Staff report

GREENSBORO — North Rowan’s girls had great efforts from Brittany Ellis and Tai’lah Ward and finished fourth in the 1A Track and Field Championships held at North Carolina A&T’s Irwin Belk Track.

Ellis, a junior, swept the throws, just as she did last season. She won the shot put with an effort of 36 feet, 8 inches. She took the discus with a fling of 111 feet, 11 inches — a personal best.

Ellis won the shot with about 10 inches to spare and won the discus by 5 feet.

Ellis’ two firsts were worth 20 points. She and Ward accounted for 38 of North’s 48.

Ward placed high in three events— second in the 300 hurdles (44.93 seconds), third in the 200 (25.89) and fifth in the 100 (12.56).

Aniya Brown contributed a third in the 100 hurdles (15.60) and was sixth in the triple jump (32-2.75).

Azarea Miller earned a point for eighth place in the 100 hurdles (17.27).

North finished second in the state meet last spring with a sophomore-led team and was hopeful of breaking a long championship drought, but had to settle for fourth in the team scoring this time.

The Cavaliers didn’t score (top eight places) in the relays, where they normally are strong. They were a DQ for an exchange outside the zone in the 4×100 and finished ninth in the 4×200. They did not compete in the 4×400, the last event of the day.

Swain County rolled up 48 points in the distance events and went 1-3-4 in the pole vault and successfully defended its state title with 101 points. Albemarle placed second with 73, and Mountain Island Charter was third with 57.

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North Rowan’s boys scored nine points, with Quintin Wilson placing fourth in the 110 hurdles (15.60). Xavier Suber had a fifth place in the triple jump (41-7).

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Gray Stone’s Andrew Bitzer scored with a seventh place in the 100 meters. He was clocked in 11.40 seconds.

 

3A

South Rowan junior Eli Julian ran one of his greatest races on Friday in the 3A State Championships at North Carolina A&T— but finished second.

Julian concentrated all of his effort into the 3200 and the result was a PR clocking of 9:20.39, 19 seconds better than his seed time and a top-25 time this season for all N.C. classifications.

He still finished behind Orange standout Gabriel Schmid, who ran 9:14.94.

Julian accounted for South’s eight points in the meet.

Last spring, Julian ran both the 1600 and 3200 in the state meet and had a sixth and a seventh.

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South’s Maci Miller finished third in the high jump for six points.

She repeated last year’s finish and again cleared 5 feet, 2 inches.

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Freshman Cadi Joyner scored two points for the Carson girls. She jumped a PR 5 feet.

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The Salisbury girls moved to center stage as the 2A and 4A meets were held on Saturday.