PEARL — The McComb High School girls track team got out of the blocks quickly at the 3A/4A State Track Meet on Friday. They put up enough points in the early events to coast to their second straight state championship, while everyone else provided some great finishes.
McComb’s Brittany Harrell set two 4A State marks in her first two events. She needed one jump at four different heights to take the gold in the high jump before setting the record on her fifth height at 5 feet, 71/2 inches. She pushed the bar up to 5-8, but missed on all three of her jumps.
At the long jump pit, Keira Patterson was pushed and responded by outjumping Pontotoc’s Ebony Brinker by 1/2 an inch at 18-8. Brinker jumped 18-71/2 on her first jump, before Patterson hit 18-8 on her second attempt.
“That was the first time I’ve had competition,” Patterson said. “I got pushed and it felt good knowing I won.”
Tomisha Swington jumped 18-6 on her fifth attempt to take bronze in the long jump for McComb, as well.
Harrell didn’t have any trouble setting the 4A State record in the 100-meter hurdles as she crossed the finish line with a 14.43 before the rest of the field had cleared the last hurdle.
She trekked to the other side of the field to receive her medal on the podium before she found out she had set the 4A record.
Harrell had hoped to rewrite the 300 hurdles record as well, but she chopped her steps before the final hurdle and had to make do with her 10th individual medal in her McComb High School career. She earned her third medal of the day as a member of the 4 x 200 relay team.
“I was thinking too much,” Harrell said. “The records came with a lot of conditioning, but this was a team effort. I’m hoping for a repeat next year.”
The girls 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay teams each won their races to push McComb past what Pontotoc scored for second place, while the Tigers kept picking up points. In both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200, Patterson ran the third leg and erased any deficit the Tigers had, setting up the anchor leg to take home the victory, which they did.
Tonja Bonds kept McComb putting points on the board with a second-place finish in the 200 meters.
For the rest of the afternoon, close finishes kept things interesting.
The McComb boys 4 x 200 relay team won its race, Demarcus Jenkins finished second in the 200 meters and Lamarvin Ashley finished third in the 100. But it was Torun Robinson’s 400 meter victory that came by the slimmest margin. Robinson has raced Mendenhall’s Jamie McIntosh for each of the past three weekends. He lost at South State and Division, but won at Regional. On Friday, Robinson outleaned McIntosh at the finish line to win 49.23 to 49.24.
“I knew it was between me and him,” Robinson said. “I had to lean forward. We were that close.”
The McComb boys finished in third as a team and much like the girls return everybody for a run at next year’s title.
In the 3A events, Amite County’s Kent Bates and North Pike’s Kaleb Hart battled for second place in the 1,600 meters for 31/2 laps. Bates and Hart swapped in and out, while keeping their heads on a swivel for each other.
Around the final curve and down the home stretch, the trail pack caught up with the front three runners. Evan Blair of Corinth caught both for second. While Bates held on for third, Goffrey Fayne of Byhalia caught Hart for fourth place.
Bates also finished seventh in the 800 meters.
In the final event of the day for the 3A boys, Tylertown’s 4 x 400 relay team battled Carthage’s to the end of the fourth lap. Both runners lunged at the finish, falling into a heap just over the line. After a look at the video, officials couldn’t see a clear winner so both teams received gold medals and a time of 3:26.10.
Brandon Thompson also finished second in the triple jump for Tylertown.
Franklin County’s boys took fourth and the girls finished in fifth as a team in 3A. Kerrie Huff took second in 100 meters. Vintrice Briggs finished second in triple jump and the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay teams took second.
Milton Griffin took third in the high jump. Teammate Jamie Collins took fourth in the high jump, but also finished third in the triple jump, first in the shot put and second in discus.
