Montgomery falls, gets back up, wins 3200

State Meet Highlights

North Carolina operates four classification championships on back to back weekends and there are separate championships for independent/private schools. And more so than in other states, it seems, the talent is spread through the various groups. Class 4A has the most DyeStat Elite marks, but two of the best athletes in the state, Trentavis Friday (1A) and Isaiah Moore (2A) go to smaller schools.  (In North Carolina, 1A and 2A schools aren't necessarily tiny).

Top Performances:

- Trentavis Friday of Cherryville dominated the 1A competition in the 100 (10.39 was his best time, in the prelims), the 200 (20.95) and the 400 (47.87). His biggest tests will come later, most likely at New Balance Nationals.

- Isaiah Moore of Hugh M Cummings won the hurdles double in 2A with US#12 13.97/37.61 and then also won the long jump with US#12 23-11.50.

- Ian Milder of Mount Tabor, a Foot Locker finalist, doubled in the 4A distance races. He ran 4:15.63 in the 1600 and 9:08.99 in the 3200.

- Parkland’s girls expressed enormous sprint depth through its dominance in the 4A relays, going 46.99 in the 4x100, US#5 1:36.99 in the 4x200 and 3:47.88 in the 4x400. Katlin Sherman was the ring-leader and she won the 100 (11.88) and 200 (24.05).

- Jacklyn Howell of Southeast Raleigh ran 13.93 (13.52w prelim) and 44.67 to sweep the 4A hurdles.

- Sydnei Murphy of Apex scored an impressive pair of victories in the horizontal jumps – 19-5.25 LJ and 39-7.50 TJ.

- Kayla Montgomery of Mount Tabor, whose story of overcoming the odds and a multiple sclerosis diagnosis, won her third state title of the year (the 3200) to go with cross country and indoor track. An ESPN E:60 team has been filming her throughout the spring for an upcoming documentary. She was profiled on DyeStat last Thanksgiving. And in true dramatic fashion, Montgomery fell just after the call-back line about 100 meters into the race when she was sandwiched between two runners. She got up, didn’t freak out, and simply ran everybody down to win in 10:47.74. “The whole crowd went ‘Whoo,’” Montgomery told DyeStat on Sunday. “I jumped up real quick. Falling is a struggle but it wasn’t too bad. I let two girls lead (the race) for three laps and then I took the lead.” That was a great way to finish her high school career. The weather was nice and cool, something that helped her not overheat too quickly. “I couldn’t have asked for better weather,” she said.

Top Teams:

The Parkland girls (89 points) have replaced Wakefield as the dominant sprint school in the state, at least for this year. Mount Tabor’s boys, thanks to Milder and a US#15 4x800 relay (7:48.33), won the team title with 63 points.

In Class 3A, Western Alamance took top honors for the girls (56 points) and Terry Sanford won the boys title (40).

Top Competition: In Class 3A, there was a top-notch 800-meter showdown between Jon Knight of Northern Guilford and Philip Hall of Terry Sanford. Knight ran 1:52.30 to Hall’s 1:52.35.

Record-breakers: Friday broke three Class 1A meet records – all of them his own set in 2013. Cherryville is not exactly a tiny school. It has 716 students, but that’s in the range of the cut-off between 1A and 2A schools in North Carolina.

Results:

http://parser.dyestat.com/meets.jsp?state=NC