NCHSAA Crowns 6 New Schools As Indoor Track & Field State Champions

T.W. Andrews Girls - 1A/2A

Last year we saw T.W. Andrews win with just 4 girls on their indoor track team.  This year they narrowed it down to three girls with only two scoring points!  Nicole Barnes and Ciseley Brown both were entered in 4 events and needed to have a perfect day, plus some teams to falter, in order to defend their 1A/2A State Title.  Barnes was the favorite in the 55m Dash and 55m Hurdles and a contender in the long and triple jump.  With her rise in the hurdles on a national level this season she really hadn't spent as much time on her jumps as she had in previous years.

That all didn't matter.  Barnes has shown the last two years the she always rises to the occasion at the state championships.  Though Alyssa Thompson Rowe of Lexington challenged Barnes more than we thought in both the hurdles and the 55 dash, Barnes came out victorious.  After her main events ended early into the meet her focus was solely on the jumps.  In Long Jump Barnes was in 2nd most of the event behind Micaiah Darity of Hendersonville.  But on her final attempt she was able to hit a 17-7.25 to win by a little over 2 inches!  In the triple jump Jydia Faucette his a big mark early of 36-0.75.  Barnes fouled her first two attempts and was one more miss away from not making the finals.  Barnes had her best jump of the event hitting a 36-1.75 to pull ahead of Faucette by one inch.  it was a mark Faucette was not able to beat, though she had some high 35 marks in the finals.  If Barnes had fallen to Faucette they would have been tied with Croatan for 2nd, who had 45 points to Andrews 47.

Brown had a tough day where she had to run 4 events where she'd be fighting to score points in all of them.  Brown was able to do so with a 6th place finish in the 300, 7th place finish in the 500 and 7th place finish in the 55m Hurdles!  It was certainly a long day for both these girls, but what they were able to accomplish is something really special.