By Wes Kerr
LowcoSports.com
May River’s track squad cleaned up in its home meet Saturday, winning five events and capturing the boys’ team title to lead the local contingent at the Shark Invitational.
Fareed Abdullah, Mills Campbell, and Sean Hamby all struck gold to propel May River to a 131.5-point performance, besting runner-up Beaufort High by 20. Abdullah took the 200m dash with a time of 23.07 seconds, Campbell placed first in the 3200m (10:39.13) while finishing two seconds ahead of Beaufort seventh-grader Gavin Moore, and Hamby won the 400m hurdles (1:02.99).
The Shark boys added to the impressive day with a victory in the 4x800m relay, recording a time of 8:39.63 to notch a 31-second win over Hilton Head High. Beaufort’s Nash Mills earned a first-place finish in the 1600m (4:34.04), and the Eagles went 1-2 in the 800m with Charlie Bennett (2:04.91) taking gold and Mills right behind.
The relay success carried throughout the Lowco contingent on Saturday, as Beaufort’s boys triumphed in the 4x400m (3:41.53) and Bluffton took the 4x100m (44.53). The Bobcat boys earned a solid fourth-place finish in the meet, powered by the relay win and a Camuri Simmons gold in the 100m (11.24).
Hilton Head came in fifth and won the distance medley relay (11:55.99). Battery Creek finished the meet in eighth place, Whale Branch tied for ninth, and John Paul II‘s Abe Brown, Jeremiah Young, and Anderson Dewig set personal bests.
Beaufort’s girls paced the area competition, accumulating 116 points to match James Island for second while Effingham County took the top spot in the meet. Layla Warren delivered a dazzling performance in the hurdles, capturing both the 100m (15.97) and 400m variants (1:14.05) to lead the Eagles.
May River followed behind in fourth with a win in the 4•800 relay (10:46.94). Battery Creek matched the Sharks’ 63 points thanks to runner-up finishes by Myra Smith in the 200m (27.65) and Keona Sanders in the 400m hurdles (1:17.97), while Hilton Head took the sixth position, sparked by a Cynthia Gudaitis triumph in the 3200m (12:04.66) and a distance medley relay victory (14:14.00).
Tacoya Heyward’s win in the 100m (12.59) led Bluffton to a seventh-place finish, Whale Branch came in ninth, and John Paul II took 10th as the 4•400 relay team set a new personal record.
