French Camp track coach Joe Watkins pegged the chances for his girls’ team repeating as 1A champion at 30 percent. He underestimated the Lady Panthers who outpointed three-time champion Tupelo Christian 130-119 for the title.
“We had one race that went sideways, but the girls were patient,” Watkins said. “They knew what they had to do, and they ran their races. They're competitors.”
McAdams was 16th in the girls’ competition with 11 points and Ethel 19th with eight points.
Tupelo Christian won the boys meet for the fourth straight year with 122 points. French Camp tied for seventh with 20 points, McAdams was ninth with 19 and Ethel 27th with four points.
French Camp girls trailed Tupelo Christian 103-101 entering the 800 but took the lead with 21 points as Taylor Benoist finished first, Lucy Littlejohn third, and Averie Jane Gundy fourth.
With a 122-113 lead entering the final event, the 1600 relay, the French Camp quartet of Maddie Davis, Lucy Littlejohn, Emily Benoist, and Taylor Benoist only needed to finish the race to be assured of no worse than sharing the championship. They were second, behind South Delta and just ahead of Tupelo Christian.
Littlejohn led the Lady Panthers, winning the 3200 by nearly a minute with a time of 12:39.91 and the 1600 (5:39.01). Olivia Gundy won the triple jump (32-9.75) and finished second in the high jump. Jasmine Bonty won the discus (105-4) and was third in the shot put. The 3200-relay team of Annaleigh Bain, Averie Jane Gundy, Kelsey Bridges, and Taylor Benoist finished first.
Jesse Jones was third in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600 for French Camp boys. His time of 11:26.74 in the 3200 was more than half a minute better than his time at the South State meet a week earlier
McAdams
Jamarquse Spivey, an eighth grader, won the boys 200 with a time of 23.12 and was third in 100
Christopher Harmon finished sixth in 300 hurdles.
For girls Bryia Harmon was fourth in shot put, Ameri Gadson fifth in high jump and the 3200-relay team finished seventh
Ethel
Jasmine Johnson was second in the girls shot put at 33 feet, 11- and three-quarter inches, five and a half inches behind Anna Paterson of Bay Springs.
Ladamian Merritt took fifth for boys in the 400.
Other team champions during two days of competition at Pearl High School were Clinton in 6A boys and girls, Brookhaven in 5A boys and girls, Senatobia in 4A boys, Pontotoc in 4A girls, Tylertown in 3A boys, Alcorn Central in 3A girls, Amite County in 2A boys and Puckett in 2A girls.
