Orange Track and Field

GREENSBORO–As Spencer Hampton prepared to run the biggest race of his life, there was a rainbow overhead.

The threatening clouds that had permeated the afternoon at Truist Stadium inside North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro had yielded to a rare but glorious sight. If someone believed in omens, they may have thought that Orange was about to have its first long-distance running state champion since 1998.

For eight minutes and 3,100 meters, Hampton reinforced that belief.

But it was the 3,200 meters that Hampton was running in. Walter Williams Ryan Motondo passed Hampton about 90 meters from the finish line to overtake the lead and beat Hampton to win the 3A State Championship on Saturday afternoon.

Motondo finished the race at 9:22.50. Hampton earned the second spot on the medal stand at Belk Track at 9:26.07. It is the best finish by any Orange runner, regardless of gender, since Bradsher Wilkins won the 4A Men’s 3,200 meter championship in 1998.

“I kind of knew what was going to happen,” Hampton said. “He (Motondo) has a really phenomenal kick. He’s a really phenomenal runner. I knew from the start I was going to have to take it out from the front if I was going to have to have a chance because a lot of these kids have a lot more of a kick that I do. We came down the stretch and I hoped that he didn’t have in him, but he did. I’m still super happy with how I did.”

At the outset, Hampton established the lead and turned back challenger after challenger through eight laps. Jack Dingman, a senior from Northern Guilford who won the 1,600 meter state championship earlier in the day, stayed just behind Hampton on the opening laps, but faded to the back. Chapel Hill’s Emil Arangala was a few strides back on the third and four laps, but couldn’t continue that pace. Weddington sophomore Caden Townshend also posed a threat before he was passed by Motondo.

Hampton and Motondo are no strangers to one another, and they’ll only get better acquainted as time goes on. Motondo was the 3A State Champion in men’s cross country in January, a race where Spencer finished 24th. In August, Orange and Williams will become league rivals in the brand new Central Conference.

Hampton won the 3A Mideast Regional Championship in the 1,600 meters at Southern Lee High School in Sanford on January 19. He opted not to run in the 1,600 meters state championship race on Saturday in order to focus on the 3,200 meters.

Orange was well-represented throughout the 3A State Track and Field Championships on a warm, but not oppressively hot, Saturday afternoon in Greensboro. Orange’s 4×400 relay team of Devin Goss, Keanu Mims, Jeffrey Faulkner and Elijah Danley finished 7th in the state. The Panthers won the opening heat on the strength of a great anchor run by Faulker, who surged past competitors from A.C. Reynolds and Union Pines at the finish line at 3:31.80. Cuthbertson won the state championship at 3:19.40.

The men’s 4×200 relay team of Faulkner, Mims, Danley and Gasiah Drewery came in 10th in the state at 1:32.82. Cuthbertson won another state championship at 1:26.41.

Orange’s 4×800 relay squad, which included Alden Cathey and Nicholas Pell, finished 11th at 8:39.04. Weddington won the 3A State Championship at 7:58.66

Orange’s Erin Mink was the only female state qualifier. A senior who also competed in the long jump and the triple jump this season, Mink finished eighth in the pole vault when she cleared ten feet. Emma Stone of Marvin Ridge won the 3A State Championship at 12-feet, six-inches.

This was the last official team event for Orange and Cedar Ridge as members of the Big 8 Conference. On August 16, when men’s soccer and women’s tennis officially start, the Panthers and the Red Wolves will become members of the new Central Conference.

