Warrior men claim Wayne County track title

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 4, 2007 1:49 PM

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Depth and athleticism.

Those two words seemed to be in every coach's vocabulary while they described Eastern Wayne's dominance during the 2007 Wayne County Men's Track and Field Championships on Tuesday afternoon.

The Warriors claimed seven individual titles, two relays and had multiple scorers in 11 of 18 events. The strong performances parlayed into a 206-point output in the seven-team meet contested at Little Big Horn.

C.B. Aycock produced 156 points from five individual titles and two relays. Rosewood, which fared well in the field events, ended up third with 73.5 points.

Football standouts Mario Uzzell and Donald Pollock used their respective individual championships to pace Goldsboro to a fourth-place finish with 51.5 points. Southern Wayne (17 points), Wayne Christian (16) and Spring Creek (12) rounded out the team scoring.

"Eastern Wayne is the team everyone is gunning for," said C.B. Aycock head coach Brandon Proctor. "They're no surprise and we knew they were going to be strong. They've got some real good athletes and are impressive."

Paris Harper and Dwight Ulmer each earned two crowns for the Warriors. Harper posted a leap of 36 feet, 3 inches in the triple jump and took the 400-meter dash in 54.79 seconds. Ulmer seized the 100-meter dash and remained unbeaten in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.24 seconds.

Lynwood Dees triumphed in the 300-meter hurdles, while Chris Jones grabbed the high jump at 5-10. Will White emerged the 110-meter hurdle champion with a time of 17.33.

Harper led a 1-2-3 finish in the triple jump with freshman Kenyatta Brant second and Mac Stover in third. Brant seized third place in the long jump, while Dominique Sadler settled for fifth. The Warriors collected the top four positions in the 110 hurdles and three of the top four spots in the 300 hurdles. Those three events accounted for nearly one-third of Eastern Wayne's total-point production.

"We really do have a lot of depth and are getting more depth in the field events, which is helping us get through the year," said Eastern Wayne coach Steve Moats. "We're getting good effort from Kenyatta, who is really coming along in the triple and long jumps.

"We're getting stuff all across the board and in most meets, we're scoring in every event. It adds up and we're really pleased with how our guys are doing."

C.B. Aycock senior Carson Sasser emerged victorious in the 800- and 1,600-meter run. Sasser had little difficulty in the 1,600, but needed a late last-lap kick to deny Spring Creek's Jeremy Sanders from winning the event.

Sanders stayed within a stride of Sasser during turns one and two on the final lap. Sasser finally pulled away in the last 100 meters and beat Sanders to the finish line by nearly three seconds.

"That's tough," said Sasser as he caught his breath. "I knew (the kick) was coming ... was just a matter of when. He made it hard on me.

"I didn't know much about him or how he runs. You know how you feel, but you never know how the guy in front of you feels. You just have to go out and run your race."

The Golden Falcons' Cameron George spearheaded a 1-3-5 finish in the pole vault with a winning height of 10 feet, 6 inches. Teammates Montez Ham and Nik Frederick supplied first-place efforts in the long jump and 3,200-meter run, respectively. Frederick ran the 3,200 in 11 minutes, 10 seconds -- three seconds off his personal best set earlier this season against Wilson Fike.

"Our vaults are strong and we have two guys who consistently place in the top three," said Proctor. "That's where we can sneak some of our points. Carson, he's a workhorse along with Frederick. We definitely count on them a lot for our points.

"We didn't put in our best times, we did okay. We're still not there yet, but hopefully by the end of the year we'll peak."

Rosewood coach Daniel Baynes felt his team had an average day. The Eagles missed several key performers due to other functions, while sprinter Devon Bennett struggled to overcome a nagging hamstring injury he sustained during football season.

Sean Cornman turned in top-six finishes in the 110 and 300 hurdles. Matt Lassiter ended up second in the shot put. Clarence Toran just missed turning in a 40-foot leap during the triple jump when he scratched by one-quarter of an inch on the second board.

"Sean lowered his personal record; got better," said Baynes. "Clarence jumped well in the triple jump after not doing it in a while. Even though he didn't score well, he's getting better and peaking at the right time.

"There is some great competition out here. Eastern Wayne, C.B. Aycock and Southern Wayne have some good teams and they've got numbers."

Goldsboro's Uzzell threw the discus a whopping 120 feet, 8 inches. Pollock finished with a mark of 47-10.75 in the shot put.

