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Mustangs, Rebels track athletes look to make a run at region
Syraiah Wilkins
South Effingham's Syraiah Wilkins (right) edged Jenkins' Blessed Diogo in the 100-meter hurdles at the Annual Statesboro Relays on April 12. Wilkins will be among the Mustangs to watch at the Region 1-5A track and field championships in Statesboro April 24. (Donald Heath for the Effingham Herald.)

By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald


The strategy for track and field athletes at this point in the season resembles the approach for teams in the NCAA basketball tournament – advance and move on.

It doesn’t matter how you do it.

Effingham County and South Effingham boys and girls will be competing in the Class 5A Region 1 track and field championships Thursday at Statesboro High School.

The top four finishers in each event qualify for the Sectional A championships (with Region 4, 7 and 8 athletes) on May 3 at Greenbrier High School.

The top eight in both Sectionals A and B then advance to the Class 5A state championships May 9-10 at Barron Stadium in Rome, Ga.

Several local athletes will be among the region favorites.

South Effingham’s Harrison Crofts, who has signed to compete at the Naval Academy, posted the region’s best boys high jump of the spring with a leap of 6-feet, 8.5 inches, according to MaxPreps.

Mustangs’ Makenzi Polk topped the region with a 38-8 triple jump and Danni Lynn threw the shot put 36-10, tying Evans’ Da’moijah Flowers of Evans for the region’s best.

The girls’ high jump event should be one to watch as ECHS’ Braylin Nease and SEHS’ Justine Nevels have both leaped a region-best 5-4. Nease has the Rebels’ school record. Nevels, who skied 5-6 last season as a freshman, was second at state in the high jump a year ago.

The boys’ 200-meter dash comes with some intrigue. Effingham County’s Dakarai Walker will be seeded first after running a blazing 20.93 in Claxton.

But Walker’s mark was hand timed which adds some human error into the equation. At the Annual Statesboro Relays on April 12, four region runners (including SEHS’

Marcus Campbell
Mustangs' Marcus Campbell will be looking to top his school-record mark of 10-feet, 6 inches in the pole vault at the Region 1-5A track and field championships in Statesboro on Thursday. (Donald Heath for the Effingham Herald.)
Jayden Hair) were all within .08 of a second of the winning time of 21.95.

ECHS’ sprinter Jaden Praylo will be among the athletes to watch in the 100. Praylo posted a 10.78 in Claxton, just .13 off the region’s best mark.

On the girls’ side, Mustangs’ ever-improving Lydia Alderman had her season-best time of 2:24.54 in the 800 which was about two seconds behind the region’s best.

Both local schools have 4 X 100 girls relay teams that should be contending. South’s foursome of Madison Mills, Zoe Robinson, Marquavia Williams and Syraiah Wilkins set a school record 49.29 in Fitzgerald, less than .4 of a second behind the region-best time. ECHS’ relay team of Kameryn Watson, Deymi Ramirez-Romero, Kayden Gadson and Kyla Hicklen posted a 50.21.

Wilkins, who set four individual school records this spring and two more as a relay anchor, will be pitted against one of the state’s best hurdlers, Valynsia Calhoun of Lakeside, in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles.

ECHS’ long-distance runner Chloe Adkins will be a candidate to place in the top four in the 1600 and 3200. Adkins, a sophomore, set a school record in the 3200 at region last season with a time of 11:27.90.