Fast Track Invite: Parkland girls keeping it parked in overdrive

Fast Track High School Invitational
MileSplit Staff

Photos by Jeff Sides & Jeff George

The Fast Track Invitational at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem was one of the higher quality meets of the season found at the facility with a grand total of 137 MileSplit elite national performances. One of the more impressive races of the day was seen in the girls 300 meter dash with the Parkland duo of Ebony Williams and Kaitlin Sherman finishing 1-2 in the event with US top 5 times, despite being on flat tracks with Williams the winner in US #3 39.05 and Sherman right behind her in second place at US #5 39.06.

Their teammate McKinley McNeil was not able to improve upon her US #2 season best time of 1:14.27 in the 500, but the junior was not far off it with another sub 1:15 win in 1:14.70 after getting a bit of a race from Wakefield's Tia Robinson (US #6 1:16.00).

It is no surprise who the winners were of the 4x200 meter relay were either as the Parkland girls continue to run the fastest flat track times in the country in the event as they recorded another fine time of 1:40.95 on Saturday. Later, the Parkland (3:57) girls outdueled Wakefield (3:59) in the 4x400 meter relay with both squads pushing each other under 4 minutes.

Malia Ellington has no fear in doing the distance triple as she nearly was a winner in all 3 after the Community School of Davidson senior won the 1600 in a US #16 5:00.63, she came back to win the 1000 as well in a US top 20 time as well at 2:58.00. On certainly tired legs, Ellington gutted up a runner-up finish of 11:19 in the 3200 as she was unable to stay up with Foot Locker finalist Kathleen Mansure of Watauga, who posted a final time of 10:53.74 to earn herself a US #11 ranking.

US 55 meter hurdle leader Anna Cockrell of Providence Day School continues to dominant her closest competitors in North Carolina in the event as she turned in another sub 8 second clocking on Saturday at JDL Fast Track with her 7.97 performance. Not as fast as her US #1 7.88 season best, but her consistency under 8 seconds this season is to be noted.

Sydnei Murphy of Apex was a double winner in both the sprints with a 7.08 victory in the 55 meter dash as well as the triple jump with a mark of 38'4". Murphy had just run a US #3 time of 7.01 in the 55 meter dash only two days earlier at JDL Fast Track, while she still remains the nation leader in the triple jump after recording a leap of 40'10.25" against collegiate competition on January 10th.

Phillip Hall is certainly rounding back into top form that we saw earlier in the cross country season before suffering a nagging injury to slow him down in the last half of the fall. The South View senior won the 1600 meter run in runaway with a US #13 time of 4:16.18 as he had 6 seconds to spare on the runner-up finish, while doubled back to win the 3200 meter run in the same margin of 6 seconds with his time of 9:29.

The boys pole vault competition was outstanding with 3 competitors over 15 feet led by event winner Drew Pederson of Apex at 15'6". Apex vaulters faired very well at the meet with a 1-2 finish in the girls competition between Anna Eaton (1st, 12'6") and Zoe Early (2nd, 12'0").

Marcus Krah of Hillside just missed matching his US #3 season best time of 7.29 in the 55 meter hurdles with another quick race in a finals race at JDL Fast Track Classic with a 7.30 clocking this weekend. He clipped the last hurdle, so probably has a cleaner race and another PR ahead for the Al-American hopeful. Krah also ran a leg on the victorious Hillside boys 4x200 meter relay (1:32.73).

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

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