Locals earn points in 1-A track meet

 GREENSBORO - Hendersonville held on to win the boys title and Winston-Salem Prep won its first girls championship in the NCHSAA 1-A State Track and Field Championships on the campus of North Carolina A&T on Saturday.

Coastal Plains 1-A Conference teams Dixon, Lejeune and Topsail also had athletes place during the meet.

Hendersonville scored 66.20 points to defeat second-place South Stokes with 52 in the men's team race. On the women's side, Prep earned 63 points to finish ahead of runner-up West Wilkes with 49.33.

Polk's John Wolfe swept victories in both the 800 and the 1600 and earned Most Valuable Performer honors in the men's meet. Corey Wilkinson of Siler City Jordan-Matthews was a double winner, winning the 100 in 10.71 seconds and the 200 in 22.02 seconds.

Jania Bogle of Princeton was the women¹s MVP. She took a pair of individual state titles, winning the 100 in a time of 12.47 seconds and taking the 200 in 25.30 while also finishing second in the long jump.

Scoring points in the girls' compeititon for Dixon was Tory McCarty, who was sixth in the 100 hurdles in 18.17. For Lejeune, the 4x200 relay was sixth in 1:52.87. For Topsail, Meisha Shepard was fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 33-feet, 11-inches; the 4x800 Relay was sixth in 10:27.05; Alexis Waters was eighth in the 800 in 2:32.62 and Kelsey Davis was seventh in the 3,200 in 12:44.24.

Scoring in the boys' meet for Dixon was Emmanuel Jenkins, fifth in the 400 in 52.,72 and John Pletl, eighth in the discus at 130-11. For Lejeune, Duane Thompson was fifth in the triple jump at 42.5½ and Brandon Carter was seventh in the 800 at 2:06.03. For Topsail, the 4x800 relay was seventh in 8:42.99.

SOFTBALL

Croatan 8, Whiteville 5: At Whiteville, both teams came out swinging hard at the starrt, but it was Croatan whose bats stayed consistent in a victory in the second round of the NCHSAA 2-A state playoffs Friday night.

Andi Cochran's 3-run double in the first inning helped the Cougars to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Cochran finished with four RBIs.

But Whiteville battled back by connecting on Croatan starting pitcher Whitney Hill's pitches. Danielle Cassidy had a RBI double and Kelsey Lynn added a 2-run double to help trim the lead 5-4.

Paige Williams extended Croatan's lead with a 2-run home run to take a 7-4 lead and Whiteville would not come within two runs.

Hill pitched 51/3 innings and struck out six for the win.

Croatan will now face East Central Conference foe East Duplin on Wednesday in the third round.

Lauren Poole went 3-for-5 for Croatan.

Croatan        520   100  1     -   8  10   1

Whiteville      400   010  0     -   5  11   2

WP-Hill (17-7) 5.1 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 6 K, 1 BB. LP-Dallas Hewitt CG, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 K, 4 BB. LEADING HITTERS-Cro.: Williams 1-3, HR, 2 RBIs; Cochran 2-3, 2B, 4 RBI; Poole 3-5; Cranford 1-4, 2B, RBI. W: Danielle Cassidy 3-4 2B, 2 RBIs; Kelsey Lynn 2-3, 2 RBIs; Elizabeth Williams 2-3, 2B. RECORDS-Cro.: 17-8, hosts East Duplin Wednesday. W: 11-5, season complete.