By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOOVER – On Saturday, April 9, Spain Park High School hosted the Spain Park Classic, which was comprised of 14 teams from across the state. Spain Park, Helena, Oak Mountain, Thompson and Shelby County all had athletes compete and score points, with the boys from Spain Park faring the best, as they won the boys meet.

The boys from Spain Park placed first in six separate events at the meet, scoring 129 points total and beating second-place Helena by 24.5 points. Damarius Farmer won the 100-meter dash, beating Cade Pugh of Helena by 0.006 seconds. Daniel Nixon won both the 400-meter dash and the 800-meter run, setting a meet record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:54.52, winning the race by more than three seconds and breaking the old meet record of 1:56.55, set by Michael Niezgoda of Homewood, by more than two seconds. Christian Strong won both the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles and Damon Wright won the shot put with a toss of 49-09.50 feet to round out the event winners for Spain Park.

The boys from Helena came in second in the Spain Park Classic, however the Huskies won just one event when Curtis Woods won the triple jump with a jump of 43-08.00 feet. Kourtney Moore placed second in the triple jump with a leap of 43-01.00 feet, Jordan Wallace placed second in the 300-meter hurdles, Pugh placed second in the 100-meter dash and Curtis Woods placed third in the high jump with a jump of 5-08.00 feet to lead the Huskies.

Payton Youngblood won the javelin throw for Oak Mountain with a throw of 156-03 feet while Sean Drummond placed third in the 3,200-meter run, Glynel Humphrey placed third in the 200-meter dash and Caleb Van Geffen placed fourth in the 800-meter run to lead the Eagles.

Emmanuel Tait led Thompson, winning the 200-meter dash and placing second in the 400-meter dash while Deon Carter placed seventh in the 400-meter dash to lead Shelby County in the meet.

The Lady Huskies were the top performing girls team from the county, placing fourth out of 12 teams with 66 points, beating Spain Park by four points. Kirsen Gardner won the shot put and discus for Helena and was the only Lady Husky to place first in any event. The 4×800-meter team placed third and Claire Vaughn placed third in the 800-meter run to lead Helena as well.

Zoe Shore won the 800-meter dash for Spain Park while Katelyn McClure won the pole vault to lead the Lady Jags. Sarah Sims McGrath placed third in the 1,600-meter run while Kaleigh Carney tied for second in the high jump as well for Spain Park. Freshman Nicole Payne accounted for nearly half of the scoring for the Lady Eagles, winning both the 200-meter and 400-meter dash, setting a meet record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.33 seconds. Marjorie Head placed fourth in the 3,200-meter dash and Kelli Roper placed fifth in the 300-meter hurdles to lead Shelby County as well.