The Picayune Maroon Tide finished second in the boys division at the Class 5A South State track and field championships held at Long Beach High School on Saturday, May 7th while the Lady Tide finished in third.  The top four finishers in each event qualified for the state championship meet next Friday and Saturday in Pearl.

In the girls division, the Lady Tide scored 103 points to finish behind champion Long Beach (116) and Brookhaven (111).  Picayune girls head coach Jerry Todd commented, “We had a lack of focus early in the meet during the field events and that cost us about 16-20 points.  It is disappointing to know that we can perform better.  We qualified quite a few athletes today and we are very excited for them and looking forward to the state meet next week.”

Jasmine Ducre was a triple qualifier as she won the 400m dash in 57.62  and the triple jump with a leap of 35’ 7 ?”.  She placed second in the 100m dash with a time of 12.02.  Hannah Nunez was a double-winner in the 100m hurdles with 15.09 and the high jump with a height of 5’6”.

Taneequa Myers qualified in both hurdle races with fourth place finishes.  She crossed the line in the 100m hurdles with a time of 16.45 and 49.83 in the 300m hurdles.  Clarissa Jones took third in the discus with a throw of 95’ 4” followed by teammate Sahara Wilson in fourth place with a throw of 87’.

The Lady Tide won the 4x100m relay with a time of 48.95.  The relay team was made up of Sarah Richard, Ducre, Desherra Jackson and Nunez.  The 4x200m relay team of Kymetria Jackson, Richard, Deshirra Jackson and Nunez placed third with a time of 1:46.16.

The Picayune boys team scored 104 points to place second overall behind champion Long Beach (131).  Picayune boys head coach Jon Feaster stated, “I am very proud of the kids.  They have worked extremely hard and showed a tremendous amount of resilience over the last couple of weeks.  They have worked through injuries and other obstacles to get to this point.  We had several athletes step up and give great effort.  Javontae Wilson set a new school record in the 200m dash breaking the old record of 21.6.  The 4x200m relay also set a new school mark.  The kids ran hard and competed and that is all I can ask of them.”

Javontae Wilson won the 200m dash in school record time of 21.48 and placed second in the 100m dash with a time of 10.64, just one-hundredth of a second behind the winner.

Derionne Stewart and Tony Washington took first and second in the 400m dash with times of 50.62 and 51.10, respectively.  Marcus Rawls placed second in the 800m run with a time of 2:01.72.  Jake Polderman took third in the 1600m run with a time of 4:53.60.  Malcom Faciane was fourth in the shotput with a distance of 42’ 10”.

The Maroon Tide’s 4x100m relay team was second with a time of 43.16.  The relay team was comprised of Ken Breland, Desmond Taylor, Dalvin Acker and Wilson.  The 4x200m relay team of Breland, Stewart, Acker and Wilson won the event with a time of 1:29.22.  The 4x400m relay team of Washington, Nolan Fletcher, Rawls and Stewart won the race in 3:31.92, just .72 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Pearl River Central placed 12th out of 14 teams scoring with 14 points.  Austin Creel took fourth place in the 110m high hurdles with a time of 16.73.  Bryson Penton placed second in the 300m intermediate hurdles with a time of 41.83.

The Class 1A, 3A and 5A state championship meet will be held at Pearl High School on Friday with field events starting at 11am while running events are slated to begin at 3pm.