FAYETTEVILLE — The Richmond Senior High School girls’ track and field team made a name for itself to open its season on Saturday.
Competing in the Tiger Relays Invitational at Reid Ross High School, the Lady Raiders and head coach Reggie Miller raced to a second-place finish out of 22 teams.
Racking up 75.5 points, Richmond trailed only Pinecrest High School (108 points), which will be one of the Lady Raiders’ biggest competitors in the Sandhills Athletic Conference.
Helping Richmond secure the impressive finish in the season-opening meet were first-place wins in the 4×200-meter relay and the discus competition.
Sophomore Rayana Shubert won the discus throw with a mark of 106 feet and 5 inches, out-throwing Kenya Hall of Gray’s Creek High School by exactly a foot.
Perhaps one of the strongest elements on this year’s team is the 4×200 meter relay team, comprised of seniors Monasia Kearns and Bree Wall and freshmen Isis Covington and Andrea Ellerbe.
The foursome smoked the competition in the championship race, clocking in with a time of 1:49.93. That was two and a half seconds faster than second-place finisher Jack Britt High School, which finished in 1:52.43.
New to the squad this year are Covington and Ellerbe, who will look to add to the group that broke the school record in the event last season.
Ellerbe was also Richmond’s top racer in the 100-meter dash, taking fifth overall with a time of 13.43 seconds.
Another big performer for the Lady Raiders was junior Jakerra Covington, a state championship qualifier from last season. Competing in several events on Saturday, she placed second in the high jump and took third in the long jump.
In the high jump, which Covington participated in during the state championship last spring, she posted a mark of 4 feet, 10 inches, just two inches behind winner Madison Bryant (Union Pines High School).
The long jump saw Covington post a mark of 17 feet even, just five inches off the first-place tally.
Covington, Kearns, Wall and senior Allexis Swiney combined for a second-place finish in the throwers 4×100-meter relay. The four Lady Raiders made the transfer of the baton around the track in 1:03.00, only 3.93 ticks behind Knightdale High School.
Swiney and teammate Kibreauna Stewart also combined for 13 points in the triple jump.
In her final attempt, Swiney took second with a distance of 33 feet and 5.25 inches, while Stewart launched herself into fourth place, landing at 32 feet and 9 inches.
The Lady Raiders will return to the track on Thursday when they open their SAC slate at Scotland High School. Other teams in action, starting at 4 p.m., will be Purnell Swett and Seventy-First high schools.
