SOUTHERN PINES — The regular season came to a close for the Richmond Senior High School girls’ track and field team Wednesday.
The Lady Raiders competed in the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship, which was held at Pinecrest High School.
With their overall score of 62 points, the Lady Raiders placed sixth out of seven qualifying teams in the championship.
Pinecrest won the conference title with 187.5 points, holding off second-place Union Pines High School (166 points). Also finishing ahead of Richmond were Hoke County (101.5 points), Scotland (80 points) and Lee County (72 points).
Rounding out the championship standings was seventh-place Southern Lee High School with 11 points.
Richmond didn’t have any individual event conference champions, but the team did bring home two second-place and two third-place finishes. Three Lady Raiders and one relay team also placed fourth.
Junior Ka’mora Watkins was the sole solo performer to earn second place. She recorded a distance of 16’-3.5” in the long jump, second only to Scotland’s Angel Scott (17’-11”).
The Lady Raiders’ 4x100-meter relay team was also event runner-up, finishing with a time of 50.98 seconds. Making up the four runners were Taylor Newton, Amariah Gibson, Amonie McNeil and Janie Walden.
In the 200-meter dash, Gibson was third overall in the finals heat. Her time of 26.57 seconds was just off pace of conference champion Briana St. Louis (Union Pines, 23.88 seconds).
Also taking third in her event was sophomore Tanaja Harrison. Competing in the triple jump, Harrison landed at 32’-5”. Winning the event was Union Pines’ Emmanuelle Whitehead (36’-8.5”).
Gibson and Watkins each earned one fourth-place finish. In the 100-meter dash, Gibson clocked in at 12.82 seconds, and Watkins launched to a distance of 31’-9” in the triple jump.
Richmond’s other individual fourth-place mark went to freshman Zarriahnna Ray in the shot put. Her farthest throw at the meet was 31’-2”.
Capping the team’s top performance was the 4x200-meter relay team of Gibson, McNeil, Harrison and Watkins. Their final time was 1:48.99.
The Lady Raiders will prepare for the NCHSAA 4A Mideast regional meet, which will be held at Green Hope High School May 10.
