CAMERON — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ indoor track and field team recorded its best performance on the season on Saturday.
Competing in the second Sandhills Athletic Conference Polar Bear Invitational in as many weeks, the Raiders took second overall out of seven teams.
Richmond used three first-place finishes to help collect 114.5 points, a season-high, and trailed only Pinecrest High School (234 points). Head coach John Rich and Richmond finished ahead of third-place Cape Fear High School (93 points).
A trio of Raider athletes — two sprinters and one jumper — brought home first overall in their respective event.
Collecting 10 points each were junior Linden Garcia in the 300-meter dash and freshman Tyrene Stanback in the triple jump. Junior Marquan Martin notched nine points when he finished tied for first in the 55-meter hurdles.
Stanback launched to a distance of 37 feet, 11 inches, which was 4.5 inches farther than second place Shaun Thomas (37 feet, 6.5 inches). Garcia won the 300-meter race with a mark of 38.21 seconds, almost a full second ahead of Michael Rice Jr. (39.18 seconds, Douglas Byrd).
In the 55-meter hurdles, Martin impressed with a final time of 9.66 seconds, which was matched by Kamari Faison of Cape Fear. The two runners edged second place finisher Cameron Hogan (9.68 seconds, Union Pines).
Richmond added 32 more points to its score with four second-place performances. Stanback continued his successful day with a height of 5 feet, 4 inches in the high jump, which was won by Thomas (6 feet, 4 inches).
Adding another individual second-place finish was freshman Cameron Gladden in the 1000-meter run. He clocked in at 3:01.77, just over eight seconds slower than Luke Valencia (2:53.13, Pinecrest).
Two of the Raiders’ relay teams also raced their way to second-place times. The 4×200-meter team, made up of seniors Emoni McBride and Taye Spencer, along with junior Jaliel Green and Stanback, completed the relay in 1:36.63. Pinecrest won the event with a time of 1:34.38.
Richmond’s 4×400-meter relay team made all four laps around the track with a mark of 3:54.83. Running for the Raiders were sophomores Ahjujuan Ewing, Andre Green, Javion Smith and Dillon Veach.
A pair of third-place jumpers contributed 11.5 more points to the Raiders’ overall score. Stanback capped his day with a third-place distance of 19 feet, 3 inches in the long jump, a half an inch behind second place and seven inches away from the winner (Wade Harris Jr., Pinecrest).
Fellow freshman Chamaure Shaw earned a tie for third place in the high jump, clearing the bar at 5 feet, 2 inches. Collecting 5.5 points, Shaw jumped the same height as Brayden Mahurin (Pinecrest).
Rounding out Richmond’s top point-scorers were two more sprinters and another jumper. Spencer raced his way to a fourth-place time of 6.92 seconds in the 55-meter dash, just 0.23 seconds behind winner Raysean Hunter (Cape Fear, 6.69 seconds).
Junior Demetrius Everette and sophomore Nicholas Griggs also nabbed fourth-place finishes. Everett completed the 300-meter dash in 39.37 seconds and Griggs jumped to a posting of 18 feet, 2 inches in the long jump for five points each.
The Raiders collected their final 27 points from nine athletes — McBride (5 points), Shaw (4 points), Tristan Holloway (4 points), Travion Smith (4 points), A.J. Speach (3 points), Griggs (2 points), Jordan Bostick (2 points), Jah’Amere Ratliff (2 points) and Martin (1 point).
Up next for the Raiders is the N.C. Runners Holiday Invitational at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem on Saturday.
