The Southside track and field team ended the season with a strong showing at the NCHSAA 1-A state meet as it tallied 28 points to take a seventh place finish at N.C. A&T on Friday.
Tony Grice, the Four Rivers Conference and East Regional MVP, continued his amazing season by capturing third in 200-meter dash (22.64) and long jump (21-feet, 9-inches), while taking second in the 4×400-meter relay (3:29.06) with teammates Brandon Jordan, John Stokes and Curtis Myers.
Myers also turned in a great performance as he was able to take second in the high jump as he soared 6-feet, 2-inches despite having just finished running the 400-meter dash preliminaries.
“Curtis kind of got thrown off his rhythm,” said Southside’s first-year track coach DeWayne Kellum. “He took one jump, then had to go run the 400 preliminary, then came back to finish the high jump. He had to recover and he was a little weary but he came back to take the silver.”
Aside from helping the 4×400 team win a silver, Jordan placed ninth in the 110-meter hurdles (16:24) and pulled himself out of the 300-meter hurdles to save his legs for the 4×400.
Also sacrificing himself was Grice, who scratched out of the triple jump to be a part of that silver medal team.
“It was a good meet,” said Kellum. “What I liked about it is the some of the guys scratching events to help in others. I think we bettered our 4×400 team by like four seconds or something. We came within a step of winning gold, (Swain County) was about a five-second higher seed than we were.
“Tony did a real good job, he dropped the triple jump to help us in the 4×400. Brandon Jordan did the same with one of his hurdle events and scratched that to run the 4×400. It was a good team effort and I was really pleased.”
The Seahawks also received a good effort from John Starkie, Renaldo Randolph, Rokeem Miller and Stokes who teamed up to take 14th in the 4×200 meter relay (1:36.34).
“My young 4×2 team came in (14th) and did a really good job,” Kellum said.
Kellum, Southside’s long-time football coach, was thrust into the spot of head track coach this season after the school did not field a team last year and said he enjoyed the experience.
“I was doing it because our principal and AD wanted track and I’ve enjoyed it even though I would like to be practicing football right now,” Kellum joked. “The kids were well-behaved and did what they were supposed to do. They were real serious about it and its been fun.”