MHS girls place 15th at Class 5A meet

Published 10:48 pm Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The state runner-up finish of the Meridian High School boys’ team wasn’t the only big performance from area participants in last weekend’s MHSAA State Track and Field Meets in Pearl.

The Meridian girls chalked up 16 total points to finish in 15th place among the 32 Class 5A schools. Greenville-Weston won the 5A girls’ title with 94 points, while Madison Central was a distant second with 70 points.

April Rogers finished sixth for Meridian in the girls’ 400m dash with a time of 1 minute, 2.6 seconds; while Shala Ruttley was fifth in the girls’ 300m hurdles with a time of 47.35 seconds.

Christin Peters was seventh in the girls’ 800m run for MHS with a time of 2:39.14, while freshman Jaimeca Johnson was eighth in the 200m dash with a time of 27.22 seconds.

Tyneshia Parker was eighth in the girls’ triple jump with a total of 34 feet, 5.5 inches — and she teamed up with Latoria Hudson, Aujarimere Lewis and Inise Ngumezi to finish fourth in the girls’ 4x400m relay with a time of 4:08.63.



Class 4A Meet



Noxubee County’s boys placed 19th and Northeast Lauderdale 22nd in the Class 4A State Track and Field Meet; while the Noxubee and Northeast girls brought home 23rd and 25th-place finishes.

Ole Miss signee and Noxubee football standout Patrick Patterson was fourth in both the long jump and high jump — but was still no match or nationally-renown Hernando jumper Ricky Robertson.

Patterson cleared a season-high 6 feet, 6 inches in the high jump to finish fourth, while Northeast’s Josh Greer was sixth at 5 feet, 10 inches. Robertson won with a leap of 7 feet, 1 inch.

Patterson was also fourth in the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 3.75 inches. Robertson won that event with a leap of 23 feet, 6.75 inches.

Noxubee’s Jasmine Little was fourth in the girls’ shot put with a heave of 34 feet, 2.75 inches; Anthony Clark was eighth in the boys’ 300m hurdles with a time of 47.87 seconds; and the girls’ 4x400m relay team was seventh with a time of 4:20.22.

Northeast’s Kandance Knight was fifth in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 8.5 inches; Greer was seventh in the triple jump with a total of 41 feet; the boys’ 4x100m relay team was fifth in 43.75 seconds; and the girls’ 4x200m relay team was seventh in 1:49.9.



Class 3A Meet



Two-time defending state champion and Ole Miss signee Michael Granger of Newton County was not able to make it a three-peat — as he was credited with a “Did Not Finish” in the boys’ 100m dash.

Granger ran a 10.8 flat in both the qualifying round last Friday at Pearl and in winning the South State title the previous week. Kanarius Harris of East Side wound up winning the state title easily with a 10.89.

The Newton County boys and Choctaw Central girls were the only area teams to accumulate points in the Class 3A Meet — tallying seven apiece.

Choctaw Central’s Laka Anderson was fifth in the discus throw with a toss of 91 feet, 9 inches; while Chenice Ben (14:13.01) and Skye Smith (15:20.75) were seventh and eighth in the girls’ 3200m run.

Newton County’s Floyd Graves was seventh in the boys’ 200m dash with a time of 23.74 seconds; and the Cougars’ 4x100m relay team finished fourth in 43.59 seconds.



Class 2A Meet



Newton High School’s girls tallied 23 points and turned in an 11th-place finish in the 2A State Meet last Saturday.

Newton’s boys were 18th with 8.5 points while Philadelphia’s boys tied for 19th with eight points.

Union’s boys earned two points — a seventh-place finish by E.J. Cunningham in the 400m dash — and Clarkdale’s girls got one point: An eighth-place finish by freshman Charmane Tims in the 100m dash.

J.Z. George captured both state titles, with the boys racking up 123 points and the girls 118.

The Newton girls finished third in both the 4x100m and 4x200m relay races with the quartet of Asa Evans, Tynika Bender, Titayana Pruitt and Ashtin McNichols. They were clocked in 51.19 seconds in the 4x100m race and 1:48.34 in the 4x200m event.

Evans was also fourth in the 300m hurdles with a time of 48.92 seconds, while Bender was seventh in the 100m dash at 13.30 seconds. Tims finished at 13.32.

Eighth-grader Querinda Beamon was fifth in the girls’ shot put for Newton with a heave of 30 feet, 5.5 inches.

Brandon Williams was sixth for the Newton boys in the high jump at 5 feet, 10 inches; while the Tigers’ 4x100m relay team of DeKarrian Beasley, Frank Norman, Kevin Harris and Hakeem Wright was sixth.

Philly’s Brandon Willis was fifth in the boys’ 100m dash in a time of 11.24 seconds, and he was sixth in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 4.5 inches.

Jimmy Jeffers was eighth for the Tornadoes in the shot put with a toss of 39 feet, 8 inches.