By Gary Ayers (Special to the Maroon Devils Network)
Swain's girls and boys track and field teams won state titles in the NCHSAA 1A championships Monday at N.C. A&T university at Greensboro but it was a tale of two different stories as the girls had the title in hand by lunch-time and the boys captured the title with drama by winning the final event of the day.
Swain's Lady Devils crushed the runner up teams of Lejeune and Avery, who tied for second, by a score of 94-41 as Swain won its fourth track and field title in a row and sixth championship overall..
"Our girls have won 10 straight titles going back to 2021, with this our fourth outdoor title, three cross country titles and 3 indoor championships," said Head Coach Ian Roper. "Our girls were dominant today because we
put in the work and preparation. We run like we expect to dominate and our girls pulled away from the pack and lapped the field."
Swain really owned the long distance races as Arizona Blankenship won the 1600 and 3200 and Angelina Lomelli took second in the 1600 and third in the 3200. Annie Lewis won the 800 meter event while the 4x800 meter relay team of Blankenship, Lomelli, Emily Grey Stargell and Lewis took first place by almost 23 seconds with a new meet record of 9:37.43.
Here are the outstanding results of a tremendous team: Annie Lewis, 800 meters, 1st, 2:14.97, Arizona Blankenship, 1600 meters, 1st, 5:06.64, Arizona Blankenship, 3200 meters, 1st, 11:00.45, Angelina Lomelli, 1600 meters, 2nd, 5:13.85, Angelina Lomelli, 3200 meters, 3rd, 11:37.79, Melani Linton, 300 meter hurdles, 3rd, 46.15, 4x200 meter relay team of Marlee Hicks, Audrey Monteith, Mya Burrows-Kurr and Melanie Linton, twelfth, 1:51.62, 4x400 meter relay team of Linton, Monteith, Burrows-Kurr, and Annie Lewis, sixth, 4:20.25, 4x800 meter relay team of Blankenship, Lomelli, Grey Stargell, and Lewis, 1st, 9:37.43.
In the field events, Gracie Sutton took third place in the high jump with a jump of 5'2", three Lady Devils placed in the Pole Vault with Alden Thomas. 2nd, 10'0", Hannah Wingate, 3rd, 9'6", and Carden Oetting, 5th, 9' 0".
Faith Woodard took 3rd in the shot put at 35'5.25". Talking with several fans and coaches from other teams during the day, the word "dynasty" kept being used to describe the Swain girls team.