MOCKSVILLE — The Richmond boys and girls track and field teams will be sending a total of nine members to the upcoming state championships thanks to their performance at the 4A NCHSAA Midwest Regionals on Monday.
Jakerra Covington was one of the nine to earn a bid to states by winning the girls high jump competition, making her regional champion not even two weeks after being crowned the best in the Sandhills Athletic Conference.
And this is only her first year on the track.
Maddisyn Diggs, Monasia Kearns and Dymond McNeal will be joining Covington on the big stage, seeing that the four Lady Raiders make up the 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams that placed third and fourth, respectively, on Monday.
The quartet ran a 49.17 in the 4×1 and then finished with a time of 1:45.56 in the 4×2.
”The girls did a great job,” girls head coach Reggie Miller said. “They understood that hardwork, determination and commitment is the key to success and that’s why they have a chance to compete for a state championship.”
Putting together state-qualifying efforts at Davie County High School, where regionals took place, for the Richmond boys were Preston Coker, Jaheim Covington, Caleb Hood, Antron Miller and Malik Stanback.
Coker placed fourth in the 200m dash (21.98s) to earn an individual bid and helped the 4×1 relay team grab a second-place finish (42.41s) to advance. Stanback, Covington and Hood were the second, third and fourth legs of the relay.
Miller just made it onto the list of qualifiers by clearing the 6-foot-2 bar in the high jump, a personal record, to beat out Porter Ridge’s Deshawn Scarboro by two inches for fourth place. The top four in each regional event moves on.
Coker was up against some of the fastest competition in not only the region but the state when he ran in the 100m dash and it showed, as both D.J. Moyer (Reagan) and Cameron Rose (Hickory Ridge) ran a blazing 10.47 to lead the way.
Mizell Hall (East Forsyth) placed fourth in the 100m and was just .05 seconds faster than Coker, who came in sixth.
“Holy smoke….. fastest region in the state no questions asked… wow,” boys head coach Chris Campolieta tweeted along with a photo of the final results from the boys 100m dash. “Long day but great day to be a part of Raider track!”
Other notable efforts for the Raiders included: Joerail White setting a personal record with his sixth-place finish in the boys discus throw (136 ft, 9 in), Allexis Swiney coming in at No. 6 in the girls triple jump (33 ft, 6 in), Christopher Quick Jr. finishing seventh in the boys long jump (20 ft, 2.75 in) and both the girls 4×4 and 4×8 relays placing seventh.
As a team, both the Richmond boys and girls came in 10th place overall.
The state championship meet will take place at North Carolina A&T State University at 8 a.m. this Saturday, May 18.
Richmond’s Monasia Kearns (far left), Jakerra Covington (middle left), Maddisyn Diggs (middle right) and Dymond McNeal (far right) smile after qualifying for states in both the 4×100- and 4×200-meter relays on Monday.