Girls NCHSAA 2A State Meet Recap
Brittany Stanley (Mt. Pleasant) came into her senior year as arguably the state leader in near misses at state championships: she had been the runner-up 3 times in her career, and had finished 3rd another 3 times. She had another near miss in cross country, when she fell near the end of a race she had dominated. She broke through with wins in the 1600 and 3200 at the indoor state meet, and she will now close out her career as a four-time champion! Stanley took the 1600 in 4:59.96 NC #6, her first time under 5 minutes, and set another PR with a 2:13.53 NC #5 in the 800. She did not compete in the 3200, which was won by Kaitlyn Stone (West Stokes) in 10:53.80 NC #4, a milestone race for her as well.
Payton Russell (North Rowan) also brought home two wins, running 56.44 to dominate the 400 and then clocking 24.83 to earn gold in the 200. It would have been interesting to see her battle 100 champ Tajah Walston, but the Cummings senior did not run, preventing a possible double for her. Teammate Kayla Moore did get two golds, taking the 100 Hurdles in 13.71 NC #2 US #15 NC #12 All-Time and then coming back to win the 300 Hurdles in 43.79 NC #6. Another Cummings athlete, Kenyae Majors, had one win in the long jump, plus two second-place finishes (100H and triple jump).
Based on that previous paragraph, you might guess that Cummings has some good relays. You would be right: the Cavaliers won the 4x100 in 48.52 and the 4x200 in 1:41.59. North Rowan survived a major battle with Lake Norman Charter in the 4x400, clocking 4:07.76, while Smoky Mountain was the only 4x800 team to break 10 minutes.
T.W. Andrews may have finished second in the team scoring, but they had two individuals that left with championships. Mikel Franklin won the high jump by clearing 5' 7", and Peighton Russell jumped 38 feet to claim gold in the triple jump.