Rosewood girls claim Mideast 1A Regional team crown

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 5, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

ROCKY POINT -- Three regional champs.

A team title.

A slew of state qualifiers.

And that's just what Rosewood's girls accomplished during the 2014 N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A Mideast Regional track and field championships contested at Heide Trask on Saturday.

Krystal Yelverton emerged as the 100-meter hurdles champion, Lexi Mercer claimed the high jump and Brynna Lee claimed the pole vault. The trio helped the Eagles capture the team title with a 109.5-100.5 triumph over the host Titans.

"I'm especially proud of the girls' team," RHS head coach Robert Britt said. "Today's win is the culmination of four years of hard work for our seniors. We had big-time performances from Lexi, Brynna and Krystal.

"They had great accomplishments."

Rosewood's foursome of Mercer, Yelverton, Christine Conger and Desiree Baker won the 800-meter relay championship. Teammate Callie Thornton qualified for the season-ending state meet Saturday in Greensboro with a second-place finish in the shot put.

The Eagles' quartet of Yelverton, Mercer, Lee and Alysse Atwell took second in the 1,600 relay. Atwell and Mercer placed second in the 300 hurdles and 400 dash, respectively.

"Make no mistake, today's win for the girls was a total team effort," Britt said.

Spring Creek's Darrian Mullins and Rachel McCollum wound up third in the discus and shot put, respectively. Cassidy Goff finished second in the triple jump. Each punched their ticket to next week's state championship meet.

North Duplin emerged victorious in the 3,200-meter relay. The foursome of Melissa Orellana, Deja Aycock, Genesis Orellana and Haley Thurston logged a time of 11 minutes, 24.83 seconds. A freshman, Thurston also claimed the regional crown in the 800 run and placed fourth in the 1,600.

On the boys' side, Spring Creek's Martevius Brigham emerged as the regional runner-up in the discus.

N.C. State football commit Marcelias Sutton won the triple jump, and ran the anchor leg on the Tigers' regional-champion 400 relay squad that included Marquel Brinson, TJ Fullwood and Chris Jones.

Rosewood's Zach Barnes placed fourth in the high jump. The Eagles' 1,600 relay of Barnes, Montonio Wheeler, Brendan Trinidad and Quan Joyner qualified for the state meet with a third-place finish.

Teammate Marquail Al-montaser was the regional runner-up in the 110 hurdles. Princeton's Martin Bayles won the pole vault and teammate Jose Aguillon took third in the 1,600 run. The Bulldogs' 800 relay of Matt Stallworth, Earl Gibson, Nick Hare and Jarrett Pearce placed fourth.

Rosewood and James Kenan placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 16-team field.