West Florence girls second, boys third in AAAA track state meet

            Florence – It was a big day for both of the West Florence High School track and field teams in the AAAA state meet on May 18 at Spring Valley High School’s Harry Parone Stadium in Columbia.

           The West girls finished second to Ridge View, scoring 62 points to the Blazers’ 75. The boys finished third with 69 points. Ridge View also won the title in boys with 84 points compared to 79 for Northwestern.

           Destiny Mitchell led the way for the Knights girls, placing in four events and picking up the only victory. Mitchell won the high jump with a height of 1.6 meters. She finished third in the 100-meter hurdles, fourth in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump. She accounted for 25 points.

           Kaylanna Burroughs also had a big day for West Florence, placing in three individual events. Burroughs was second in the triple jump, third in the 400 hurdles and fifth in the long jump. She tallied 18 points.

           The other individual to score points for the Knights was Melissa Hodges with a fifth-place finish in the 1,600-meter run.

           WF did score points in all three of the relay events. The 4x400-meter relay team had the best performance, finishing second. The 4x100 team finished fourth and the 4x800 team finished seventh.

           Others who competed in the state meet were Samia Davis in the 400-meter dash, Miller Arnold in the 400 hurdles and Zolia Wierzbicki in the javelin.

           `The West boys qualified for 19 spots in the state meet and they scored points in 17 of them. Kaleb Burroughs led the way, placing in three individual events. He finished third in the 1,600 run, fourth in the javelin and sixth in the 800 run.

           Jonathan Neighbors was the Knights’ only state champion event winner. Neighbors won the javelin with a throw of 53.7 meters. He also finished seventh in the discus.

           Daishaun James, Gage Herring, Jamarcus Askew and Nathaniel Bruce also placed in two individual events apiece. James finished second in the 100 dash and fourth in the long jump, Herring finished third 110 hurdles and seventh in the 400 hurdles, Askew finished third in both the high jump and the triple jump, and Bruce finished fourth in the discus and seventh in the javelin.

           West Florence’s three relay teams all placed as well. The 4x1 team finished seventh while the 4x4 and 4x8 teams both finished eighth.

           Other WF boys who competed were Penn Packard in the javelin and Timothy Rawls in the shot put.

           The 4x4 team for the Wilson girls finished fifth, while Tiger Talia Emmen finished seventh in the javelin. Scoring for the Wilson boys was Jamel Bell, who finished fourth in the 100.

           South Florence’s Triniti Muldrow-Green placed in two events. She was sixth in the 400 and seventh in the 200.

           The West Florence girls dominated the Region 6 meet on April 30 at Wilson, scoring 217 points to 100 for second place North Myrtle Beach. The boys meet was a little closer, West winning with 172.5 points to 143 for North Myrtle Beach.

           Region champions for the West Florence girls were Davis in the 400, Hodges in both the 800 and 1,600, Mitchell in the 100 hurdles and the high jump, Kaylanna Burroughs in the 400 hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump, Wierzbicki in the javelin, the 4x1 team and the 4x4 team.

           Event winners for the boys were James in the 100, Kaleb Burroughs in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200, Herring in the 100 hurdles and 400 hurdles, Neighbors in the discus and the javelin and the 4x8 team.

           Devine Gee won the triple jump for the Wilson boys and Lennix Valarie won the high jump for the South Florence boys. Region champions for the South Florence girls were Muldrow-Green in the 200 and Aniyah Brunson in both the discus and the shot put.