LUMBERTON- The Scotland girl’s track team started off their Southeastern Conference campaign with a bang.

Paced by three first place finishes in relay events, the Lady Scots accumulated 129 points as they cruised to the win at Lumberton High School Tuesday evening.

Despite the first place finish, Scotland coach Shelly Barnes felt that the girls did not put their best effort forward.

“I’m not sure if the girls came out today and got better,” Barnes said. “Many lacked focus. I expect everytime that we step onto the track, we should get better, we should improve and to prepare for people that we will be running against in the regionals and state championships.”

Ariel Gates took home three first place finishes, including a win in the high jump as she cleared 4-feet 8-inches.

Gates also finished first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.21 seconds and a 12.85 second run in the 100-meter dash, good for first place.

Barbara Horne placed first in the 1600-meter run, clocking in at 6:50.7. She would also go on to take the 3200-meter run with a time of 15:35.32.

Erin Snead and Courtney Poole both took second place in the mile and two-mile runs.

Snead completed the mile run in 7:18.21 while Poole ran the two-mile one in 17:23.29.

Samriel Ratcliff won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 53.66 seconds. Aatianna Williams came in second in that same race, finishing in 56.85 seconds.

Ariel Ratcliff set a personal record in the 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 2:32.

Shantel Smith took first place in the long jump with a leap of 16-foot, 3.5 inches.

Shiera Hall won the triple jump, going 29-feet, 5 inches.

Taborah Hollingsworth took second in the same event with a 26-feet, 8-inch jump.

Jalissa Farr, Poole, Horne and Snead won the 4x8 relay with a time of 12:13.29.

Hollingsworth, along with Larcenia Easterling, Erin Cromartie and Decausha McLean took home first in the 4x2 relay, finishing in 1:55.31.

Easterling, Smith, Gates and Arianna Jones won the 4x1 relay with a time of 53.20 seconds.

The Lady Pirates took second at the meet with 44 points, while Purnell Swett finished third with 1.5 points.

While Barnes is pleased with the result, she fears that the girls are satisfied.

“I’m afraid that right now, we are a big fish in a small pond and we are satisfied and that’s not the place that we need to be,” Said Barnes, whose squad travels to Pinecrest at 4 p.m. today.

Saturday’s meet

FAYETTEVILLE- The Scotland girl’s track team traveled to South View High School this past Saturday and took first place out of 15 teams with 133 points.

Ariel Gates took home a pair of first place finishes in the high jump (Five feet) and had the fastest time (15.3 seconds) in the 100-meter high hurdles.

Ariana Jones finished three spots behind Gates with a 16.25-second performance.

Renee McNeil finished second in the shot put with a throw of 32-feet, 4 inches.

Teammates Lashonda McAllister (29-feet, 11-inches) and Miriya Bryant (29-feet, 1-inch) finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Royolanda Odom placed second in the discus with a 97-feet,6.5 inch toss.

McAllister finished a spot behind Odom with a throw of 86-feet, 9.5-inches.

Ariel Ratcliff finished second the freshman 1600-meter run with a time of 6:09.20.

Jones and Gates, along with Larcenia Easterling and Shantel Smith, finished with a time of 51.41 seconds in the 4x100-meter relay run.

Ratcliff, Jalissa Farr, Erin Cromartie and Barbara Horne took second in the girl’s distance medley, finishing in 15:45.20.

In the 4x400 relay race, Ceairra Campbell, Smith, Samriel Ratcliff and Teborah Hollingsworth, finished with a time of 4:29.6.

Host South View (117 points) took home second, Jacksonville (70) finished third, Dudley (51) took fourth by 1.5 points over Jack Britt.

Western Harnett beat out county rival, Harnett Central, for fifth, 39.33-35.

New Bern (30.33), Middle Creek (22), Overhills (20), E.E Smith (12.5), Union Pines (10.33), Terry Sanford (10), Southern Lee (10) and Smithfield-Selma (4) rounded out the rest of the field.