Field Events
In the field events the highlight of the day should be the boys High Jump. Joseph Ibrahim (West Forsyth) ranks atop the state with his jump of 6-7 last weekend. Jordan Dale (Northwest Guilford, competing unattached) is right behind with a seasons best of 6-6, so it should be a tight battle amongst the two. We will also see Terrell Adams (Middle Creek), who leads NC in the shot currently with a mark of 56-4.25. With two other guys over 53 feet in the field - Aaron Wilkerson (Southern Guilford) and Daniel McArthur (Mooresville, competing unattached) - Adams will have to throw well to win. Elijah Cole (Millbrook) has had a great Pole Vault season as he looks to break 15-6 to gain sole possession of the NC #1 ranking; there should be a very competitive group of jumpers behind him, in the upper-14 to 15-foot range. The top returning long jumper in the state, Marcus Krah (Hillside), barely broke 20 feet last week, and that means he still needs a state-qualifying mark here. On the other hand, Krah did go over 47 feet in the triple jump, which makes him a heavy favorite this weekend.
Distance Events
Friday night's 3200 is not as stacked as it was last year, but that's what happens when Drew Hunter decides to race the pros instead of coming to the high school race (and who can blame him? it worked out well). Another Virginia standout, Fitsum Seyoum (Tuscarora), will hold the top seed, with Matthew Thornton (Cary), David Melville (Northern Guilford), and Alex Cornwell (Hickory Ridge) all vying to break 9:30.
Even with the Elite mile and 800 pulling some of the talent out of the 1600 and 1000, the two races will be extremely competitive. Seyoum clocked a 4:21 for the full mile last spring, and Derek Duin (Apex) and Todd Holbrook (RJ Reynolds) will push to challenge the 4:20 barrier, as will Cameron Ponder (Mt. Tabor) who had a stellar sophomore track season. Interestingly, the top 4 entries in the 1000 are all competing unattached: Jake Dehetre (Atlee VA) has the best time this season at 2:36, with Zachary Nolan (Unattached) and Mitchell Coleman (Cary Academy) right on his heels.
Sprint Events
In the Friday night events, Elliott Graves (Reidsville) is looking to regain his early form from December, when he ran 7.37 in the 55 Hurdles. He will most likely be unchallenged, with Cedric McGriff (Providence) the closest; both will also be in the Elite 60H. Joshua Cooper (Ardrey Kell, competing unattached) has been in the top 5 of the 500 rankings all season, and this is a great chance for him to reaffirm that status. He will have strong competition from Olin Ravenel III (Fort Dorchester SC), as well as Hopewell's Lee McKoy II (unattached). Don't be surprised if Khalil Gary (Southeast Raleigh) gets into the mix, as well.
Like the distance races, Saturday's sprint fields are a little depleted due to elite races, but we still see some NC top 10 guys in the state in the unseeded sections. Southeast Raleigh's David Smith ranks NC #10 with a 6.55 season best in the 55, and Jaylon Sanders (West Rowan) ranks NC #8 with a time of 35.39 in the 300. If the athlete entered as Avin Lane is the one from Kansas, he ran 10.75 last spring and could be interesting to watch in both races. Watch out for Cooper and his brother Justin in the 300, as well as Graves.
Relay Events
These are some of my favorite races of the two evenings as teams make the last push for state meet qualifying times and to drop some time for seeding. It's hard to know for sure what runners are on the relays but one thing I know is that you can't count Mt. Tabor out of a 4x800 regardless of who is running, and the Spartans will be looking to answer Green Hope's sub-8 relay from last weekend.. Same goes for Weddington, Southeast Raleigh, and Broughton, alll of which have always had great 4x8 teams in recent years. The 4x2 will feature all of the current top 5 teams in NC! Green Hope, Providence, Marvin Ridge, Parkland, and Hopewell will battle it out one last time before the state meet where 4 of the 5 teams will meet again. Green Hope currently leads NC in all 3 relay events after posting strong times in all three at VT last weekend, but the Falcons are only running the 4x2 this weekend. That opens the door for Parkland to potentially dominate the 4x400, where they ran 3:24 at Virginia Tech, almost 5 seconds better than anyone else in the race has run this season.
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