By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOMEWOOD – 27 schools competed and scored points in the Homewood Invitational on March 21. Amongst those 27 were Pelham, Westminster School at Oak Mountain, Spain Park, Briarwood Christian School and Oak Mountain. Pelham was the area winner for the girls, coming in ninth place out of 26. Spain Park led the way for the boys, coming in seventh out of 27.

Erin Hines finished fourth in the high jump, third in the 300-meter hurdles and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles for the Lady Panthers while Jordan Allison finished second in the 300-meter hurdles as well. The girls 4×800-meter relay team came in second, beating third-place Hoover by two seconds. The Pelham ‘B’ 4×800-meter relay team also placed eighth, but did not score points because two relay teams cannot score in the same event for one school. All-in-all, the Lady Panthers scored 28 points, which was good enough for ninth place overall.

Maddie Hoaglund of Westminster and Zoe Shore of Spain Park placed fifth and sixth respectively in the 1600-meter race, Hoaglund with a time of 5:27.22 and Shore with a time of 5:29.92. The Westminster and Spain Park 4×800-meter relay teams also placed fourth and fifth on the day. Ashley Musachia of Briarwood placed eighth in the high jump as well.

On the boys side of competition, the Jaguars led the way for the county squads. Daniel Nixon held off Logan Sadler of Homewood to win the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.32, more than a second better than Sadler. The 4×800-meter relay team for Spain Park also scored, placing fifth on the day. Jerome Kirkland came in seventh in the long jump while Brayden Pierce finished second in the triple jump. Damon Wright also finished sixth in the shot put to bring the Spain Park point total to 27, good enough for seventh.

Elsewhere in the county, Eric LaPorte of Oak Mountain finished seventh in the 400-meter dash while Cole Stidfole finished third for the Eagles in the 1600-meter run. Sean Drummond also finished seventh for Oak Mountain in the 3200-meter run. The Westminster 4×800-meter relay team finished eighth and Wiley Boone finished seventh in the triple jump for the Knights. Andrew Day finished seventh in the shot put for Oak Mountain while Peyton Youngblood and Logan Webb placed fourth and seventh in the javelin throw, respectively. The Pelham boys 4×800-meter relay team also placed sixth on the day.