The Poplarville swept the Division 8-4A track and field team titles on Saturday, April 21st in Pass Christian. The top four finishers in each event qualified to advance to regional competition on Saturday, April 28th at Tylertown High School.

The Lady Hornets amassed 256 points and defeated their closest competitor, Vancleave, by almost 200 points. The Lady Bulldogs scored 74 points followed by Bay High with 67, Forrest County AHS 36 and Greene County with 29.

The Lady Hornets tallied 14 first place finishes including nine times when they secured both first and second in the event.

Courtnee Strain, Shaneshia Huderson and Janescia Peters were all double-winners for the Lady Hornets. Strain won the 3200m and 1600m runs with times of 13:26.54 and 6:34.29, respectively while Huderson swept the 100m low hurdles and the 300m hurdles in 16.05 and 48.28. Strain also qualified in the 800m run as she placed third in the event. Peters claimed the top spot in the long jump and the triple jump with leaps of 17’ 1” and 32’ 2”. Peters also placed second in the 100m low hurdles.

Joponika McGee won the 400m dash with a time of 1:06.39 and teammate Sheena Travis won the 800m run in 2:39.57. Kendra Hall collected the shotput gold with a throw of 34’ 5 ?” followed by teammate Naomi White in second place. Jade Cousin won the discus with a throw of 89’8” followed by teammate Meranda Brown in second place.

In the pole vault, Tkeyah Hart vaulted 9’ to claim top honors. She also placed second in both the triple jump and long jump and fourth in the high jump.

Other individual qualifiers for the Lady Hornets were Alon Travis (3rd – high jump), Zanashia Turner (2nd – 200m, 2nd – 100m), Myriah Davis (3rd – 200m), Tamera Henry (2nd – 400m, 2nd – 1600m, 2nd – 3200m) and Raven Henry (2nd – 100m, 2nd – 300m hurdles).

All three Lady Hornet relay teams claimed first place in the event. The Poplarville 4x200m relay team of Raven Henry, Travis, Peters and Turner won the event in 1:52.63 while the team of Davis, Travis, Huderson and Travis was first with a time of 53.65.

The Lady Hornets’ 4x400m relay team comprised of Raven Henry, Joponika McGee, Huderson and Strain crossed the line first with a time of 4:39.09.

On the boys’ side, the Hornets tallied 163 points to narrowly defeat St. Stanislaus who scored 151 points. Vancleave scored 65 points followed by Bay High with 60, Greene County 49 and Forrest County AHS with 25 points rounded out the scoring.

The Hornets had eight first place finishes with six of them coming between two individuals. Both Jordan Travis and Jarrell Aaron were triple winners on the day.

Travis won the 800m, 1600m and 3200m runs with times of 2:02.03, 4:42.99 and 10:16.60, respectively. Aaron claimed top honors in the long jump, triple jump and high jump with marks of 22’2”, 43’11” and 6’2”, respectively. Aaron also qualified in the 200m dash when he placed second.

Rickee Raine won the shotput with a put of 46’ 3” while the 4x400m relay team made up of Jamie Dolin, Dexter Travis, Neeko Lockhart and Travis claimed the other first place finish for the Hornets with a time of 3:38.30.

Other individual qualifiers for the Hornets were Devin Bonner (3rd – 110m high hurdles, 3rd – high jump), Daniel Magee (4th – 110m high hurdles), Travis (2nd – 300m hurdles, 2nd – triple jump), Eric Well (2nd – discus), Austin Rancatore (3rd – discus), Anthony Martin (4th – discus) and Lockhart (3rd- pole vault, 3rd – long jump).

The Hornets’ 4x200m relay team of Tray Griffin, Jaquain James, Lockhart and Travis placed third to advance to regional competition.

The top four finishers at the upcoming regional championships this Saturday at Tylertown High School will advance to the Class 4A South State championships which will also be held at Tylertown High School on Saturday, May 5th.