By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOMEWOOD – Six Shelby County teams competed and scored points in the Homewood “Over the Mountain” High School Challenge held at Samford University on March 23. Spain Park, Pelham, Helena, Thompson, the Westminster School at Oak Mountain and Briarwood all finished with points at the meet, while Pelham and Spain Park came home with the most points in the girls and boys meets, respectively.

The Lady Panthers from Pelham placed fourth at the meet behind Hoover, Homewood and Mountain Brook with 63.75 points. Erin Hines was the only girl to win an event from Shelby County, as the Pelham senior won the 300-meter hurdles, eeking out a win over Ayana Eason of Hoover by 0.41 seconds. Hines also placed third in the 100-meter hurdles as well. Alex Wilkins placed second in the 800-meter run while Katie Strozier came in third, just 0.14 seconds behind Wilkins. Emily Shaw placed second in the high jump, Alex Ladewig placed second in the pole vault and fourth in the triple jump while Ayala Seaborn placed fourth in the discuss throw to lead Pelham.

Sarah Sims McGrath and Zoe Shore placed third and fourth in the 1,600-meter run to lead Spain Park while Bailey Condone placed third in the 3,200-meter run for the Lady Jaguars as well. Kirsen Gardner placed third in the discus throw and fourth in the shot put for Helena, Niya Oden placed fifth in the triple jump for the Lady Huskies and the Helena 4×100-meter team finished fourth as well.

Peyton Metcalf placed fifth in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the 100-meter hurdles for Westminster while Sarah Kate Lipperd placed fifth in the 800-meter run for the Lady Knights as well. Caitlyn Bowles placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles for Thompson to round out the girls’ scoring highlights.

On the boys’ side of the competition, Spain Park finished third to lead all county teams with 69.50 points. Daniel Nixon won the 400-meter dash and the 800-meter run for the Jaguars, setting a meet record in both events. His 49.46 time in the 400-meter was better by more than a second than Jake Diggs of Hewitt-Trussville, while his 1:53.69 was nearly a second and a half faster than second-place Drew Williams of Mountain Brook. Christian Strong finished second in both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles, Damon Wright finished second in the shot put, Jalen McMillan placed third in the 200-meter dash, Jerome Kirkland placed third in the long jump and Justin Brown finished fourth in the high jump to lead the Jaguars.

Curtis Woods, Kourtney Moore and Justin Stuckey finished second, third and fourth in the triple jump for Helena while Cade Pugh placed fourth in the 200-meter dash and fifth in the 100-meter dash and Christian Hill placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles to lead the Huskies. Donovan Ross placed first in the 200-meter dash and third in the 100-meter dash to lead Pelham while Dorian Austin placed second in the 200-meter dash, directly behind Ross. Austin also placed fifth in the 400-meter dash and Kelvin Fields placed sixth in both the 100 and 200-meter races to lead the Panthers.

Emmanuel Tait led Thompson with a first-place finish in both the 100-meter dash and the 110-meter hurdles, setting meet records in both with times of 10.72 and 14.15 seconds, respectively. The Westminster 4×100-meter relay team placed fourth and Wiley Boone placed sixth in the long jump to lead the Knights, and Zack Howard placed sixth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase while Daniel Johnston placed sixth in the discus to get Briarwood on the board as well.