By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

BIRMINGHAM – Several of the state’s best outdoor track and field teams embarked on Samford University on Saturday, March 17, to compete in the biggest regular season outdoor track and field event so far.

Briarwood, Helena, Pelham and Westminster at Oak Mountain all took part in the event representing their respective classifications, and each team had an array of top-10 finishers that are recapped below.

Pelham

Erin Long was Pelham’s biggest highlight of the event, along with sister Emorie Long.

Erin was able to finish in the top 10 in four different events with a high finish of third place in the javelin with a distance of 116 feet 4 inches.

Sister Emorie Long was able to outdo her sister in the javelin finals to take home the win with a distance of 127 feet 1 inch.

Ayala Seaborn also had two top-10 finishes as she took fourth in the discus throw with 101 feet 4 inches and seventh in the shot put with a distance of 32 feet 4 inches.

Other strong finishes by female athletes were Katie Strozier, who took third in the 800-meter race, and Alex Wilkins, who grabbed ninth in the 1,600-meter race. As a team, the Panthers finished ninth in the 4X400-meter relay and third in the 4X800-meter relay.

For the boys, Dorian Tolbert had the highest finish by taking second in the discus finals, while Elijah Shoemaker finished ninth in the same event.

Donovan Ross and Adam Keller also had impressive performances. Ross finished fifth in the 100-meter dash finals, while Keller took seventh in the 1,600-meter finals.

Helena

Helena was one of just two teams at the event to have multiple athletes finish inside the top 10 as Justin Stuckey, Jordan Wallace, Allison Tanner and Kirsen Gardner each accomplished that goal.

Stuckey finished third in the high jump finals with a height of 6 feet 2 inches and took ninth in the long jump finals. Tanner finished fifth in the girls’ high jump, while taking ninth in the triple jump.

Gardner was the team’s biggest highlight as she posted two top-two finishes. She won the shot put with a distance of 38 feet 5.75 inches and finished second in the discus final.

Wallace finished in sixth in the triple jump and seventh in the 300-meter hurdles.

Outside of those four, Christian Hill and Blake Vaughn had strong showings for the boys, while Victoria Brown and Laurel Ling had nice finishes for the girls.

Hill finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdles, while Vaughn finished eighth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase. For the girls, Brown finished sixth in the discus finals, while Ling finished ninth in the javelin finals.

As a team, the boys finished eighth in the 4X400-meter relay.

Briarwood

Briarwood’s Lauren Musachia was the only girls athlete for the Lions to finish in the top 10 twice. She took sixth in the high jump finals and seventh in the 2,000-meter steeplechase finals.

Ashton Domingue, however, was the only winner of the day for the Lions as he took first in the javelin finals with a distance of 191 feet.

Outside of Domingue’s first-place finish, the strongest finish came from Andrew Sherrod in the javelin finals with a distance of 154 feet 10 inches.

The next highest finisher was senior Zach Howard, who finished in fourth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 6:41.50.

Another impressive showing came from freshman Jaxen McPhail, who finished fifth in the pole vault event.

Jake Nunn and Jonathan Hill were the last two top-10 finishes for the Lions. Nunn finished sixth in the 400-meter dash finals, while Hill took eighth in the 300-meter hurdles.

As a team the boys finished sixth in the 4X100-meter relay, while the girls finished sixth in the 4X100-meter relay and eighth in the 4X400-meter relay.

Sophie Muir-Taylor and Morgan Hutchinson both had strong runs in the 400-meter dash finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.

Westminster

Westminster at Oak Mountain’s highest finisher was senior Nate Collins, who took home third in the 2,000-meter steeplechase finals with a time of 6:35.17.

Parker Mixon had a nice showing as well with an eighth-place finish in the javelin finals, while Wiley Boone grabbed 10^th in the long jump finals.

The girls were led by Sarah Kate Lipperd and Payton Metcalf. Lipperd finished eighth in the 300-meter Hurdles, while Metcalf finished two spots lower in the same event.

As a team the girls finished fifth in the 4X400-meter relay finals behind Mountain Brook, Hoover and Pelham.