WINSTON-SALEM — Three Richmond Senior High School indoor track and field athletes recorded a total of four first-place finishes in the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship on Tuesday.
Competing against other SAC members and schools in the Southern Carolina Conference at the JDL Fast Track, the Raiders earned third place with 58 points.
Although competing against the SCC teams, Richmond’s final standing and event results were based on the other SAC scores and times.
Pinecrest High School won the team championship with 100 points, followed by Union Pines with 60 points.
Adding onto the team’s impressive performance were four second-place and four third-place marks, as well as two fourth and two fifth-place finishes.
It was a big day for junior field competitor Tyrene Stanback, who recorded two SAC individual champions. He won the long jump and triple jump and also placed third in the high jump.
In the long jump, Stanback launched to a distance of 20 feet, 7.5 inches to edge Christian Hacket of Union Pines by 1.25 inches.
Stanback put a little more distance between himself and Shaun Thomas from Pinecrest in the triple jump, landing with a final mark of 41 feet, 4 inches. Thomas took second place with a distance of 41 feet, 1 inch.
Closing his performance in the high jump, Stanback cleared the bar at 6 feet, 0 inches.
A duo of sophomore runners were the other two SAC champions for the Raiders, as Nicholas Griggs and Travion Smith brought home some hardware.
In the open 300-meter dash, Smith clocked in with a time of 38.38 seconds, just 0.04 seconds faster than Pinecrest’s Jadin Baptist in the same heat.
Griggs led the way of three Raiders to finish in the top four spots of the 55-meter hurdles, winning the event with a time of 8.89 seconds. Junior Marquan Martin finished third (9.11 seconds) and sophomore Domonic Tillman took fourth (9.24 seconds).
Senior sprinter and thrower Taye Spencers notched two of the Raiders’ four second-place finishes, and contributed to one of the the other two runner-up spots as part of a relay team.
In the 55-meter sprint, Spencer finished on the heels of winner Ethan Biggs from Union Pines, crossing the finish line in 6.67 seconds. Biggs was 0.11 seconds faster to earn the win.
Moving to the field events, Spencer launched the shot put 40 feet, 7 inches to add more second-place points for Richmond. Winning was Scotland’s Amare Chance (45 feet, 9 inches).
Freshman Tyler McKenzie placed third overall in the shot put, muscling his throw to a mark of 35 feet, 1 inch.
Richmond’s 4×200-meter and 4×400-meter relay teams were responsible for the other two second-place points.
Keonta Pegues, Emonie McBride, Jaliel Green and Spencer recorded a time of 1:34.15 in the 4×200 race, just 1.44 seconds behind Pinecrest.
In the 4×400, it was Smith, Jordan Bostick, Demetrius Everette and Linden Garcia who took second with a final mark of 3:53.06. Pinecrest had a big lead, winning in 3:47.43.
Also contributing with a third-place performance was the 4×800-meter relay team made up of Jemell Bingham, Tristan Holloway, Travis Hotter and Joshua Yarbrough. They combined for a time of 11:39.78.
Rounding out Richmond’s points were Garcia in the the 300-meter dash (39.47 seconds, 4th place), freshman Chamaure Shaw in the long jump (18 feet, 8.5 inches, 5th place) and sophomore Cameron Gladden in the 500-meter run (1:16.10, 5th place).
Richmond will prepare for the NCHSAA 4A state champion meet on Feb. 10 and 11 in Winston-Salem.
