NIN Pole Vault Champion Hannah Grace And Javelin Thrower Brett Jones Win Big; Jasmine Cook, Ja'Neil Harris Lead Qualifiers Into Respective 200 Finals

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

John Nepolitan photo

After a weather delay and hours of competition at the All American Track Classic Friday night, Hannah Grace finally got the chance to hit the runway around 9:30 p.m., and, again, proved her dominance in the pole vault, clinching the win with a clearance of 14 feet, 4 inches.

Grace, a senior at Coastal Christian NC, is in the beginnings of an undefeated campaign. Last season, she made it all the way to Nike Outdoor Nationals before her first loss, and she hasn’t lost more than once in a season since the winter of 2023. 

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Ashley Roush (Philip Simmons SC) took second, clearing 12-0, followed by Morgan Edwards (Cuthbertson NC), who cleared 11-6.

Continuing the theme of dominance, Brett Jones broke a meet record in the girls javelin with a throw of 151-5. Even her worst throw, a toss of 145-0, was more than 15 feet ahead of runner-up Elle Cocco’s mark of 129-4.

In the only track finals of the night, Marvin Ridge NC swept the 4x800 relays. The boys shattered the eight-minute mark, running 7:53.24 and winning by seven seconds over Cuthbertson NC. The girls broke the tape in 9:21.25, winning by four seconds over Mauldin SC.

As expected, the boys high jump quickly came down to a two-man duel between Vance Harris (Archbishop Carroll DC) and Tommy Pringle (Cuthbertson NC), and it would have come down to a jump-off were it not for some last-second heroics by Pringle. Both he and Harris missed their first two attempts at 6-10, but Pringle clinched the victory on his third attempt. 

That would be Pringle’s final height; he passed on 7-0 and moved to 7-1, which would have been a personal best, but he missed on all three attempts.

The girls high jump field was also whittled down quickly, which came as more of a surprise. Coming into the competition, the top 12 athletes were all seeded between 5-4 and 5-6, but only six girls managed to clear 5-2. All it took was a second-attempt clearance of 5-6 for Kameron Smith (Redan GA) to clinch the title and a personal best. Destiny Mitchell (West Florence SC), Ashlynn Wimberly (Mallard Creek NC) and Lena Scott (Mauldin SC) all cleared 5-4.

Jasmine Cook (Archbishop Carroll DC) recorded the fastest time in the preliminary round of the girls 200 meters, throwing down a calm 24.53 to win her heat by nearly a second.

Bullis’ Kennedy Brown earned the second-fastest time (24.67), setting the stage for an intriguing finals matchup. Two of Brown’s teammates, Alexis Brown and Gabby White, also advanced to the finals.

Ja’Neil Harris (T.W. Andrews NC) blazed through the boys 200 prelims, running 21.37 to take the top seed in the finals. Jayden Boyd (Fairfield SC) was close behind in 21.43, followed by Cameron Homer (Bullis MD) in 21.45. Following Cook’s example, three Archbishop Carroll athletes earned spots in the finals (and none were named Jake Odey-Jordan): Niles Briggman, Keenen Davis and Elijah Amenra.