If the 3A State Championship meet had been 3,100 meters, Orange’s Spencer Hampton would have won it all. Instead, Walter Williams Ryan Motondo passed Hampton on the backstretch with 80 meters remaining to win the 3,200 meters at the 3A State Track and Field Championships at Truist Stadium inside North Carolina A&T State University on Saturday. Hampton, who won the 1,600 meter regional championship last week at Southern Lee High School, led the entire race, fending off challenges from Jack Dingman of Northern Guilford, Emil Arangala of Chapel Hill and Caden Townsend of Weddington. Hampton concluded a successful season where he claimed ten 1st places finishes, along with being the only individual runner from Hillsborough to qualify for a state championship. Motondo and Hampton will continue their rivalry again in August. Last fall, the two competed in cross country. Next year, Orange will join Williams in the new Central Conference, where Hampton and Motondo will dual on the track in the spring and the cross country courses in the fall.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is junior runner Spencer Hampton. On Saturday, Hampton captured the 3A Mideast Regional Championship in the 1,600 meters at Southern Lee High School. Hampton finished at 4:22.10, a full six seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. He became Orange’s first regional champion in outdoor track and field, regardless of gender, since 2018. Hampton also qualified for the 3A State Championships in the 3,200 meters after a 4th place finish at Southern Lee. This season, Hampton has ten 1st place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters as a individual runner. He also has finished first as a member of various Orange relay teams. The 3A State Track and Field Championships will be held on Saturday at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro on the Belk Track. Hampton will look to become Orange’s first state champion since Jamar Davis in 2018 and only the second in the past decade.

For someone who has run commonly over the past year, the Mideast Regionals at Southern Lee High School stood out for Spencer Hampton.

Not just because it was the hottest weather he’s ever competed in. But also because he claimed his first regional championship.

Hampton, a junior, finished first in the 1,600 meters to take the regional title in Sanford. He crossed the finish line with a time of 4:22.10, a full six seconds ahead of the runner-up, Northern Guilford’s Jack Dingman. Going into the race, Dingman was the only runner in the Mideast region to have a better time than Hampton during the regular season.

Instead, Hampton will go into Saturday’s 3A State Championships at Belk Track inside North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro with the top time regional time in North Carolina. Mount Tabor junior Will Soule captured the Midwest Regional Championship at 4:23.17.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” Hampton said. “Jack Dingman is a great runner, but he had an off day in the 1,600 meters. It was about 93-degrees when it was finally my turn to run. I tried to stay in the shade as long as I could until I had to run.”

Hampton is Orange’s first regional outdoor track and field champion since Jamar Davis, who captured three regional titles (in the 300 meter hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump) in 2018.

“The first half of the race, I was just trying to stay relaxed,” Hampton said. “As I got to around 700 meters remaining, everyone else just kind of dropped off and I managed to maintain energy on to the finish line.”

In addition to the 1,600 meters, Hampton also qualified for the 3A State Championships in the 3,200 meters. He finished 4th in the regionals at 9:54.16. Dingman captured the regional title at 9:35.52.

After Orange only had four representatives in one relay event during the 3A State Track & Field Championships in 2019, they will have ten different representatives in six events for the state championships this Saturday. That includes three separate relay teams.

Orange’s 4×200, 4×400 and 4×800 men’s relay teams all advanced to the state championships. The 4×400 team, consisting of senior Keanu Mims, junior Elijah Danley, senior Jeffrey Faulkner and junior Devin Goss, came in second at 3:32.77. Only Chapel Hill, at 3:29.46, was faster.

The 4×200 team, formed by Mims, Danley, Faulkner and Gesiah Drewery, finished 3rd at 1:32.55 in a close finish at the line. Chapel Hill beat out Orange by .13 seconds for second place. Southern Lee won the regional title at 1:30.98.

Orange finished fourth in the 4×800 men’s relay. The team of Hampton, junior Ethan Horton, junior Nicholas Pell and freshman Alden Cathey finished at 8:37.97.

The sole women’s state qualifier was Orange’s Erin Mink, who came in second in the pole vault as she cleared ten-feet. Northern Durham’s Bailey Tart finished first at 10-feet, six-inches. Cedar Ridge’s Phoenix Smith narrowly missed qualifying for the state championship after she cleared eight-feet, six inches, good enough for a fifth-place finish. Mink, who has competed at Orange since she was a freshman, will make her first state championship appearance.

