CHOCOWINITY — The state track and field championships and crying kind of go hand in hand for junior Southside superstar Eminey Redmond. She’s earned her way to the pinnacle of high school track all three of her years as a Lady Seahawk.

“Freshman year, before I went to states, I had a meltdown,” Redmond said. “I was out on the track, I was crying, my coach (Andrea Quinerly) had to baby me up and give me a pep talk. I was really scared. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to get on the bus.”

“I didn’t want to go at all.”

Redmond was scared, she admitted. All she had heard leading up to it was how incredible the competitors from out in the mountains can be or how fast a certain upperclassman could run an event.

Like most athletes, she didn’t like the prospect of losing.

“I’m a sore loser. I admit that, but I still try to keep up my good sportsmanship,” Redmond said.

Two years later, it was Redmond standing tall on the podium. She won the 1-A long jump state championship in Greensboro in late May. As a sophomore, it took her until she got to Greensboro to cry. This year, Redmond didn’t shed a tear until she was on the first-place spot on the podium.

“Coach said, ‘Don’t worry about winning. Just have fun,’” she said. “I should have been doing that the last few years. I should have been out there having fun. I wasn’t expecting to win at all.”

But she did. Redmond’s 17-foot, 6-inch jump beat out everyone else at the 1-A level. She was having fun with the event. She chatted with jumpers and coaches from across the state. Quinerly had some fun, too. Redmond said that when she got a 17-foot, 3-inch jump down, Quinerly told her she was in the lead. She got even more excited when she tacked on another 3 inches to it.

Then Quinerly told her to go out and clear 18 feet, but she scratched on her last jump.

Reaching her state-championship potential took time. Redmond couldn’t leap farther than 15 feet as a freshman. Her legs grew longer over the past two years, and she’s been training to become better at the event.

“I had to practice my speed,” she said. “Coach made us do bleachers and we had to do so many (abdominal) workouts. We’ll do leg workouts. I worked on getting my legs stronger and where they needed to be.”

Getting better with each practice and each meet helped Redmond become a state champion, and it’s going to continue to be her mindset moving forward. She’ll have a target on her back going into her senior year, but is determined to build on everything she has already accomplished.

“From here, just being better than last year. I’ve accomplished a lot of things I really wanted to,” she said. “I really do want to jump 18 feet. That’s going to be my goal. I’ve been working towards that for three years now. I get closer and closer, but I haven’t hit it yet. Eventually I’m going to.”

The long jump isn’t the only event in which Redmond excels. She was the third leg on Southside’s 3-by-200 relay team that finished third in the state. She said she enjoys the chemistry she has with her relay teammates. Redmond was one of three juniors on that squad.

“Next year, we want to win in all the relays we do,” she said.

Redmond said that none of her achievements would have been possible without her mother and Quinerly.

“I actually look up to my coach like he’s my father. … I’ve grown really close to him,” she said. “Me being a senior next year, it’s going to be hard leaving him because I’m not going to find another coach like him. … My mom is my biggest supporter. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. … I love my mom to pieces.”