Swansboro's Watkins repeats in discus

 GREENSBORO - Cornelius Watkins once again reigns supreme in the discus.

The Swansboro High senior won his second consecutive title in the event while Southwest's Jamaal S. Williams won the 200-meter dash, Northside's Danielle Adams seized the high jump and East Duplin's Tyreck McFadden claimed the long jump Friday during the NCHSAA 2-A Championships at North Carolina A&T University.

Coming off last week's East Regional Championship in which he bettered 170 feet, Watkins this time recorded a distance of 168 feet, 6 inches. Still, it was strong enough to better the second-place athlete by more than 14 feet.

"Cornelius was upset with himself, he wanted to throw 173 feet to set the state record," said Swansboro head coach John Liles. "It was his first throw at 168 that put him way ahead of everybody else."

Watkins actually exceeded 170 feet three times, but those attempts were not counted because the discus landed out of bounds.

"It was a whole new set up, it was a college set up," Liles said. "But Cornelius had a good day."

Watkins had hoped for the state record after dominating the discus all season.

"He has been consistent and everything he does comes from hard work," said Liles. "Coach Ronnie Crittenden has done a good job the last three years with Cornelius."

Watkins also set a personnel best with a 50-4 in the shot put, good enough for eighth.

Meanwhile Williams, a senior, won the 200 with a time of 21.87 seconds, beating out the second-place runner by .02. Williams ran 22.29 in the preliminaries. He also finished second in the 100 at 10.69.

Adams, also a senior, won the girls high jump with a leap of 5-feet, 6 inches, bettering the second-place score by two inches. She was also second in the triple jump at 36-10.

McFadden, a senior, won the long jump with a leap of 21-3¾.

Swansboro junior Carrie Dail was third in the 400 at 59.04 and sixth in the long jump to help the Pirates finish third in the girls team standings. The Pirates were also second in the 4x800 relay at 10:15.03.

"We were shooting for the top five," said Liles, whose girls program last week won the East Regional. "We knew there would be strong teams."

While Watkins, Williams, Adams and McFadden were the area's lone champions, several other local athletes finished in the top 10 in their respective events.

In girls, Swansboro's Samantha Hammonds was seventh in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the 300 hurdles; Southwest's Corozone Morgan was fifth in the 100; Northside's Ashley Miller was eighth in the 400; Swansboro's Natalie Oshita was eighth in the 1,600; and teammate Brooke Kinsey was ninth in the 3,200. 

Southwest was third in the 4x100 relay.

Swansboro's Sydney Sutherland and K.C. Watson shared fifth in the pole vault while teammate Tabitha Hammonds was tied for eighth. Northside's girls ended eighth overall while Cummings won the team title.

In boys, Northside's Kenneth Rowland was second in the shot put at 55-4; Swansboro's Larry Franklin was third in the triple jump at 44-8¾; Northside's Raul Delarosa was eighth in the 300 hurdles with a 54.92; East Duplin's Jerad Walker was fourth in the pole vault; and Croatan's Gabe Moore was 10th in the 1,600.  

Northside was fifth and Southwest was eighth in the 4x100 relay. Southwest was also seventh in the 4x200 relay while Croatan was fourth and Swansboro was eighth in the 4x800 relay. Northside's boys were eighth and Shelby won the team title.