Orange senior Kayla Brooks, in her final meet for the Lady Panthers, finished sixth in the region in the shot put. Brooks’ best throw was 28 feet, three-inches, one foot behind fourth place finisher Madison Ludlum of Gray’s Creek. Brooks, who is also a cheerleader for the Orange football team, plans to attend Baylor University in Waco, Texas later this summer. She is the daughter of former Orange football player Rod Jones.

Orange junior Samatha George finished 9th in the 300-meter hurdles at 55.33 seconds. Ava New qualified for regionals in the long jump. New and Mink both qualified for regionals in the triple jump.

A high school sports season prolonged by the pandemic has two Saturdays remaining for Hillsborough teams. For one Cedar Ridge wrestler, today will be the end of an established career.

Kady Watkins wasn’t the first female wrestler at Cedar Ridge, but she has been the most successful. When she started wrestling in middle school, there wasn’t a state women’s wrestling championship sanctioned by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. That changed during her sophomore season.

In 2019, the inaugural Women’s Wrestling Invitational brought 87 participants across eleven weight divisions. Last year, there were 182 wrestlers in 14 weight divisions, who competed at the Carolina Courts in Concord.

In 2019, Watkins became the first female wrestler from Hillsborough to compete for a state championship. A year later, she became the first female wrestler from Hillsborough to win a match in a state tournament when she won a 9-6 decision over Swansboro’s Madeline Coplen at 120 pounds. She finished 5th in the state.

This season, Watkins has been a co-Captain of a team that has already had one wrestler for qualify for next Saturday’s 3A State Tournament. Watkins has won eleven matches for Cedar Ridge this season. Today’s 3rd annual State Women’s Wrestling Invitational Tournament will be held at Kernersville Glenn High School.

Track and Field

Orange’s Spencer Hampton will have a full day today.

Hampton, a long distance runner for Orange, has qualified for three different events during the the 3A Mideast Regional Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Championships, scheduled for today at Southern Lee High School in Sanford.

Hampton, a junior, is in the regional final for the 1,600 meters. His fastest time of the season is 4:24.10. He has nine first place finishes in 2021. Hampton also qualified for the 3,200 meters and will join Alden Cathey, Ethan Horton and Nicholas Pell in the 4×800 relay. The Panthers’ relay team had the second fastest time in the region this year, behind only Big 8 Conference rival Chapel Hill.

Also in the 4×800 relay, Cedar Ridge’s team of Jay Cole, Levi Draughon, Roman Morrell and Harrison Park will be in the regional final field.

Orange will have another men’s relay team in the 4×200 event. Senior Keanu Mims, senior Jeffrey Faulkner, junior Elijah Danley and senior Gasiah Drewery had the second-fastest time in the region at 1:33.07. Mims is going for his second appearance in the state championships. In 2019, he was a part of Orange’s 4×400 relay team, which finished 10th in the 3A State Championships at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro.

Mims, Faulkner, Danley and Devin Goss also qualified in the 4×400 meter relay. Once again, Chapel Hill was the only school in the Mideast Region with a faster qualifying time this season.

Orange will have three competitors in the 800 meters. Cathey, Pell and Horton all have qualifying marks.

In the women’s 300-hurdles, Orange junior Samantha George will participate in her first regional championship meet. George, a starting guard for the Orange women’s basketball team, ran for a personal-best of 51.70 second in last week’s Big 8 Championships.

George will also be in the 4×400 women’s relay team for Orange. She will join Abby Hengsterman, Avery Hengsterman and Sophia Schultz.

Cedar Ridge will have two qualifiers in the pole vault. Caroline Fowlkes, who qualified for the state championships as a freshman in 2019, cleared 10-feet-six inches in a tri-meet against Southern Durham and Vance County on May 6. Fowlkes also qualified for the 2020 Indoor Track & Field pole vault. Accompanying Fowlkes in the pole vault will be junior teammate Phoenix Smith, who had a personal best of eight-feet, also on May 6.

