Richmond sophomores Aaron Coleman and Tyrene Stanback and senior Emerson Wall gather for a photo during practice at Raider Stadium on Monday.
Mark Bell | For the Daily Journal
ROCKINGHAM — Three Richmond Raiders will compete at the NCHSAA Class 4A Outdoor State Track and Field Championships at North Carolina A&T State University on Saturday in Greensboro.
Senior Emerson Wall and sophomores Tyrene Stanback and Aaron Coleman will compete in the triple jump, high jump, and 110 hurdles, respectively.
Richmond Raider head track coach Reggie Miller said making it to the state finals was no easy task.
“All of us have dreams,” he said. “However, it takes a tremendous amount of tenacity, focus, discipline, and effort to make goals come true.”
Miller said each of the three student-athletes did a tremendous job at the Mideast Regionals that was held in Cary on Saturday.
“They believed, and they achieved,” he said. “Their hard work, determination, and commitment showed why they deserved to compete for an individual championship.”
He said regionals were a tough competition, but only the top four in each event move on to the next level of the competition.
“I think our kids did a great job Saturday,” Miller said. “We took fifteen kids to regionals; they left it all on the track.”
John Rich, the assistant track coach, said that before each track meet, he wants the student-athletes to be prepared to win, be in the right mindset, and be focused on their specific events for the day.
“Everyone that we brought up today is in the top 16 in our region,” he said. “That’s pretty good because everyone doesn’t have the opportunity to make it here.”
Emerson Wall
In boys’ triple jump prelims, Wall reached the 43-foot mark to get him into the finals, where he added 10 inches to his previous jump for a fourth-place finish and a trip to the state finals.
He has been competing in both the triple and long jumps since his sophomore year. Wall, who also played football, said joining track three years ago was a sport that interested him and something he could quickly excel at in a short time span.
“I have potential in it from the beginning,” he said. “This is something I am good at, and it came naturally.”
He said both football and track required him to be in shape, so the transition from one to the other was seamless. “After a football injury, I really needed to concentrate on track and get to state,” he said.
Before the regional meet, Wall’s grandmother, Alfreda, reminded him always to do his best and leave it all out on the track.
“She always tells me to push myself and work to my limits,” he said. “My whole family has been behind me this entire track season. Between the coaches and my family, I have had a lot of encouragement and support throughout the year.”
Tyrene Stanback
Stanback is headed to the state finals with a third-place finish in the high jump at 6 feet, 2 inches.
Although it’s only his first year competing in the high jump, he’s no stranger to the sport. His older brother, Javares, competed at the state finals last year in the high jump and finished in fifth place.
High jump might run in the family, but it took a little push by Rich to get Tyrene into the high jump events.
“He saw me doing flips on the field and asked if I was interested in the high jump,” he said. “Of course, I wanted to follow in my brother’s footsteps and hopefully bring home a medal.”
Tyrene said Coach Rich had been a role model for him throughout the track season.
“He inspires me,” he said. “He has been like a dad to me, and it’s the good and bad that comes with it. If he knows you’re not giving it all, he’s going to let you know he’s watching. He expects excellence from everyone, and he will ensure we are giving our all-in at practices and at our meets.”
Tyrene has an opportunity to log a higher jump than his brother at the state championships this week.
“It’s a friendly competition between us,” he said but admitted his brother can jump higher – for now.
Aaron Coleman
Coleman came in second place in the preliminaries in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.97, beating out Hillside’s Desmond Smith by .02 second for his heat. In the finals, he came in third place behind Hillside’s two runners with a time of 15.16 seconds. Coleman’s third-place finish will take him to the state championships on Saturday.
In the boys’ 300-meter hurdles, Coleman ran a 41.30-second race for a sixth-place finish.
Coleman found the love of hurdles, thanks to his track coach. He had been wrestling but wanted to give hurdles a try, but he said he wasn’t big enough for wrestling.
“I’m going to try indoor track,” he said about the switch in sports. That decision would change his path in high school sports for the better.
Coleman has dominated the SAC competition throughout the year, and at the Mideast Regionals, he said hurdles is a mind game for him before each race.
“If you mentally feel like you can do it, you can do it,” he said before his final race of the day. “If I knock down a hurdle, I run through it and don’t let it discourage me during the race. It’s like, in life, you just have to keep going and don’t look back.”
Coleman said the best part about the Raider track team is being part of a family.
“Everyone supports each other whether we win or lose,” he said. “Our coaches and teammates bring us the confidence to be successful. We may have individual events, but we are one team.”
Not all Raiders will go on to the next level this year, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, said Rich.
“They have put so much effort and time into their sport, and they have so much to be proud of to represent their school at this level,” he said. “They are all elite athletes, and nobody can take that away from them. They pushed themselves to be the best, and that’s all we can ask of them.”
The rest of the field
In the 100-meter dash, Isis Covington, a senior, ran 12.62 seconds in the preliminaries for fifth place, which was good enough to get her into the finals, where she finished in sixth place with a sprint of 12.68 seconds. Covington missed going to the state finals by .31 seconds.
Akeya Harrison, a senior at Richmond Early College, and Covington both ran the 200-meter dash. In the first preliminary heat, Covington ran it in 26.47 seconds for a seventh-place finish, and Harrison ran a 26.21-second race in the second heat.
In the girl’s 4 x 100-meter relay, Richmond came in seventh place with a finish of 50.21 seconds. The team was made up of sophomore Tenesia McNeil, Ninth Grade Academy freshman Taylor Newton, Harrison, and Covington.
In the girl’s 4 x 200-meter relay, Richmond came in 12th place with a finish of 1:49.33. The team was made up of McNeil, Newton, Harrison, and Covington.
Harrison missed the finals by one spot in the triple jump by four inches with a jump of 33’ 4.5”.
Richmond junior, Shadea Harrison, finished in 11th place with a throw of 84’ 5” in the discus throw.
In the boys’ 100-meter dash prelims, Taye Spencer, a senior, finished in eighth place with a time of 11.35 seconds, which earned him a spot in the finals. In the finals, Spencer again placed eighth with a time of 11.31 seconds.
Spencer also threw the shotput 41 feet, 9 inches in the first heat but came up short for finals.
The Richmond Senior Boys 4×100 Meter Relay was in first place before the anchor leg but was disqualified during their race because they didn’t pass off the baton in the required exchange
zone. The relay team was made up of Ninth Grade Academy freshmen Keonta Pegues, senior Jamarion Bryant, Coleman, and Spencer.
Overall, the boys’ team ended the day with 21 points and the girls’ team with 10 points.
With so many young athletes, Miller said he’s excited about next year.
“We will have a lot of athletes returning, and if they come to fall workouts and continue to work hard and improve on a daily basis, then success will take care of itself,” he said. “We will have more athletes competing for a state championship.”