The North Duplin boys track and field team’s dominate season ended in exciting fashion on May 11 as they finished—tied for first place— with Pender at the N.C. Athletic Association MidEast Regional Championship Meet held at Pender High School.
The Rebels were led at the meet by the excellent performance of Marcus Hill who finished first in the 110-meter hurdles (15.59 seconds), and second in the 300-meter hurdles (44.07 seconds), long jump (19 feet), and triple jump (39 feet).
North Duplin co-head track coach Fred Kennedy said that he wasn’t surprised by Hill’s success because he spent countless hours perfecting his craft.
“Marcus has been really good for us all season long (in) jumps and hurdles. That’s two totally different things …. He does really well with us doing those things,” Kennedy said. “He’s a really good kid, (and) he works hard at everything we ask him to do. Sometimes ... we have to tell him, ‘Marcus that’s enough. It’s time to go.’”
North Duplin also had standout performances from Trashawn Ruffin, who threw a distance of 48.2 feet in shot put to finish first in the region and fourth in the state in 1A; Khamari Leak who finished third in the long jump with a distance of 18-9; the 4x200 relay team who finished first with a time of 1:34.97; and the 4x100 relay team who came in second with a time of 45.38.
In addition to winning the regional championship, North Duplin also won the NCHSAA Carolina 1A Conference Championship meet on May 1 by finishing with 171 points— 26 points more than that of the second place Rosewood Eagles with 145.
The Rebels’ success didn’t stop there. Thanks to their excellent times at the regional meet, Hill, Ruffin, the 4x100 team, and the 4x200 team all qualified for the state meet which took place on May 18 at Marcus T. Track and Field in Greensboro on May 18.
At the state meet, it was Trashawn Ruffin who finished in the best position of any Rebel with a third-place finish in shot put with a distance of 48-10.
Marcus Hill just missed out on a top three finish at the states coming in fourth at the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.43 seconds. Hill also finished 10th in the 300-meter hurdles (41.58 seconds), 14th in the triple jump (38-5.25), and 15th in the long jump (17-6.25).
Khamari Leak, the 4x100 relay team, and the 4x200 relay teams also competed at the state meet with Leak coming in 16th place in the long jump (17-0.5), the 4x100 team coming in 14th place (45.70 seconds), and the 4x200 team coming in 13th place (1:37.38 minutes).
Kennedy said that looking back on the season his team performed better than he could have even predicted.
“If you look at the expectations, we had … coming into the season, we thought we had a chance to win the conference. We knew it was going to be a tight battle. They well exceeded our expectations of how (we thought) they were going to run that day and same at the regional track meet.
“We kind of thought and guessed we had an outside shot to maybe finish second in the region. For us to finish where we did that day is a testament to (them) running better than what they showed on paper.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0