Orange will also be represented in the women’s 4×200 relay. Freshman Samiya Baldwin, Samantha George, Taia Mitchell and Katheryn Scully qualified after a time of 1:53.73 during the East Chapel Hill Friday Night Lights event on June 4 at Dave Thaden Stadium.

Orange’s Ava New surpassed the regional standard in two different events. She qualified for the long jump with a personal best of 15-feet, four inches. New will also compete in the triple jump after a leap of 31-feet, 01.50 inches.

Orange’s Erin Mink will also be in the triple jump after a season-best 31-feet, nine-inches.

Orange senior Kayla Brooks, who was a cheerleader in football last spring, has qualified for the shot put. Her throw of 29-feet, ten-inches at East Chapel Hill Friday Night Lights was enough to qualify for her first regional competition.

With the summer unofficially here, Orange senior Ava New is still aiming to make the 3A Mideast Regionals in the long jump and the triple jump. Earlier this year, New finished 1st at a tri-meet with Southern Durham at Cedar Ridge in the long jump and the triple jump. New won the long jump with a leap of 14-feet, one-inch. In the triple jump, New had a new personal best of 28-feet, 7-inches. Against Vance County and Chapel Hill on May 13, New had her third first place finish of the year in the long jump at 15-feet, four inches. In a meet against East Chapel Hill on May 6, New came in second in the long jump at 14-feet, eight-inches. Ava finds herself quite busy away from the track. She’s a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the BETA Club, as well as the National Spanish Honors Club. In addition to all of that, she works at Neuvo Taco in Durham. The 3A Mideast Regionals are scheduled for June 19 at Southern Lee High School in Sanford.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is senior Kayla Brooks. On Thursday in her senior day meet at Auman Stadium, Brooks had two first place finishes against Northern Durham and Vance County. In the discuss, Brooks finished with a new personal best of 65 feet, one inch. In the shot put, Brooks had a throw of 29 feet, two inches. It was her third first place finish of the season. In the opening meet of the year against Cedar Ridge and Southern Durham on April 29, Brooks finished first in the shot put. Her throw of 29 feet, two inches was a new personal best for Brooks. Kayla comes from a family of Panthers. Her father was a football player under head coaches Greg Gentry and Tom Eanes. Kayla’s final meet happened inside the very stadium where her father played football. She is also a cheerleader who rooted on the Panthers during the chilly, early days of spring. When Kayla graduates next month, she plans on attending Baylor University in Waco, Texas. First, Kayla has more track meets to focus on, starting this Thursday at Northwood High in Pittsboro in a tri-meet that will also include Cedar Ridge. She aims to qualify for next month’s 3A Mideast Regionals at Southern Lee High School. Away from the athletic fields, Kayla has also spoken to freshman at Orange who have had difficulty making the transition from middle school to high school. As she moves forward, Kayla will continue to serve as a positive influence, be in the Tar Heel State or the Lone Star State.

It was another big day for Orange runner Spencer Hampton on Thursday. Competing against Vance County and Northern Durham, Hampton won the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters at Auman Stadium in the final home meet of the year. Hampton finished the 1,600 in 4:32.10, a full nine seconds ahead of runner-up Gabe Schmidt. In the 3,200 meters, Hampton finished at 10:25.50, over 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Hampton has six first-place finishes this season. On May 6, Hampton won the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters against East Chapel Hill. In Orange’s season-opening track event against Southern Durham and Cedar Ridge on April 29, Hampton finished the 1,600 meters in 4:27.80, then completed the 3,200 meters in 10:27.50. Hampton has already qualified for the 3A Mideast Regional Championships in the 1,600 meters, which will be held at Southern Lee High School in Sanford on June 19. Hampton is aiming to qualify for the state championships, but first he has a meet coming up on Thursday at Northwood High in Pittsboro that will also include Cedar Ridge.