By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MOUNTAIN BROOK – Thirty high schools descended on Mountain Brook High School from April 15-16 to compete in the Mountain Brook Invitational. The meet, which was split into an 18-team middle school section and a 30-team high school section, was carried out over two days and saw six high schools from Shelby County compete and score points. Spain Park, Thompson, the Westminster School at Oak Mountain sent both their boys and girls teams to the meet, all of which scored, while the girls from Pelham and the boys from Oak Mountain and Briarwood competed and scored as well. The boys’ from Spain Park were the highest-finishing county team at the meet, coming in seventh place out of 30 teams.

Daniel Nixon placed second in the 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 1:52.20, losing to Mountain Brook’s own Griffin Riley by .03 seconds. Damon Wright also placed second in the shot put out of 123 competitors with a throw of 50-03.25 feet to lead Spain Park from an individual level, while the 4×100-meter relay team finished fourth as well.

Thompson’s Emmanuel Tait was the overall top-scorer at the meet from the county. Tait won the 100-meter dash and the 110-meter hurdles, beating teammate Craig Clark in the 110-meter hurdles by 1.39 seconds. Tait and Clark were the only Warriors who scored points at the meet, and the two combined to give Thompson an eighth-place finish.

Payton Youngblood placed fourth in the javelin throw and tied for fifth in the high jump to lead Oak Mountain while Kai Christenberry placed sixth in the 300-meter hurdles to lead the Eagles. The Westminster 4×800-meter relay team placed fifth at the meet and Daniel Johnston placed sixth in the discus throw for Briarwood to lead the Lions.

The Lady Warriors from Thompson were the highest-scoring girls team in the county, finishing 14^th overall with 21 points. Sarah Owen won the shot put with a throw of 36-02.00 feet, beating Kennedy Reese of James Clemens by a half an inch. The 4×100-meter relay team finished fourth, scoring 10 points, while Lauryn Dancy finished eighth in the 100-meter dash to round out the Thompson scoring.

Mary Grace Strozier finished third in the two-mile run and seventh in the 800-meter run for Pelham, while Isabel Caddo was the lone scorer for the Lady Jags, finishing eighth in the 800-meter run and Maddie Hoaglund was the lone scorer for Westminster at Oak Mountain, as she finished fifth in the two-mile run for the Lady Knights.