BURLINGTON CUMMINGS WINS THIRD STRAIGHT STATE TITLE,
SOUTHWEST GUILFORD RALLIES TO TAKE MEN’S INDOOR CROWN
CHAPEL HILL – Saturday was a good day for Sherice Walker and her Burlington Cummings High School teammates.
Walker, a senior, took first place in three individual events to lead Cummings to its third consecutive 1-A/2-A/3-A North Carolina High School Athletic Association women’s state indoor track and field championship at the Eddie Smith Indoor Arena on the University of North Carolina campus.
Cummings has won the team title in each of the three years that there has been a separate classification for 1-A/2-A/3-A in indoor track, and Walker repeated as the championship meet’s Most Valuable Performer. She took first place in the triple jump, long jump and the 55-meter hurdles.
Cummings tallied 74 points to 53 for Asheville T.C. Roberson. Jacksonville White Oak was third with 35, followed by Winston-Salem Parkland (28) and Greensboro Dudley (25). A total of 43 teams earned points in the women’s meet.
The men’s meet was much closer, with Asheville hanging on to a three-point lead over Southwest Guilford in the team standings entering the final event of the day. But Southwest Guilford finished third in the four by 400 relay while Asheville was 12th in the event, lifting Southwest to victory.
Southwest scored 51 points to 48 for Asheville, followed by Waxhaw Marvin Ridge (45), Hendersonville (31) and Winston-Salem Parkland (26.5). There were 52 schools that scored points in the men’s competition.
Cordell Livingston of Southwest Guilford captured top honors in both the 55-meter hurdles and the triple jump and was second in the long jump to earn Most Valuable Performer honors. His time of 7.47 seconds in the hurdles established a new 1-A/2-A/3-A state record.
Hendersonville’s Darryl Demps set a new classification record in the 300 meter dash (35.77) and ran the lead leg on the four by 400 relay team that established a new classification mark of 3:28.19.
