By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MOUNTAIN BROOK – Six county schools competed and scored points in the April 10-11 Mountain Brook Invitational that saw 30 teams from across the state take part. The two-day meet was one of the last opportunities to take advantage of a broad base of competition before the regular season ends, as the section meets will take place from April 24-25.

In the girls meet, the Pelham Lady Panthers continued their strong season with a fourth-place finish to lead all county teams. Pelham won the indoor track and field 6A state championship earlier this year on Feb. 7, and have taken that success to the outdoor season as well. Erin Hines continued her prolific junior campaign with a second place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and a third place finish in the 300-meter hurdles. Teammate and classmate Jordan Allison finished one position ahead of Hines in the 300-meter hurdles, finishing second and also finished fifth in the 800-meter dash. Hines also took home second place in the high jump and eighth-place in the javelin throw to give her an impressive 23 individual points on the weekend.

Elsewhere in the girls’ meet, Lauryn Dancy of Thompson finished fourth in the 200-meter dash, Oak Mountain eighth grader Nicole Payne won the 400-meter dash with a blistering time of 56.74, nearly two full seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Katelyn Bowles of Thompson and Sophie Muir-Taylor of Briarwood finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles, Kaleigh Carney of Spain Park placed third in the high jump and the Westminster School at Oak Mountain’s 4×800-meter relay team placed eighth.

For the boys, Oak Mountain was the top area finisher, coming in fifth place out of 30 teams. Sam Brown finished third in the 400-meter dash and sixth in the high jump, Cole Stidfole continued his impressive sophomore campaign with a first-place finish in the mile run with a time of 4:26.28, Andrew Day placed seventh in the shot put and Grayson Sikorski placed fourth in the javelin throw to lead the Eagles from an individual perspective. The Eagle 4×400-meter relay team also finished first and their 4×800-meter team came in sixth.

Spain Park’s Daniel Nixon placed second in the 800-meter run, missing first place by .64 seconds, and third in the mile, Christian Strong of Spain Park placed sixth in the 110-meter hurdles, the Thompson 4×400-meter relay team placed fourth while the Warriors’ 4×800-meter relay team finished seventh, Brett Blackmon finished sixth in the pole vault for Thompson, Spain Park’s Jerome Kirkland, Brayden Pierce and Damon Wright finished fifth in the long jump, third in the triple jump and sixth in the shot put, respectively and Viktor Turek and Nick Mobley of Thompson finished fifth and eighth in the discus throw, respectively, to round out the boy’s area top finishers.