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Josh Collins competes in triple jump at the WCU meet.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Swain County High’s Maroon Devils track and field team scored first at the Alan Peoples Invitational meet in Polk County over the weekend, which saw teams competing from all over the state.
Meanwhile, the Lady Devils scored second at the Invitational.
Swain knocked Grimsley High School from first place by a 130 to 125 score. Owens was third with 117 points.
In terms of individuals, Matthew Gray on pole vault and Kelan McCullough on hurdles got the only first place finishes for Swain that day, with Gray clearing 15’ in pole vault. McCullough got 15.93 at the 110-meter hurdles to take that prize.
Meanwhle, McCullough finished third at pole vault with 12’6”, and Austin Jenkins got 16:05 in the 110 meter hurdles.
Elsewhere, Gray got third place in long jump, clearing 20’2”. Nse Uffort got two second-place finishes, in both the shot and discus, and Josiah Glaspie got second place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.14 seconds.
The girls’ track team finished with 165 points, second to Greensboro’s 180 points.
Arizona Blankenship took four first-place finishes, getting the 800-meter dash done in 2 minutes and 29 seconds and taking first in the one mile run with a time of 5 minutes and 12 seconds. She also helped her team including Amaya Hicks, Annie Lewis and Gracie Monteith win the 4x800 meter run in first place, with a time of 9 minutes and 52 seconds.
Lewis and Hicks also finished first and second in the 1600 meter run, while Melani Linton took second in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles.
“I was very pleased with our performance,” said coach Ian Roper. “Coming into the day, I knew that we would see good competition, but didn’t feel that we would have very good times/marks due to the weather. However, we had several athletes set personal bests that moved them up in the state rankings.”