Granite Bears repeat as Northwest 1A Conference Track Champions

DANBURY — The Northwest 1A Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship was held May 2 at North Stokes High School.

Mount Airy’s boys repeated as NW1A Champions by finishing the competition with 128 points. Mount Airy narrowly defeated North Stokes with 113 points, and Elkin wasn’t far behind with 100 points.

Starmount finished fourth in the boys competition with 81 points, followed by East Wilkes at 73, South Stokes at 37 and Alleghany at 19.

Blake Hawks and Ron Snow each took home individual hardware for the Granite Bears. Hawks, a UNC-Asheville commit, was named NW1A Male Athlete of the Year, while Snow earned Coach of the Year honors for the boys competition.

Mount Airy’s girls finished seventh in the team competition with 24 total points. Elkin won the girls competition with 142 points, followed by East Wilkes at 107, Alleghany at 62, North Stokes at 45, Starmount at 44 and South Stokes at 40

Elkin’s Aniya Edwards was named NW1A Female Athlete of the Year, and Elkin’s Clarence Edwards was named Girls Coach of the Year.

Point breakdowns were not available on N.C. MileSplit, though they were awarded in descending order based on finishes in each event.

Full NW1A Championship results can be found at https://bit.ly/3QxWi0J

Girls

Brooke Haynes brought home Mount Airy’s two medals in the girls competition.

The Granite Bear sophomore outlasted the competition in both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs. Her time of 5:56.98 in the 1,600 was 22 seconds faster than the runner-up, and her time of 12:41.33 in the 3,200 was more than two minutes faster than the silver medalist.

Hannah Khuri finished just off the podium in the 1,600 with a time of 7:37.35. She also had Mount Airy’s only other top-10 finish by taking ninth in the 800 meters with a time of 3:28.56.

Boys

Hawks led Mount Airy with four individual medals, including a pair of first-place finishes.

Hawks won the triple jump with a mark of 43-7.50 feet, and was followed closely by teammate Taeshon Martin at 40-3.00. Hawks won his other gold in the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.08 seconds.

Martin and Hawks flip-flopped finishes in the long jump. Martin won gold at 20 feet even, while Hawks was runner-up at 19-9.50. Hawks won his final medal by taking silver in high jump with a mark of 5-6.

Declan Conner, Caden Ratcliff and Ben Bowman each added medals for the NW1A Champions.

Conner joined Hawks and Martin as gold medal winners by posting a time of 11:26.27 in the 3,200 meters. Bowman was second in the event at 11:48.69. Conner also finished second in the 1,600 with a time of 4:59.26, followed by Ratcliff in third at 4:59.26.

Conner picked up his final medal in the 800 meters where he finished third with a time of 2:10.65.

Mount Airy also won a medal in all four relay races. The Bears finished third in the 4x400, and took second in the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x800. Relay members were not listed on Milesplit.

The following Bears added top-10 finishes at the conference championship: Ratcliff finished fourth in the 800, Dyson Long was sixth in the 400, Bowman was sixth in the 1,600, Mckennon Hiatt was sixth in discus throw, Braddox Summer was seventh in the 300 hurdles, Tommy Simmons was seventh in the 800, and Karson Strickland was eighth in the 100.