WINSTON-SALEM — A trio of Richmond Senior High School student-athletes brought home a conference championship crown Friday.
Although the Raider and Lady Raider indoor track and field teams’ season was cut short by weather, Richmond was well-represented at the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship meet at the JDL Fast Track.
Seniors Aaron Coleman and Amariah Gibson, along with junior Ka’mora Watkins, each finished atop the conference in one of their respective events.
Coleman and Gibson both won sprinting events, the 55-meter hurdles and 55-meter dash, respectively. Watkins was the conference winner in the long jump.
Both of Richmond’s teams competed to a fourth-place finish. The Lady Raiders had 60 points and the Raiders earned 47 points.
Winning both of the team conference titles was Pinecrest High School. The Patriots recorded 225 points and the Lady Patriots finished with 201 points.
Raiders led by Coleman, Pegues at SAC championship
Coleman and junior Keonta Pegues each picked up a large chunk of Richmond’s points. Leading the team with 18 points in two events was Coleman, while Pegues added 11 points in three events.
Winning the 55-meter hurdles, Coleman clocked in with a time of 7.61 seconds, not far off his school record time set last week (7.49 seconds). He edged Caleb Milton (Union Pines High School), who finished second in 7.95 seconds, for the 10 points.
Coleman’s other eight points came in the 55-meter dash. He placed second overall in the event with a time of 6.51 seconds, just behind Pinecrest’s Keaten Pegues (6.45 seconds).
Pegues’ best finish was third overall in the long jump. Already qualified for the state championship, Pegues landed at a final distance of 20 feet, 9 inches (six points).
He was also fifth in the open 55-meter race with a new personal record of 6.64 seconds (four points) and finished 12th in the 300-meter sprint (38.74 seconds, one point).
Richmond’s 4x800-meter relay team picked up five points with a fourth-place finish (12:16.66), while the 4x200-meter relay team added four points with a fifth-place time of 1:42.73.
A trio of Raiders combined for the remaining nine points — freshman Ty Covington (300-meter dash), sophomore Jeremy Lindsey (high jump) and senior K’Mauri Morgan (shot put).
Covington brought in four points with an eighth-place time of 38.40 seconds, Morgan was sixth in the shot put and had three points (34 feet, 1 inch), and Lindsey cleared the bar at 5 feet, 2 inches (seventh place, two points).
Gibson, Watkins win individual conference titles
Similar to the Raiders’ effort, the Lady Raiders were primarily led by two performers — Gibson and Watkins.
Leading the team with 24 points, Watkins finished with points in all four of her events — the long jump (10 points), high jump and triple jump (five points each) and the 55-meter dash (four points).
Gibson ended the meet with 18 points courtesy of the 55-meter dash (10 points) and the 300-meter dash (eight points).
The 10-point events for Gibson and Watkins were in their conference championship-winning performances. Gibson ran a PR time of 7.52 seconds in the open 55 race, while Watkins jumped to a PR of 15 feet, 10 inches in the long jump.
Nearly clinching another conference title, Gibson was second in the 300-meter dash (eight points). She finished in 44.98 seconds (a new PR), just behind Akeelah Knox (Pinecrest, 42.93 seconds).
Watkins’ marks in the high jump and triple jump were 4 feet, 6 inches (fourth place) and 32 feet, 7.50 inches (fourth place), respectively. Her 55-meter race time of 7.84 seconds, also a new PR, landed the team four points (fifth place).
Senior Anayjah Dumas and the 4x400-meter relay team each added five points. Dumas placed sixth in the long jump (three points) with a distance of 14 feet, 7 inches and was seventh overall in the 55-meter hurdles (10.37 seconds, two points). The 4x4 team was fourth overall with a time of 4:53.87.
Rounding out the Lady Raiders’ points were the 4x200-meter relay team (fifth place, four points), freshman Duraysia McDonald (500-meter dash, two points), junior Taylor Newton (300-meter dash, one point) and freshman Chrislynn Culley (55-meter hurdles, one point).
Richmond’s indoor track and field teams will compete in a “Last Chance” meet Thursday at Pinecrest High School to try and get more student-athletes qualified for the state championship.