2007 Wayne County

Men's Track and Field

Championships

(at Little Big Horn, EWHS)

Team scores

Eastern Wayne 206

C.B. Aycock 156

Rosewood 73.5

Goldsboro High 51.5

Southern Wayne 17

Wayne Christian 16

Spring Creek 12

Individual event results

Pole vault -- 1. Cameron George (CBA) 10 feet, 6 inches; 2. Henshaw (EW) 10-0; 3. Miller (CBA) 10-0; 4. Mullens (RHS) 9-0; 5. King (CBA) 8; 5. Barnett (RHS) 8; 5. Adams (RHS) 8. Shot put -- 1. Donald Pollock (GHS) 47-10.75; 2. Lassiter (RHS) 42-11.5; 3. Reid (CBA) 39-1.75; 4. McCall (EW) 38-3.5; 5. Smith (SW) 37-9.25; 6. Uzzell (CBA) 37-3.5. Discus -- 1. Mario Uzzell (GHS) 120-8; 2. Reid (CBA) 112-9.5; 3. Lassiter (RHS) 109-0.5; 4. McCall (EW) 103-10; 5. Smith (SW) 95-11; 6. Muntz (RHS) 93-11. High jump -- 1. Chris Jones (EW) 5-10; 2. Pennington (CBA) 5-8; 3. Colbert (SW) 5-8; 4. Boone (GHS) 5-8; 4. Davis (SW) 5-8; 6. Butler (EW) 5-6. Long jump -- 1. Montez Ham (CBA) 20-3.5; 2. I. Sprangle (GHS) 19-4.5; 3. Bryant (EW) 18-9; 4. Taylor (CBA) 17-8.75; 5. Salder (EW) 17-8.5; 6. Daniels (RHS) 16-10. Triple jump -- 1. Paris Harper (EW) 36-3; 2. Brant (EW) 35-8.25; 3. Stover (EW) 35-0; 4. Daniels (RHS) 34-10; 5. Sadler (EW) 34-0.5; 6. Toran (RHS) 33-8. 3,200 relay -- 1. C.B. Aycock (Kennedy, Allen, Denning, Garris) 9 minutes, 8 seconds; 2. Eastern Wayne 9:10; 3. Rosewood 9:53. 110 hurdles -- 1. Will White (EW) 17.33 seconds; 2. Gardner (EW) 17.78; 3. Cooper (EW) 17.97; 4. Dees (EW) 18.08; 5. Cornman (RHS) 19.72; 6. Hicks (GHS) 19.75. 100 dash -- 1. Dwight Ulmer (EW) 10.87; 2. Ham (CBA) 11.39; 3. Gibson (RHS) 11.56; 4. Bennett (RHS) 11.63; 5. Boone (GHS) 11.66; 6. Warren (EW) 11.76. 800 relay -- 1. Eastern Wayne (Davis, Schley, Dawson, Ulmer) 1:31.5; 2. Rosewood 1:37.6; 3. C.B. Aycock 1:39.3; 4. Southern Wayne 1:41.1; 5. Goldsboro 1:41.6; 6. Spring Creek 1:54.4. 1,600 run -- 1. Carson Sasser (CBA) 5:02; 2. Magnus (WCS) 5:04; 3. Wright (EW) 5:08; 4. Frederick (CBA) 5:10; 5. Denning (CBA) 5:18; 6. Sass (RHS) 5:36. 400 relay -- 1. Eastern Wayne (Warren, White, Dawson, Ulmer) 44.86; 2. Goldsboro 46.10; 3. Rosewood 47.38; 4. C.B. Aycock 48.61; 5. Spring Creek 53.58; 6. Wayne Christian 54.56. 400 -- 1. Paris Harper (EW) 52.79; 2. Pennington (CBA) 53.85; 3. Mullens (RHS) 54.17; 4. Aguilar (SW) 55.92; 5. Allen (CBA) 57.22; 6. Davis (EW) 57.8. 300 hurdles -- 1. Lynwood Dees (EW) 42.67; 2. White (EW) 45.26; 3. Redding (CBA) 45.94; 4. Gardner (EW) 46.97; 5. Hicks (GHS) 47.74; 6. Cornman (RHS) 48.10. 800 -- 1. Sasser (CBA) 2:13.3; 2. Sanders (SC) 2:16.2; 3. Garris (CBA) 2:17.7; 4. Coltrane (EW) 2:17.9; 5. Willis (RHS) 2:21.9; 6. Henshaw (EW) 2:23.7. 200 -- 1. Dwight Ulmer (EW) 23.24; 2. White (EW) 23.99; 3. Pennington (CBA) 24.35; 4. Taylor (CBA) 24.74; 5. Devon Bennett (RHS) 24.92; 5. Stokes (GHS) 24.92. 3,200 -- 1. Nik Frederick (CBA) 11:10; 2. Magnus (WCS) 11:25; 3. Henricks (EW) 12:12; 4. Kelly (SC) 12:18; 5. Sass (RHS) 12:51; 6. Conerly (RHS) 13.19. 1,600 relay -- 1. C.B. Aycock (Denning, Garris, Sasser, Pennington) 3:50; 2. Eastern Wayne 3:52; 3. Goldsboro High 4:20; 4. Wayne Christian 5:18.