CARY — Tickets to the state championship track and field meet have been punched for several student-athletes at Richmond Senior High School.
The road to Greensboro started over the weekend at the NCHSAA 4A Mideast regional championship meet for the Raiders, which featured two regional titles and two runner-up finishes.
Led by head coach John Rich, the Sandhills Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, the Raiders competed in a field of 24 high schools at Green Hope High School. As a team, Richmond finished sixth overall with 44 points.
Like he has all season, senior Aaron Coleman dominated the field in the 110-meter hurdles to bring home the regional championship. The SAC Runner of the Year finished the finals heat in 14.41 seconds, narrowly defeating Jaleel Griffin of Riverside High School (14.43 seconds).
Going hurdle-for-hurdle, Coleman pulled away from Griffin in the final 20 meters to secure the victory.
Richmond’s other regional championship was brought home by the 4x100-meter relay team made up of Coleman, juniors Jayden Hamilton and Keonta Pegues and freshman Ty Covington.
Coasting around the track and passing the baton, the four Raiders clocked in at 41.77 seconds. That was well ahead of runner-up Hillside High School (42.13 seconds). Hamilton gave Richmond a lead in the third leg before Covington broke it open in the final 100 meters.
Recording the Raiders’ runner-up performances were junior Domonic Tillman (triple jump) and the 4x200-meter relay team. Those runners were Covington, Hamilton and juniors Amer Morrison and Christian Surgent.
Tillman launched himself to a final distance of 45’-8.5” in the triple jump, finishing second only to William Leak of Hoke County High School (46’-5.5”). The 4x200 team clocked in at 1:28.02, just behind regional champion Hillside (1:26.13).
The Raiders had three other top-10 finishes at the regional meet. Coleman was fourth in the 300-meter hurdles (39.45 seconds), Tillman earned seventh in the high jump (5’-10”) and sophomore Elijah Ingram placed seventh in the shot put (44’-3”).
The Lady Raider track and field team also competed at regionals, but didn’t have any state qualifiers. The team’s best finish was 11th overall by freshman Zarriahnna Ray in the shot put (31’-4”).
Senior Amariah Gibson was 12th overall in the 100-meter (12.83 seconds) and 200-meter (26.14 seconds) dashes. Also 12th in the long jump was junior Ka’mora Watkins (15’-8.75”).
The NCHSAA 4A state championship will be held Saturday at North Carolina A&T State University.
