Scotland’s Ariel Gates qualified for this Saturday’s state meet in both the 300-meter hurdles (third) and in the 200-meter dash (second).
A pair of relay teams, three track events and two field events qualified for this Saturday’s NCHSAA state track championships thanks to their performances at this past Saturday’s east regional meet held at West Johnston High School.
The 4-A state meet will take place at Irwin Belk Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T.
For Scotland Coach Shelly Barnes, it was a good day for the Scots but wishes it could’ve gone better.
“It was a very hot day at West Johnston. We did really well in some events,” Barnes said. Shantel (Smith) has continually gotten better in the jumping events over the last month and that is exciting to see.”
“We also had some unfortunate things going on too with injuries,” added Barnes.
Some of the injuries that Barnes is referring to are ones that prevented the Scots from earning more state bids.
Ariel Ratcliff was unable to compete at the regional meet due to an infection. Her sister, Samariel, was recovering from a hip injury.
A key component to the relay teams, Teborah Hollingsworth, was unable to run in the 4x400 relay due to a foot injury she suffered in the 4x200 relay.
Despite numerous injuries, the Scotland girl’s team will have seven athletes competing at state.
Lashanda McAllister finished fourth in the discus competition to qualify, finishing two spots ahead of teammate Royalanda Odom.
Shantel Smith finished third in the triple jump to advance. She also finished seventh in the long jump.
Ariana Jones will compete at regionals in both a singles’ race (100-meter hurdles, 4th) and a relay (4 x100 relay, 4th).
Jones originally finished fifth in the hurdles but moved up due to an infraction by Ariel Gates (knocking over a hurdle), who originally finished fourth.
Jones will be joined in the relay event by Larcenia Easterling, Akieba Battle and Erin Cromartie.
Despite the setback in the 100-meter hurdles, Gates will be the lone Scot to compete in two single’s events.
The junior finished third in the 300-meter hurdles and had the highest finish for a Scotland runner (me or female) in the 200-meter dash, finishing second. Her time was three-hundredths of a second off the school record in the event.
Like the girls, the Scotland boys team will send a relay team to Greensboro this weekend.
The relay team of Josh Quirk, Malcolm Jones, Isaiah Robinson and Tony McRae, ran the 4x100 relay race and finished fourth to qualify.
Kershawn Quick just missed out on qualifying for regionals by just 3.5 inches, finishing fifth in the triple jump.
His jump though of 44-feet, 6-inches was a personal best. Lamont Browne finished eighth.
Browne finished 10th in the high jump, just two spots below teammate, Dominique Green.
The only other Scotland male athlete to qualify for an event was Sey’yan Moody.
The sophomore brought home fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles. Teammate Robert McNeil finished ninth.
Shaquille Ray finished seventh in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the 100-meters.
Southeast Raleigh earned first place finishes in the both the boys and girls divisions.
The boys finished with 80 points and the girls had 102.5.
The Scots finished 11th (25.5) in the boys and the girls finished seventh with 47 points, two points behind sixth place Lumberton.
While the Scotland had the highest finish among Southeastern Conference boy’s teams, Pinecrest had the highest finish among SEC girls squads, finishing third with 56 points.
In the boys race, just two points separated second place Wilmington Ashley (72) and third place Knightdale (70).
Clayton finished second in the girls race with 70 points.
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