dash (25.30 seconds). Teammate Isis Covington was second in the open 200, crossing the finish line in 26.40 seconds.
Richmond had a trio of second and fourth-place finishes in the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the high jump.
Ja’Mya Fuller and Anayjah Dumas each took second and fourth place, respectively, in both hurdle events.
In the 100-hurdles, Fuller ran a time of 16.78 seconds and Dumas clocked in at 17.42 seconds. Following that in the 300-hurdles, they finished with times of 55.09 seconds and 57.50 seconds.
The high jump saw Rena Drake take second with a clearance of 4 feet, 6 inches, tying with Scotland’s Sonyla Thomas. Sharonda Henderson placed fourth in the event (4 feet, 2 inches).
Richmond’s two other third-place results were in the open 400-meter dash and the long jump, both secured by Nyla Stroman. She completed the run in 1:08 and jumped to a mark of 13 feet, 4 inches.
Fourth-place spots were added by Stroman in the triple jump (28 feet, 5 inches) and Horne in the discus (69 feet, 2 inches).
The Lady Raiders will compete in their final SAC regular-season meet on Thursday at host Pinecrest, alongside Hoke County. Events will begin at 4 p.m.
