The Pembroke Middle School girls track team celebrates after winning the Public Schools of Robeson County conference championship Tuesday in Red Springs. Contributed photo RED SPRINGS — The Pembroke Middle School track team won the team competition Tuesday as the Public Schools of Robeson County held its first middle school girls track conference championship meet at the Red Springs Athletic Complex.
The first championship meet came one year after the first season of girls middle school track in PSRC last year.
“These girls, I’ve had these girls, about half the team, since last year, the first official season,” Pembroke coach Ryan Bullard said. “We came in second behind Littlefield (last year), and most of them returned with a few new additions. Last year we sort of struggled in the sprints, and we had a couple girls who helped us some in the sprints this year, but we were strong in the middle distance and the long distance.”
Three individual runners from Pembroke won their races, while the Warriors also won the 4x400 relay.
Blakely Graham and Johnna Sampson each won an individual event and were part of the winning relay team. Graham won the 800 meters in 3 minutes, 4.62 seconds as part of a podium sweep for the Warriors, with Berkley Collins second and Bailey Canady third.
Sampson won the 400 meters in 1:10.08, while Collins won the 1600 meters in 6:36 for Pembroke.
The 4x400 relay team included two last-minute replacement, as Brooklyn Dorsey and Shawnesty Hunt joined Sampson and Graham to run the race in 5:10.
“Those girls, they were special little girls,” Bullard said. “I’m proud of them. They work hard. We won every meet pretty handily this year, as far as the points go, and they really stepped up and made history in the first-ever championship meet.”
Lumberton Junior High’s Aryiana Haywood won one individual race and was part of a winning relay, and was named the Female Runner of the Year. Haywood won the 200 meters in 29.44 seconds; the Vikings won the 4x200 relay in 2:07, run by Carmen James, Samia McRae, Malaya Leach and Haywood.
“This was (Haywood’s) second year running with us,” LJHS coach Daniel Humphrey said. “She was a great leader on the track. She ran her hardest race almost every race, she always gave it her all, every event that she ran. She also cheers for us here at school, so she would do double practices, sometimes three days a week. … Her work ethic was pretty good for us this year.”
St. Pauls’ Leah Humphrey won the 100-meter dash in 12.45 seconds, with the Bulldogs’ 4x100 relay team of Bella Rozier, Leila Colvin, Kayleigh Locklear and Humphrey winning in 57.5.
Pembroke scored 42 points to win the meet, with St. Pauls second at 18 points. Lumberton Jr. High was third with 11 points and Littlefield finished with 10.
Eight schools participated in the inaugural championship meet, with more runners participating compared to a trial-run season last year.
“Everybody has a talent, and our job is to give these kids an opportunity to find their niche,” PSRC athletic director Glenn Patterson Sr. said. “It might not be basketball, or the major sports, football, softball, baseball, but it might be track, it might be soccer, it might be wrestling. We try to give everybody an opportunity to participate in something.”
Coaches and PSRC officials alike hope to see the program continue growing, both for the girls and in boys track season in the spring.
“I see potential for a lot of growth with the track program, the boys and the girls side,” Bullard said. “We’ve had a lot of interest — I can only speak for what I see at my school, but we had all the schools this time, and last year we didn’t. I can see it evolving into something big.”
“They are asking now for field events, so that’s something that I’m going to have to sit down and see if these schools are equipped,” Patterson said. “I foresee it growing, and there’s a lot of young kids who were out there with their parents, and hopefully this will encourage them to participate as they grow and become middle schoolers. I foresee it being a big event and something that will grow each year.”
In addition to providing an additional activity for middle school students to get involved in athletics, Patterson hopes the program helps provide more development for athletes before joining local high school track and field programs.
“I was a high school track coach and a lot of people came to me and had no knowledge of track,” Patterson said. “They wanted to get out there and run, but didn’t know what events they should participate in, what was their sport. They didn’t know if they were distance runners or if they were sprinters. I think with the implementation of the middle school (track) program, it introduces these kids to the areas they’re strong in.”
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