Raven Pernell was the top performer for Kosciusko in the first track meet of the season as the school's only first place finisher with a long jump of 15-11, three inches better than Princess Powell of Meridian, at the Falcon Relays hosted by Columbus High School. She finished third in the same event at last year's 4A state meet.
Pernell was also fourth in the 100 with a time of 12.91 and ran on the 400 relay team that finished sixth. The other runners were Rozlyn Fuller, Victoria Anderson and Diamond Kern.
Kosciusko also had a sixth place finish in the girls 3200 relay with Lorelai Bell, Alleiyah Butler, Kaniziya Floyd and Kimora Winters.
Presley Fulgham is the two-time defending state champion in the 4A girls pole vault, but that event was not held.
The long jump was also the event that produced the best finish for Kosciusko boys. Derrick Manning was third at 20.1.
Jaquavous Pace was fourth in the 100 (11.18), Kantavious Brown fourth in the high jump (5-8) and Javen Mallett fifth in the shot put (37-4). Manning was also eighth in the high jump and Mallett eighth in the discus.
Pace anchored relay teams that finished fourth in the 400 and seventh in the 800. He was joined by Caden Greer, De’marion Triplett and Kedrick Woodard on the 400 team and Greer, Woodard and Demond Reed on the 800 team.
The 3200 relay team with Tuff Shaw, Cole Wilson, Braylon Truss and Percy Lewis finished fifth.
Both coaches – Eleazarus Greenleaf for the girls and Derrick Huffman for the boys -- were pleased.
“They guys went out and competed against some of the top talent in the state. I think it was a good experience for them,” Huffman said.
He was especially pleased with the performance of Triplett in the 100 with an eighth place finish in 11.41. “I expected Jaquavous Pace to run pretty well, but the one who really surprised me was De’marion Triplett because he got his time down this year versus last year.”
“I think it generally went well,” Greenleaf said. “We competed against schools from all classifications 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A.”
Relay teams have not had much practice together because of runners missing time for varied reasons. He plans to have the runners working on their handoffs in practice.
The boys and girls teams will compete in a meet at Belhaven University in Jackson Friday.
