MOCKSVILLE — Local athletes combined to win seven total medals, including two golds, at the 1A Midwest Regional Track & Field Championship.
Mount Airy’s Blake Hawks and Brooke Haynes each won regional titles — Hawks in boys triple jump, and Haynes in the girls 1,600-meter run. The three remaining local state qualifiers also competed for Mount Airy: Caden Ratcliff, Declan Conner and Taeshon Martin.
Haynes won her 1,600 meters regional title with a time of 5:37.71 at the Davie High School Track. She also took second in the 3,200 meters with a time of 12:34.49. Haynes and the event’s winner, Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School’s Iara Silvagnoli, were separated by just nine seconds, while the rest of the competition finished nearly a minute behind Haynes.
Haynes enters the 1A State Championship Meet ranked No. 7 in the 1,600 and No. 6 in the 3,200 respectively. The sophomore returns to outdoor states after finishing sixth in the 3,200 and 11th in the 1,600 in 2023.
Also competing in the girls 1,600 meters at regionals was Millennium Charter Academy freshman Remi Devore, who finished just off the podium in fifth with a time of 5:59.75.
Devore was one of three Millennium Charter Lions to compete at regionals. Freshman Fern Lee finished fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:39.33, and junior River Edge finished 12th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:08.84.
On the boys side, Hawks won the triple jump regional title with a mark of 43-7.50 feet. The Bears made it a sweep of the event’s top two spots as Martin finished second at 41-6. Hawks and Martin enter the 1A State Championship meet ranked No. 4 and No. 8 in the state in triple jump respectively. Hawks also earned a bronze medal in long jump at regionals with a mark of 20-5, while Martin finished fifth in the event at 20-2.
Hawks, a UNC-Asheville commit, will compete in outdoor states for the fourth time. He previously won a bronze medal in last year’s long jump championship, and also has five indoor track medals. Martin, a sophomore, will compete in his first state championship meet.
Rounding out Mount Airy’s state qualifiers was Declan Conner and Caden Ratcliff. Conner, a junior, booked his return to states by finishing regional runner-up in the 1,600 with a time of 4:42.09. He enters the state meet ranked No. 8 in the 1,600.
Ratcliff, a senior, joins Hawks as a four-time qualifier for outdoor states. Ratcliff booked his ticket to states by taking fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:04.07, which ranks him at No. 10 in the 1A Division overall. Connor also competed in the 800 meters and took fifth with a time of 2:04.92.
Three more Bears competed in the regional championship as individuals but didn’t qualify for states: Mckennon Hiatt finished ninth in discus throw with a mark of 117-11 feet, Ben Bowman finished 12th in the 3,200 with a time of 11:40.27, and Karson Strickland finished 16th in the 200 with a time of 23.52 seconds.
Mount Airy had three relay teams compete at regionals.
Martin, Strickland, Yaniel Arce and Aiden Pomeroy made up both the 4x100 and 4x200-meter relay teams that finished eighth and 15th respectively. The team of Conner, Ratcliff, Pomeroy and Dyson Long finished fifth in the 4x400.
The 1A State Championship Meet is scheduled for May 20 at Marcus T. Johnson Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T University.
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