By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Sparked by stellar performances from D’Anna Cotton and others, Cummings captured another state championship for its girls’ track and field program.
The Cavaliers claimed the indoor state title in Class 1-A/2-A on Friday night at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem.
Cotton, a junior, repeated as winner of the meet’s Most Valuable Player award, winning the long jump, triple jump, and high jump and placing second in the 55-meter hurdles.
Cotton put up record-setting efforts in a couple of events, while teammates Diamond Moore and Brooke Packingham compiled points at a rapid clip as well.
Cummings swept the top three spots in the long jump and triple jump.
In the long jump, Cotton (18-10) was followed by Moore (18-8¾) and Packingham (17-2). It was the same order in the triple jump, with Cotton at 40-9, Moore at 35-7½ and Packingham at 34-11½.
Cotton’s triple jump set the Class 1-A/2-A meet record that was set by DeAnne Davis of Cummings in 1996 at 40-8.
Cotton’s high jump of 5-6 matched the state record for the indoor meet. Wilson Prep’s Rachel Key also cleared 5-6 on Friday, but Cotton was tops based on fewer attempts.
Cotton’s time of 8.14 seconds was second in the 55 hurdles, with Packingham third in 8.26 and Moore seventh at 8.79.
The Cavaliers placed third in the 800 relay in 1:50.69 with Honesti Trollinger, Packingham, Jamoni Jones and Moore.
Cummings finished with 80 points to runner-up Swain County’s 74½.
Cummings, directed by longtime coach Donnie Davis, claimed is 12th indoor state championship. Combined with outdoor track and field, it marked the 30th team championship for track and field at Cummings.
Moore was the recipient of one of the two Sportsmanship Awards for girls in the meet.
Southeast Alamance’s Janay Pegram placed in two events. She was fourth in the 300 in 41.46 seconds and she finished sixth in the 55 dash in 7.33.
Southeast’s Aysha Howell was 14th in the long jump (15-3¼)
Mebane’s Catherine Parker of North Carolina School of Science and Math was the 3,200 runner-up in 10:51.53 and the 1,600 runner-up in 5:08.01. She was behind Swain County’s Arizona Blankenship, who set the Class 1-A/2-A meet record at 10:45.27 in the 3,200, in both races. Parker, a former Eastern Alamance athlete, also was part of her school’s second-place spot in the 3,200 relay.
Boys’ results
Southeast’s Augustine Koroma claimed seventh place in the 300 in 36.67 seconds and he had the 11th-fasted time in the 55 preliminaries at 6.63.
Teammate Neil Edwards was 10th in the 500 in 1:09.65. In the high jump, Southeast’s Malachi Barrett tied for 13th at 5-8.
Southeast’s boys were 11th in 3:39.56 in the 1,600 relay with Koroma, Isaiah Tumey, Edwards and Malachi Plummer. The Stallions were disqualified for an out-of-zone handoff in the 800 relay.
Seaforth was the boys’ team champion.
