Boys NCHSAA 3A State Meet Recap
The boys' competition did not have a triple winner like the girls' side did, but there were three impressive double winners in the meet. Noah Shore (Asheville) may have had the most impressive weekend of anybody in terms of his improvement; he entered the meet with a PR of 4:23.87 in the 1600, then left A&T with a 4:14.48 NC #1 mark and a 6-second win. He also claimed victory in the 800, his time of 1:56.23 barely edging out Walter Brown (Southern Guilford) and Darius Futrell (Richlands), both of them also under 1:57. Matther Conner (Weddington) only won a single event, but what a win (and what a race) it was! Conner went 9:18.41 to triumph over a field that had 8 guys under 9:37 and 5 at 9:30 or faster.
Senior Earl Green (Southern Guilford) capped off a strong school year by winning the 110 Hurdles in 14.44 and then taking the 300 Hurdles with a 38.97. After losing the East Regional 400 to Jazire Notice (Jacksonville), this time it was R.J. Russell (Richlands) who claimed the win, clocking 48.86 to win by only 0.05 seconds! Titus Toms (Burns) also pulled out a close win in the 100, 10.73 - 10.77 over North Carolina newcomer Avin Lane (Cox Mill). Sophomore Nadir Thompson (Southern Nash) was the 200 champion after racing to a NC #5 time of 21.55.
The other double winner on the day was the Sun Valley relay squad, who brought home full sets of gold medals from the 4x100 and the 4x200. The Spartans first posted a NC #4 1:27.60 in the 4x2, winning by nearly a full second, and then they blazed to a NC #3 41.75, 8 tenths of a second ahead of Cox Mill. Those races came after Richlands set the tone for the whole meet by running 7:47.56 in the 4x800, improving their NC #2 ranking and moving up to US #19. At the other end of Friday's meet, Jacksonville won the 4x400 in 3:19.71.
Bailey Frederick (Marvin Ridge) may have had the most impressive single performance of the day, clearing 16' 1" NC #1 to win the pole vault by 13 inches over teammate Carter Clasper. Samuel Johnson (Statesville) came oh-so-close to getting two wins after taking the long jump with a mark of 22' 10". The sophomore then finished second by only 5.5" in the triple jump to champion Jaquay Mitchell (Southern Nash), who leapt 47' 9.5". Sherrod Greene (Rocky Mount) brought home the gold medal in an extremely competitive shot put, his 55' 11.5" holding off four other contenders at 52' 9" or better. Tyson Fortenberry (Ashbrook) was able to hold off Zachary Farmer (Hunt) and Bubba Taylor (West Carteret), the three of them separated by less than 2 feet.
While Taylor Kirk was competing as the veteran in the girls wheelchair shot put, Tylor Brown (Piedmont) represented the newcomers in the boys' competition of the same event. Brown threw 10' 3.5" in his first state meet experience, and as a junior he will be back for more (and hopefully for indoor season as well) next year.