For the second straight week the Union Pines girls’ track and field team used a dominate performance in the field events to capture first place in a league quad-meet by a hefty margin.

The Lady Vikings scored 59 of their winning 102.5 points in field events Thursday at Woodrow Wilhoit Stadium in Cameron to top second-place Douglas Byrd by a total of 38 points. Western Harnett scored 49 to place third while Gray’s Creek tallied 41.5 points to finish fourth.

With the 3-A Cape Fear Valley Conference victory Union Pines improved to 2-0 on the season. Last week the Lady Vikings claimed the top spot in a league tri-meet scoring 43 of their total 85 points in the five field events to best second-place Western Harnett’s total tally of 53.

A CFVC track and field meet is comprised of 17 total events, including five field events, four relays, three sprints (dashes), three distance runs and two hurdle runs.

Union Pines claimed the top-five spots in both the long jump and triple jump, scoring the maximum of 16 points for each event.

Freshman Ka’Shera Robertson claimed victory in the long jump with a leap of 13 feet 11 inches, followed in second place by fellow freshman teammate Destiny Wharton with a 13-7. By clearing a height of 10-09.5 Cameron Galloway placed third to make it an all-freshman top-three for Union Pines.

Senior Vike Jessica Manning got the top spot in the triple jump with a mark of 30-07, followed in second place by sophomore Megan Harris with a solid 29.08. Sophomore Johnashia Robertson rounded out the top three for Union Pines with a leap of 26-03.

The Lady Vikings took three of the five scoring places in the high jump with freshman Jamaria McPhatter and senior Tayloranne Kraemer each maxing out at 4-10 at the top of the heap. In the end McPhatter scored the tiebreaker win to place first. Manning finished with a 4-8 to place fourth in the event.

Led by a runner-up toss of 71-11 from sophomore Nia Mosley, Union Pines took spots two-through-four in the discus throw. Douglas Byrd’s Kayla McLeod won the event with a mark of 77-07. Meanwhile Vike junior Katelyn Wyckoff, who placed fourth in the discus, edged out McLeod for a first-place effort in the shot put with a winning throw of 30-06.

As a team Union Pines collected 19 points in the relays with second-place finishes in the 3200-meter and 400-meter relays and a third-place finish in the 1600.

Junior Onika Williams had a strong day on the track for Union Pines with a first-place time of 18 seconds flat in the 100-meter hurdles, and a winning-time of 27.2 in the 200-meter dash to score 12 points as an individual for the Vikes. Harris took home a victory in the 300 hurdles for Union Pines with a time of 51.7, followed in second by Viking junior Ashlyn Owens with a 54.7.

Sophomore Miriam Hoppmann managed to secure three points for Union Pines with a third place time of 14:41 in the 3200-meter run.

Vike Boys Place Second

The Union Pines Vikings boys’ track and field team took home second place at Thursday quad-school CFVC meet.

Western Harnett used particularly strong performances in the field and hurdle event to rack up a winning tally of 90.5. Union Pines took the runner-up spot with 85.5 points, followed by Douglas Byrd with 59 and Gray’s Creek with 22.

Like the Vike girls, the Union Pines boys’ biggest area for point-scoring came in the field events where they totaled 35 points. However, Western Harnett finished with 37 points in the five field events and outscored Union Pines 22-17 in the two hurdle events.

Senior Ben Peterson won two field events for Union Pines. He captured a victory in the triple jump with a leap of 38-07.5 and placed first in the high jump with a 5-6. Viking junior Ira VanPelt got the runner-up spot in the triple with a jump of 37-11.

Viking junior Hugh Leighton amassed four field points at the meet with a third-place effort of 100-feet even in the discus and a fifth-place finish at 36-01 in the shot put.

Union Pines claimed spots two-through-five in the long jump for a total of 10 points. Leading the Vike pack in the event was sophomore Joseph Poole in second with a 17-03.75, followed by sophomore Robert Collins (16-10), junior Clayton Davis (16-01) and Naquan Peterson (16-00.5).

James Pederson scored seven points for Union Pines in the two hurdle events. The Vike sophomore placed second in the 110 with a time of 20.1 and finished third in the 300 with a time of 47.4.

Freshman Wade Benton won the 3200 for Union Pines with a time of 11:48.6, while fellow freshman teammate Kershawn Robertson ran a time of 59 seconds flat to take third for the Vikes in the 400-meter dash.

The Viking boys’ and girls’ hosted the Union Pines Invitational Saturday. Both teams return to back the track this Thursday for week three of CFVC action in a league meet against Westover and Overhills in Cameron.

Contact F. W. Manning II at frankwm2@gmail.com.