CHOCOWINITY — Some of the best athletes in the eastern part of the state gathered at Southside High School on Wednesday for the Four Rivers Conference championship track and field meet and at the end of the day two local stars shined the brightest as Northside’s Summer Cordon and Southside’s Cole Kellum sped away with top honors.
Cordon had a flawless afternoon as the Panthers senior dominated the female portion of the meet winning all four events she participated in to be named the conference’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete.
Cordon won conference championships in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and the 100-meter hurdles to help the Panthers take third place in the meet with 74 points.
“I’m very proud of Summer Cordon and what she has accomplished this season. She has qualifying times/distances for regionals in all four of her events. She excels in all that she does in track and field,” Northside coach Suzanne Lee said. “Summer is well deserved of receiving (the top athlete honor) in all aspects of being an athlete: dedication, hard work, respect, leadership, talent and skill. She has it all.”
Seahawks’ senior Kellum, who was battling a back injury, also had a spectacular afternoon as he locked up one of the team’s two first-place finishes and added two seconds and a third to help the Seahawks take third place with 85 points and split the conference’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete honors with Camden’s Trevar Carr.
“I was real proud of him,” Seahawks coach DeWayne Kellum said. “To go out and still participate in four events (with the injury) was a pretty gutsy performance.”
Led by Carr, Camden was able to win the boys’ meet with 129 points and was trailed by Manteo (112), Southside, Riverside (78), Perquimans (74), Northside (35) and South Creek (11).
Camden also won the girls’ meet (158), while Riverside placed second (108) and was followed by Northside, Southside (69), Perquimans (50), Manteo (33) and South Creek (20).
Southside’s Kellum was able to take second in the triple jump and the 400-meter dash, before teaming up with Tyriek Gaskins, Raquan Ward and Darius Whitley to place third in the 4×200-meter relay. Kellum also joined forces with Aaron Jones, Isaiah Moore and Leevonte Grimes to earn the school a conference championship in the 4×400-meter relay. Jones had a strong day and won the 800-meter run, while Whitley placed third in the triple jump.
Aside from Cordon, Northside was led by Bryallan Garcia, who placed second in the 800-meter run and Dazuan Jones, who placed third in the 300-meter hurdles. Northside also took bronze in both the girls’ and boys’ 4×400, as Austin Gabrel, Jones, Patrick Moore and Garcia got it done for the boys and Marta O’Neal, Destiny Jones, Madison Gruber and Kalonda Smith did it for the girls.
The Southside girls’ afternoon was highlighted by a first-place finish by Nikki Foreman in the 100-meter dash, second-place finishes by Katie Boyd (300-meter hurdles) and Deandria Purdue (discus), along with third-place finishes in the 100-meter hurdles (Katie Laughinghouse) and the 4×100 (Kalyi Clark, Allison Talcott, Jadai Moore and Foreman).
The Knights girls had a strong meet and captured first place in the discus (Jessie Ann Rogers), 300-meter hurdles (Hannah Copeland), 800-meter run (Ann Marie Manning), 3200-meter run (Manning) and the 4×800 (Manning, Chesson Ward, Copeland, Alex Hardison).