Locals medal at 2A Track Championship

GREENSBORO — Surry County tracks stars combined to capture three medals at the 2A Outdoor State Championship Meet.

North Surry’s Ella Riggs led the county with two medals. The junior finished state runner-up in girls shot put with a mark of 38-00.25 feet, which was 2.5 inches behind the gold medalist. She also won a bronze medal by taking third in discus throw with a mark of 120-09.

Riggs met the MileSplit U.S. Second Team Standard in both events.

Riggs’ two medals brought her high school total up to seven. She won a shot put bronze medal in indoor track as a freshman, then finished just off the shot put podium that spring by placing fifth in outdoor. As a sophomore, Riggs finished shot put state runner-up in indoor, then won her first state title by winning shot put in outdoor track. She also finished outdoor state runner-up in discus throw as a sophomore.

Earlier this year, Riggs won the 1A/2A Shot Put Indoor Track State Championship.

Also landing on the podium at this year’s 2A State Meet was East Surry’s Isaac Vaden. The Cardinal senior won a bronze medal in discus throw with a mark of 161-09. The discus state champion won the event with a mark of 178-07, followed by the runner-up at 169-05.

Vaden’s bronze was his third high school medal. As a sophomore he won the 2A Discus State Championship, then finished state runner-up in the event his junior season.

Rounding out Surry County’s three medal-winning performances was Surry Central’s girls 4x400-meter relay team. The team of Ivy Toney, Aylin Rodriguez, Sierra Carpenter and Tasyanna Hughes finished fourth in the event with a time of 4:18.51. The Eagles were 1.02 seconds behind the third-place team, and 15 seconds behind the state champions.

All four Eagles earned a high school medal for the first time.

Three more Surry county athletes competed at the 2A State Meet but did not finish on the podium.

North Surry’s Ariana Liberatore competed in both girls long jump and triple jump. The senior finished 11th in long jump with a mark of 16-03.50, and 14th in triple jump at 33-07.

North Surry junior Derrick Simmons finished 15th in boys long jump with a mark of 19-03.

Surry Central junior Migral Perez finished 15th in the boys 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.37.