Led by Jaquavous Pace and Tyran Mosley, Kosciusko edged out Leake Central and Northeast Lauderdale for the 4-4A district track championship.
The Whippets finished with 122 points, two and a half points ahead of both Leake Central and Northeast Lauderdale in the meet at Winona High School. Choctaw Central was fourth with 89 points, followed by West Lauderdale 44½ and Louisville 42½.
It came down to the final event, the 1600 relay. Northeast Lauderdale led with 119½, Kosciusko had 117 and Leake Central 109½. Leake Central won the event for 10 points, Kosciusko was third for five points and Northeast Lauderdale failed to finish for no points. Ayden Adams, Braylon Truss, Demond Reed and Perry Lewis were the runners who brought victory to the Whippets with a time of 3:54.
Pace won the 100 in 11.19, the 200 (23.10) and anchored the winning 800 relay (1:33.35) and the 400 relay that finished second (54.04).
Mosley was second in the triple jump (38-10), third in the high jump (5-10), fourth in the 110 high hurdles (17.41) and ran the opening leg for the winning 800 relay team.
Coach Derrick Huffman pointed to Kosciusko’s only other individual first place as the key to the championship. He moved Jayden Ferguson, an eighth grader, up from the junior high team and Ferguson cleared 8-6 to win the pole vault.
Another key was that the 800 relay was seeded fifth, based upon times in previous meets, but finished first, bettering its seeding time by nearly three seconds. Caden Greer and Demond Reed joined Pace and Mosley for the relay.
The top four in each event qualified for the region 2-4A meet which was held Tuesday at Winona.
Other qualifiers: Lewis second in the 800 (2:20.05), Kantavious Brown second in the high jump (5-10), Grayson Blaylock second in the pole vault (8-0), Javen Mallett second in the shot put (37-9), Derrick Manning third in the long jump (18-9½) and Ladarrion McBride, an eighth grader, was fourth in the triple jump at 37-10.
Runners on the second place 400 relay team were Kendrick Woodard, Jontavious Roundtree, Greer and Pace.
