LAURINBURG — After almost two weeks off, the Scotland High School boys and girls track teams return to action on Saturday for the NCHSAA 4A regionals at Hoggard High School.
The Southeastern conference championship meet was moved up to the end of April because of AP testing at the schools, so the teams haven’t competed since April 26 when the Fighting Scots finished fourth in the SEC and the Lady Scots finished fifth. The teams performances at the SEC championships earned them spots in 10 events on Saturday — seven events for the boys and three for the girls.
Fighting Scots senior Octavis McLaurin qualified for 12th place in the regionals with a throw of 44’-01” in the boy’s shot put. Heading into the event the top thrower is New Hanover senior Jarvis Ballard with a throw of 49’. Junior James Smith qualified for regionals in the boy’s discus with a throw of 133’-07” to put him in sixth place. The top thrower in the boy’s discus is Ashley High School’s Caleb Parker with a throw of 148’-03”.
Fighting Scots junior Brenton Thomas was the only person to qualify for regionals in two events — long jump and triple jump. Thomas is sitting in eighth place in the boy’s long jump heading into Saturday’s 4A Regionals with a jump of 21’-7.5”. Pinecrest’s Tyrese Kelly — who beat Thomas at the SEC championships — is the leader in the event with a jump of 23’4.5”.
The Scots junior is sitting in seventh place in the boy’s triple jump with a jump of 42’-9.75”. South Central’s Emannuel Lewis leads the triple jump heading into regionals with jump of 47’-0.1 in.
Fellow junior Khalil Smith qualified in the boy’s high jump and is seeded 15th with a jump of 6’-00”. Hoggard sophomore is the leader heading into Saturday’s event with a jump of 6’-0.6”.
Scotland junior Zamir White qualified for regionals in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.96 seconds, putting him in 10th place out of 17 runners. The leader in the event is South Central senior Sean Williams with a time of 10.54 seconds.
The Fighting Scots will also have a team in the boy’s 4×100 meter relay on Saturday. The Scots are in fifth place with a time of 43.44 seconds with rival Richmond leading the event with a time of 42.74 seconds.
The Lady Scots track team will compete in three events on Saturday — girl’s shot put, the 4×100-meter relay and the 4×200-meter relay.
The Lady Scots only individual regional qualifier is junior Cierra Malloy in the girl’s shot put. Malloy is ranked 11th in the event with a throw of 33’-00” while Pinecrest senior Trinty Wells leads the event with a throw of 37’-0.8”.
The Lady Scots are sitting in 13th place in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 52.54 seconds while Hoke County leads the event heading into Saturday’s regionals with a time of 48.16 seconds. The Lady Bucks also lead the other relay event the Lady Scots are participating in, the 4×200-meter relay. Hoke is in first place with a time of 1:39.41 while the Lady Scots sit in 14th out of 15 teams with a time of 1:53.22.
Track and field events begin at Hoggard High School on Saturday, May 13 at 9:45 a.m.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.
