Freshman D’Anna Cotton leads Cavaliers’ girls to runner-up spot
By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Two sprinters from Alamance County high schools won in the indoor track and field state championships on the boys’ side, while a freshman from Cummings was one of the standouts in the girls’ portion of one of the meets at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem.
Jonathan Paylor of Cummings set a Class 1-A/2-A boys’ meet record in the 300 meters, a so-called long sprint race, by winning in 35.13 seconds Saturday. That was better than the previous record of 35.18 set by Reidsville’s Elliott Graves in 2016.
Paylor, a junior and multi-sport athlete also known for speed on the football field, was second in the 55 meter dash in 6.41, barely ahead of teammate Khavarie Hightower (6.53), who finished third. Correy McManus of High Point Andrews won in 6.39.
Cummings placed second behind High Point Andrews in the 800 relay with Hightower, Jamear Clements, Marione Enoch and Paylor.
In the team competition, the Cavaliers were third behind East Burke and Union County.
In Class 3-A on Friday, senior William Ratliffe of Eastern Alamance won the 55 meters in 6.39 seconds, with Rory Baker of Greensboro Dudley second in 6.48.
Williams was the runner-up behind Croatan in the 1,600 relay in 3:30.86 with Clifton Davis Jr., Zion Amadi, Jacob Marquis and Caleb Fogleman. The Bulldogs, with the same quartet, were fourth in the 800 relay in 1:34.07.
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On the girls’ side, Cummings was the team runner-up behind defending champion Swain County in Class 1-A/2-A.
Freshman D’Anna Cotton of Cummings placed in four events, including winning the high jump at 5 feet, 4 inches. No other entrant had a better leap than 5 feet.
Cotton was second in the triple jump at 37-6½, one spot ahead of teammate Brook Packingham (35-6¼). Taylor Jordan of Cummings was sixth at 34-5½.
Cotton was second in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.60 seconds and third in the 300-meter dash in 42.68 seconds.
In the long jump, Packingham was third at 17-1 and teammate Taylor Jordan was fifth at 16-9.
Packingham placed fifth in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.78.
The Cummings 800 relay took third with Jordan, Packingham, Jamoni Jones and Diamond Moore in 1:50.19.
Cummings finished with 61 points to Swain County’s 83½.
Cotton was named one of two girls’ Sportsmanship Award winners from the meet.
In Class 3-A, a state record held by a former Williams athlete was broken. Chelsea Hargrave’s triple jump of 38-9 in 2014 stood for nine years until Cramer’s Alexis Willis bounded 39-7 on Friday.
