By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

TRUSSVILLE – Twenty-four teams descended on Hewitt-Trussville High School over the weekend of April 23 for the second annual Hewitt-Trussville Invitational, including three teams from Shelby County in Spain Park, Pelham and Thompson. The boys from Spain Park fared the best of any county team, finishing in third place out of the 24 competing boys teams. The girls from Pelham were the top girls finishers from the county, finishing eighth.

Daniel Nixon placed second in the 800-meter run for Spain Park, losing out to Mountain Brook’s Drew Williams by less than half a second, while Jerome Kirkland placed second in the long jump and Damon Wright placed second in the shot put to lead the Jaguars from an individual standpoint. The Spain Park 4×400-meter relay team placed second as well, while the 4×800-meter team placed third. Jalen McMullan also placed third in the 200-meter dash and Christian Strong placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles to help lead Spain Park as well.

Emorie Long won the javelin throw for Pelham with a toss of 33.17 meters and was the only individual from Shelby County to win an event outright. Emorie Long gave Pelham 10 points in the javelin throw by winning the event while Erin Hines placed fourth in the javelin throw and placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles as well for another 10 points. Emily Shaw placed third in the high jump for the Lady Panthers while Erin Long placed fifth in the high jump and eighth in the 300-meter hurdles and the Pelham 4×800-meter team placed third as well as the Lady Panthers finished eighth overall.

The Spain Park girls’ 4×800-meter team finished second while Sarah Sims McGrath finished seventh in the two-mile run for the Lady Jags as well as Spain Park finished 14^th out of 20 teams on the girls’ side.

Donovan Ross finished fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.08 seconds for Pelham while also finishing second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.61, and his 13 points made the sophomore the highest-scoring individual athlete at the meet from the county. Dorian Austin also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash and fourth in the 400-meter dash as well for Pelham as the Panthers finished 11^th out of 24 teams.

Ryan Colley and Freddie McSherdon, both from Thompson, tied for seventh in the pole vault as well.