Gary Ayers
Ayers5315@bellsouth.net
Swain's girls and boys track and field teams won state titles in the NCHSAA 1A championships Monday at N.C. A&T university at Greensboro. It was a tale of two different stories as the girls had the title in hand by lunch-time, and the boys captured the title with drama by winning the final event of the day.
Swain's Lady Devils crushed the runner up teams of Lejeune and Avery, who tied for second, by a score of 94-41 as Swain won its fourth track and field title in a row and sixth championship overall.
"Our girls have won 10 straight titles going back to 2021, with this our fourth outdoor title, three cross country titles and three indoor championships," said Head Coach Ian Roper. "Our girls were dominant today because we put in the work and preparation. We run like we expect to dominate, and our girls pulled away from the pack and lapped the field."
Swain really owned the long-distance races, as Arizona Blankenship won the 1,600 and 3,200 and Angelina Lomelli took second in the 1,600 and third in the 3,200. Annie Lewis won the 800-meter event, while the 4x800 meter relay team of Blankenship, Lomelli, Emily Grey Stargell and Lewis took first place by almost 23 seconds with a new meet record of 9:37.43.
Here are the outstanding results of a tremendous team: Annie Lewis 800 meters 1st, 2:14.97; Arizona Blankenship 1,600 meters 1st, 5:06.64 and 3,200 meters 1st, 11:00.45; Angelina Lomelli 1,600 meters 2nd, 5:13.85 and 3,200 meters 3rd, 11:37.79; Melani Linton, 300 meter hurdles 3rd, 46.15; 4x200 meter relay team of Marlee Hicks, Audrey Monteith, Mya Burrows-Kurr and Melanie Linton 12th, 1:51.62; 4x400 meter relay team of Linton, Monteith, Burrows-Kurr, and Annie Lewis, 6th, 4:20.25; 4x800 meter relay team of Blankenship, Lomelli, Grey Stargell, and Lewis 1st, 9:37.43.
In the field events, Gracie Sutton took 3rd place in the high jump with a jump of 5'2", three Lady Devils placed in pole vault with Alden Thomas 2nd, 10'0"; Hannah Wingate 3rd, 9'6"; and Carden Oetting 5th, 9' 0."
Faith Woodard took 3rd in the shot put at 35'5.25."
Talking with several fans and coaches from other teams during the day, the word "dynasty" kept being used to describe the Swain girl’s team.
Just like a walk-off homerun or a last-second basket, the Swain boys added pulsating drama to capture the boy’s title by literally winning their final event of the day to beat Mountain Island Charter 81-75.
"We need to finish no worse than fourth to win state," said Roper before the event took place in the boys 4x400 meter relay as Swain was behind Mountain Island by four points. And did the relay team ever deliver!
Josh Collins, Abhi Patel, Connor Brown and Josiah Glaspie not only finished in the top four, but won the event out-right to grab the state title with a time of 3:28.16 led by a scorching run by Glaspie in the anchor leg.
"Josiah being healthy really helped us today. That was a gutsy performance with so much on the line in the final event by our men. Our boy’s team has gotten stronger in the sprint events and that really elevated our team this year," said a happy Roper following the relay win.
"I'm excited," said Nse Uffort before setting a personal record in the shot-put event of 61' 9.5" which was more than 11 feet better than second place to get the boys team off to a fast start in the first event of the day.
"I want to finish strong today and then get ready for football season." Uffort also had a third-place finish in the discus event with a throw of 141' 9".
Other top finishers for Swain in the field events saw three Maroon Devils place in the pole vault with Owen Craig 3rd at 12' 6", Evan Hall 5th at 11'0" and Duncan Brown 6th at 11' 0".
Here are the boys track results from Greensboro: Zeke Glaspie, 200 meters, 8th, 22.51, Josiah Glaspie, 400 meters, 3rd, 50.17, Kane Jones, 800 meters, 6th, 2:02.47, Connor Brown, 1600 meters, 3rd, 4:23.79, Carl Baird, 1600 meters, 5th, 4:26.47, relay team in the 4x100 of Zeke Glaspie, Josiah Glaspie, Josh Collins and Keyanthae Graham, 3rd, 43:00. and the 4x800 meter relay team of Abhi Patel, Connor Lambert, Kane Jones, and Carl Baird, 2nd, 8:15.97.