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The Davie track team has competed in several meets the last two weeks.

The War Eagles hosted the annual invitational April 23 and then took a partial squad to the Weddington Distance Carnival April 29. On May 3, the team travelled to Reagan for the Central Piedmont Conference championships, where the boys’ team turned in a fourth-place showing and the girls landed in sixth.

Senior Spencer Williams continued his statewide dominance in the throws by winning the shot put and discus at all three meets. Williams is undefeated in both disciplines during his senior year, including the indoor and outdoor seasons.

At the CPC meet, Williams was named the conference field event athlete of the year for the second straight season as took home a pair of gold medals. In the shot put, he threw 60-6 to destroy the field by over nine feet. His discus effort of 186-6 was more than 30 feet better than his nearest competitor.

His season-best marks of 62-10 in the shot and 189-9 in the discus are Nos. 2 and 5 all time in North Carolina in the respective events.

The Williams clan made it a family affair in the throws as junior Palmer Williams claimed fifth in the discus with a throw of 131-1, and freshman Cooper Williams was 13th with a personal best effort of 109-4. Cooper also picked up points by virtue of a top-eight finish in the shot. His best mark of 41-8 was good for seventh place. Angel Mondragon also competed for Davie as he placed 14th in the discus (99-3) and 22nd in the shot (31-2).

Senior Bryson Robinson, coming off victories at the home invitational and at Weddington, placed second in the high jump with a clearance of 6-0. He had cleared 6-4 during the outdoor season and 6-8 indoors. He was just getting started as he grabbed a pair of fifth-place finishes in the long jump (20-2) and the triple jump (39-5). He also found time to place ninth in the 100 meters with a time of 11.25.

Mason Kuhnemann had a personal-best clearance of 5-6 for ninth place in the high jump, while CJ Phelps took 13th by clearing 5-4. Freshman David Patton soared 18-0 in the long jump while Phelps jumped 15-8. Earlier in the season, Patton recorded a personal-best mark of 19-8, which has qualified him for freshman nationals this summer.

The final Davie competitors in field events were pole vaulters Daniel Horton 6th place at 9-6) and Brian Reyes (8th place at 8-0) each secured points.

In the sprints, Patton and fellow freshman Archer Richardson gained experience in the 100 meters. Patton finished 31st in 12.05 while Richardson placed 37th in 12.13.

In the 200 meters, Patton led the way placing 15th in 24.23 while Richardson took 18th in 24.69 and another freshman, Will Dwiggins, was 21st in 29.24.

In the 400 meters, Phelps was 12th in 55.03, Dwiggins 17th in 1:02.00 and Brian Reyes 18th in 1:02.17.

The 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams each finished fifth.

In the 110 hurdles, Austin Boswell was the top Davie finisher as he placed 15th in 18.87. Caleb McDaniel was 16th in 19.08 and Ian Boger 17th in 20.34. In the 300 hurdle race, Boswell grabbed 18th in 48.80, McDaniel was 19th in 48.88 and Kuhnemann was 23rd in 51.04.

The 4×800 relay team of Jase Correll, Thomas Essic, Will Allard and Reece Yount placed fourth in 9:13 in the first event of the evening.

In the 1600-meter run, Owen Sulecki placed sixth with a time of 4:38. That time equaled his effort at Weddington and was just off his personal-record  time of 4:36. Freshman Tyler Hill shattered his best time in the event by seven seconds as he placed ninth in 4:46. Caleb Young was 10th in 4:51.

Teams were allowed unlimited entries in the 800 meter race and Davie was well-represented in a large field spread  over four heats. Reece Yount powered down the home stretch to win section two in 2:10, a time that was good for 14th overall as the top 13 finishers all came from a fast final heat. Three Davie freshmen all had personal records and were the next three Davie finishers. Jase Orrell finished just behind Yount in heat three. His time of 2:12 was good for 19th overall. Two weeks earlier, Orrell was a 5:30 miler before showing dramatic improvement and clocking a 4:57 time in the 1600 at Weddington. Aric Boles was the winner of heat two as his time of 2:16 placed him at 27th overall. Boles improved his 1600 time from 5:39 to 5:12 in a span of two weeks.

Also in the 800 event, Thomas Essic placed 30th in a new PR of 2:19. Essic also had a big day at Weddington as he joined the sub-5 club, improving his best time in the 1600 from 5:05 to 4:57. Will Allard was 31st in 2:19. Jesus Guzman led from start to finish to win section one as his time of 2:24 was good for 39th overall and was another big improvement. That effort followed his 11-second PR in the 1600 the previous week when he ran an all-time best of 5:26. Freshman Chris Devicente also raced to a five-second PR as his time of 2:33 placed him 46th.

In the 3200 meter event, senior Andrew Brown broke the 10:00 barrier for the first time. His effort of 9:54 placed him fourth. At Weddington, Brown raced to an impressive 1600 meter time of 4:32, also a big PR by six seconds. Brown’s times in both events automatically qualified him for the upcoming 4-A Midwest Regionals. Cole Swade also competed in the 3200 as he slowly returns to training following a recently completed marathon. Swade finished in 12th place in 11:12.

In the final event of the day, the 4×400 relay team of Sulecki, Hill, Yount and Richardson finished sixth in 3:44.

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The Davie girls were led by the throws group. Gracie Wilson was fourth in the discus with a throw of 95-8, just off her best effort of 99-3. Monica Long claimed fifth (84-7), Krystal Davis was 16th (62-8), Tasia Tarpley was 18th (61-2) and Mallorie Brown was 22nd (58-3). Long took third in the shot at 32-8. Teammates Davis and Tarpley tied for 16th as each threw 24-6 and Brown finished 18th at 24-4.   

In the sprints, sophomore Jaylan Clement-Greene placed 6th in the 100 (12.80) and 7th in the 200 (27.22). Freshman Maegan Purvis was 31st in 14.41 while classmate Kaylee Lewis took 35th in 14:59. Alicia Allen was 14th in the 200 in 1:10.08. Allen also took 13th in the 200 in 30.88.

The 4×100 relay team was seventh in 55.32. Kaylee Lynch was 15th in the 100 hurdles with a time of 20.29, and then came back to take 17th in the 300 hurdles (1:02.13).

Tenia Davis cleared 4-4 in the high jump to claim sixth. In the long jump, Lynch placed 14th (12-10), Lewis was 18th (12-1) and Allen was 20th (11-9).

According to Coach Rob Raisbeck, Davie had a good day at the conference meet.

“Although we have several seniors leading the way with Spencer and Bryson and a few of our distance guys, we are a young team,” he said. “The vast majority of our athletes are freshmen and sophomores for the guys and we only have one senior girl on the team.

“Our biggest hurdle for the girls is getting more bodies. Our numbers are down and we simply didn’t have anybody to put in at least eight events. Despite that, we still finished sixth out of the eight teams. The guys scored points everywhere we thought they would and our fourth-place finish was right where we thought we would be.”

Next up for the War Eagles is the Midwest Regionals on May 14 and the state meet the following Saturday, May 21.

“Davie High School will be the center of the track and field universe this weekend,” said Raisbeck. “Nobody would step up and host the 1-A and 3-A meets, so the NCHSAA asked us if we would do it. So May 13 we will host over 50 schools and we will run those meets.

“Then we will come back Saturday for the 4-A meet on our home track. So if you want to see some amazing talent, including several athletes from Davie, War Eagle Stadium is the place to be,” Raisbeck said.