A double victory by freshman Jamarques Spivey and a surprising win by the 1600 relay team led McAdams boys to a fifth place finish at the 1A state track meet.
Spivey won the 100 in 11.23 seconds and the 200 with a clocking of 23.09. Both were better than his qualifying times at the South State meet.
In the 100, he trailed midway through the race, but rallied to edge Jarell Hamilton of Houlka by five one-hundredth of a second. He had a larger margin in what he considers his best event, the 200, winning by 34 one hundredth of a second over Olando Evans of Ashland.
Spivey's victory in the 200 was a repeat from last year's state meet, but he improved from third in the 100.
The 1600 relay team of Jacquese Greer, Jamar Teague, Chris Harmon and Omari Barron-Hampton finished third at the South State with a time of 3:53.98, the sixth best qualifying time for state. They improved on that time by nearly 13 seconds for gold medals, with Barron-Hampton pulling out the victory with a strong stretch run. The winning time was 3:41.01.
“They were dedicated. They really wanted the gold medal,” said coach Mitchell Myer. “They were determined to get the medal.”
Also for the boys, Greer was seventh in the 1600, Willie Perteet eighth in the long jump, Kurt Mitchell eighth in the 300 hurdles and the 400 relay team of Perteet, Marcus Ball, Ja'Myron Cross and Spivey finished seventh.
Tupelo Christian was the boys winner for the fifth straight year with 103½ points, followed by West Union 51, Ashland 47, Biggersville 38 and McAdams 36.
Girls
The Lady Bulldogs were 12th with 18 points
Kiyah Harmon was second in the high jump and eighth in the long jump, Bryia Harmon third in the shot put and Ja'Niah Greer sixth in the high jump.
French Camp and South Delta tied for the girls 1A title, each with 91 points.
McAdams boys and girls have both shown improvement ove the past two years. In 2021, the boys were 23rd with only one point and the girls were 20th. Last year it was ninth for the boys and 16th for the girls.
Ethel
Ladamina Merritt, Ethel's only qualifier, was fifth in the boys 400.
