Marvin Ridge Invitational Recap

The Parkland girls set meet records in two relays - and change uniforms several times - on the way to a big team win.

 

Meet Page

(Results, Photos)

 

Girls Recap

The two biggest highlights of the day came in two of the earliest events.  First, the Providence girls ran 9:46.85 in the 4x800, taking charge over the final two legs after a strong start by Ardrey Kell's Sydney Foreman.  Then, Bre'Anna Warren (Western Guilford, right) uncorked a 140' 4" heave in the discus throw, which is just barely her PR (she also threw a meet record 42' 6" in the shot put).  Both of those performances were in the national top 25 at the time, although the rankings change quickly at the beginning of the season.  Between the early date of the meet, thestrong headwind, and the loss of Sabrina Moore (North Mecklenburg) to what we hope was a minor injury, the individual girls' sprint events did not produce any remarkable results.  They were dominated by Parkland, who wne 2-4-5 in the 100, 1-3-4 in the 200, and won the 400.  Ebony Williams had the biggest day for the Mustangs, bringing home the titles in the 100 and 300 Hurdles.  However, it was the Parkland relays that really impressed, running meet-record times of 48.89 in the 4x100 and 1:41.35 in the 4x200.  After that kind of busy day, you can excuse them for losing the 4x400 to a strong Marvin Ridge team that ran 4:07.79.  The wind definitely affected the times in the distance races, but Malia Ellington (Community School of Davidson) still managed to grab two wins, clocking 5:10.53 in the 1600 and 11:30.96 in the 3200.  Dejah Hayes (Western Guilford) broke the meet record in the triple jump, posting a mark of 37' 2.5", but Talvanisha Lawing (AL Brown) prevented Hayes from sweeping the jumps by going 17' 4" in the long jump.  Finally, Sydney Blue (Ardrey Kell) cleared 5' 4" to break the meet record in the high jump.  On the strength of those performances, Parkland won big in the team scores, almost doubling the points of second-place Hardin Valley (TN).

 

 

Boys Recap

James Drummond (Lexington, left) continued to impress in the sprints, taking the 100 (10.84 into a -3.2 wind) and the 200 (21.81 into a -2.7 wind).  The second race was a PR for him, and he also defeated a strong competitor in Xavier Jones (Ragsdale, left, in blue).  Admittedly, Jones had some reasons to be tired by the time the 200 final came around; he won the 400 in 49.21, a meet record, and had to run trials in both the long sprints.  Elijah Edwards (Garinger) set a meet record and got a new PR in the high jump by clearing 6' 6"; no other competitor got higher than 6' 2".  The 3200 produced 4 sub-10 races despite the conditions, with North Lincoln teammates Ryan Shannon and Andrew Fea taking the top 2 spots; Shannon's winning time was 9:44..17.  Nationally-ranked 5K and two-mile runner Aaron Templeton (Hardin Valley) got a good battle from Wyatt Maxey (Providence) before pulling away to win and set a new meet record of 4:23.25.  The top performance among the 4 relays came from Rocky River in the 4x400, as their time of 3:29.90 was very impressive after a long day.  Marcus Abraham (Metrolina Christian) threw the discus 157' 2" to win a duel with Winston Craig (Ragsdale), who also exceeded 150 feet.  Abraham's mark was another meet record on a day that produced a number of them.  When all the dust had settled, it was the host school, Marvin Ridge, that kept the team trophy, winning by 24 points over Ardrey Kell.