LONG BEACH — The Picayune girls have quite a bit of momentum in their quest for a Class 5A South State track and field championship this weekend.

The Lady Tide, coming off a Division 7-5A title, captured the Region 4-5A championship Thursday here at Lance Lumpkin Stadium.

Picayune won with 106 points, narrowly beating Long Beach (102). Pascagoula was third with 99, followed by Gautier (78), West Harrison (70), George County (58), East Central (8) and Stone (3).

Picayune had six first-place finishes, with freshman Quaria Wilson leading the way as a double winner taking both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Freshman Lacey Polderman won the 400-meter dash and also ran a leg of the winning 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams.

Joining Polderman on the 4×100 team were freshmen Jasmon Flowers and Rekida Telsede and senior Sarah Richard. Joining her on the 4×200 team were Flowers, Telsede and freshman Corinne Munson. Richard also won the triple jump.

Picayune’s winning margin would have been even more, but the 4×400 meter relay team was disqualified after winning the race for a lane violation.

Pascagoula led the Lady Tide by more than 30 points after the field events but the Lady Tide won 6 of the 11 running events to pull out the win. Long Beach took a 4 point lead after the 800 but Wilson and Sarah Richard took first and second in the 200 to seal the win.

George County’s boys ran away with the title on that side of the ledger as the Rebels scored 115 points, finishing well ahead of Pascagoula (91), Gautier (79), West Harrison (75), Picayune (74), Long Beach (58), East Central (28) and Stone (2).

Picayune had first-place finishes by senior Corey Nixon in the 100-meter dash and senior Tony Washington in the 400-meter dash.

The Maroon Tide 4X200 relay team of Tyler Smith, Jonathan Baker, Russell Whitehead and Tony Washington won as well, but was disqualified for a baton drop.

* In Class 4A, the Poplarville girls finished third with 74 points behind champion McComb (113) and South Pike (88).

Poplarville’s Jenascia Peters took a pair of first place wins in the long jump and the triple jump. She also finished second in the 300 meter hurdles. Teammate Naomi White won the shot put and finished second in the discus.

Poplarville finished fifth in the boys competition. McComb won with an impressive 208 points.

The top four finishers in each event advance to the South State meet, which is set for Saturday here in Long Beach.

All local qualifiers from these two events can be found in the Scoreboard section on this page.