Rocky Mount High sweeps Big East track titles

Rocky Mount’s Nyanna Edwards, front, jumps over a hurdle in front of Nash Central’s Anaiya Harris, second from left, during the 100 yard hurdle preliminary race Wednesday during the Big East Track and Field Championship at Nash Central High School.
©Abbi O’Leary

Rocky Mount’s Kevin Pham, left, and Hunt’s Elliot Lee race for second and third during the final 1600 yard race Wednesday during the Big East Track and Field Championship at Nash Central High School.
©Abbi O’Leary

Nash Central’s Cassidy Lee, Northern Nash’s Halie Huffman, and Rocky Mount’s Aimee Dalsimer, left to right, race during the 1600 yard race Wednesday during the Big East Track and Field Championship at Nash Central High School.
©Abbi O’Leary

Runners compete in the 4x 100 yard relay Wednesday during the Big East Track and Field Championship at Nash Central High School.
©Abbi O’Leary

As Nash Central coach Kyle Bain read off the team scores, Rocky Mount High’s track and field squads squatted in anticipation.

When Bain announced the Gryphons had won the girls competition, the Gryphons huddle erupted in cheers. The process was repeated for the boys’ results as once again Rocky Mount High swept through the Big East track and field championships Wednesday and captured both team titles for a third consecutive season.

For the girls, it is a 14th consecutive conference crown.

“It was a total team effort,” Gryphons’ girls coach Keith Barnes said. ”They fought through adversity and focused, and it helped us take care of business.”

Unlike last year, Nash Central’s girls’ team pushed the Gryphons in the meet, but the result was rarely in doubt. Rocky Mount High easily outdistanced its nearest rival, 208-176, taking advantage of its depth to bolster its total.

“It’s just the depth that we had in the sprints and the throws really helped us out,” Barnes said. ”We got some points in distance (Wednesday) from a person we hadn’t been getting points from all year and that really helped us out as well.”

Rocky Mount High picked up valuable points over Nash Central in discus and shot put to help offset the losses in the relay events that have become the backbone of the Bulldogs’ squad. Nash Central scored victories in the 4×200 and 4×400 relays, with their indoor state champions winning the 4×400 by more than 17 seconds..

Laneeja Sheppard was named the female athlete of the meet after winning the 100-meter dash and the triple jump event as an individual and being a part of the winning 4×100 relay. In addition, the senior finished in second place in the 200-meter dash by .02 seconds to teammate Brittany Beckford.

Although Sheppard receives most of the accolades, Barnes made sure to stress that it takes a team to win a championship.

“She’s very athletic and she can do a lot of things, but we have a lot of other people who are very athletic and we ask them to sacrifice,” Barnes said. ”She’s out in the forefront getting the points for us, but the other people are just as good. … We got a lot of people who score us points and without any of them we would probably be in a bad state of affairs.”

The boys’ meet was once again a fairly tight knit affair with any one of four teams able to take home the crown. On Wednesday, it was the Gryphons who found ways to score points when they didn’t win events.

Rocky Mount High had seven runner-up finishes to complement senior Jonathan Romero’s three victories. Romero, who was named the best male athlete at the meet, captured the Gryphons’ only thee event victories on the day — the long jump, 110-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles.

“Jonathan is a senior and he’s been putting a lot of work in,” coach Sonya Pickett said. ”(On Wednesday), he had a little bit of extra focus. He knew he had a job to do and he went out and did it for us.”

Southern Nash sophomore Nadir Thompson also had a terrific day on the track, holding onto his title as fastest man in the Big East by defending both the 100- and 200-meter dash titles. He added two strong relay anchor legs, overcoming a 15-meter deficit in the 4×200 and powering through with the lead in the 4×400.

Nash Central combined some strong jumping events with a strong core of relay teams to finish in second place, six points ahead of Northern Nash, which was charged by its dominance of the longer track events. The Firebirds finished in fourth, five points back of the Knights.

The 3-A Eastern Regional meet will be held next Saturday at Wilson Fike at 8 a.m.

by Josh Walfish
Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Wednesday, May 4, 2016