Track and field champships are un-four-gettable

Southern Durham's Jacinda Evans dominates the girls meet, and Wakefield's T.J. Graham makes his mark in the boys meet by sprinting to victories in the 100 and 200 meters.

GREENSBORO -- Southern Durham senior Jacinda Evans "scared" herself Saturday during her amazing performance at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4-A track and field championships.

You can imagine how her competitors felt.

Evans ran and leaped her way to four individual state titles, as well as meet MVP honors from the event, which was held at the Irwin Belk Track on the campus of N.C. A&T.

New Bern's strength in the relay events carried the Bears to their third consecutive boys team title. Charlotte Butler claimed the girls state crown and finished second in the boys meet. Charlotte Myers Park was second among girls teams.

Evans, a University of North Carolina recruit, won the long and triple jumps, as well as the 100 and 200 meters.

She knew she was having a good day when she prevailed in the 100 -- and still had the triple jump and the 200 to go.

"I scared myself when I won the 100," Evans said. "After that, it was like, 'I guess I'll have to win the 200 now.' "

Evans' effort in the 200 was her most taxing of the day, but she summoned a final burst of energy down the stretch and won in 24.47 seconds. Her winning 100 time was 11.77.

"Out of the blocks in the 200, I felt really slow," Evans said. "I was worried. But then I just started to pick it up some and [my energy came back] quicker than I thought it would."

The jumping events didn't yield breakthrough numbers for Evans (19 feet, 9 3/4 inches in the long jump and 39-1 in the triple jump), but both efforts were good enough.

Wakefield's T.J. Graham left no doubt about who was the overall fastest runner in the meet by winning the 100 and 200 boys titles. He set a meet record in the 100 (10.44) and clocked a 20.82 in the 200.

"I put in a lot of work on the 100 this week," said Graham, who will play football and run track at N.C. State. "In fact, I was up [Friday] night at 11 o'clock standing in front of my mirror practicing my form.

"In the 200, I was still in my set position when the starter called 'On your mark,' so I ended up just running it from my set position."

Taylor Gilland of Chapel Hill and Dakota Peachee of West Johnston waged a lengthy battle for the boys 3,200 meters title. The pair of juniors ran shoulder-to-shoulder for the majority of the race before Gilland pulled ahead on the final lap. Down the stretch, it was all Gilland could do to hold off Peachee -- who won the 3,200 indoor title -- to take the outdoor crown in 9:28.14.

"I tried to pull away with about 600 meters to go, but he wouldn't go away," Gilland said. "He fought so hard, though, and stayed right with me. ... It was an amazing race."

Southeast Raleigh senior Keare Smith charged to take the boys 300 hurdles title in his first state championship appearance in the event. Wayne Davis, Smith's teammate, bowed out of the 300 hurdles after placing second in the 110 hurdles while running on an injured left ankle.

"I just tried to give it all I had because I knew it was going to be tough for [Charlotte Butler's] Spencer [Adams] to really go after running the [4x200 and 4x100 relays]," Smith said of the 300 final. "I knew I needed to step it up, as well, for our team with Wayne not able to run."

Southeast wound up third in the boys team standings, Wakefield finished fifth.

Davis suffered the injury during the long-jump competition but still ran a 13.85 in the 110. Adams ran 13.51, the fastest 110 time in the nation to win. Smith ran third.

"I took some ibuprofen so I could run the 110 finals, but it wore off before the 300 and I didn't want to load up on a lot of pain medicine," Davis said. "My leg just wouldn't go anymore, and I didn't want to do anything to make it any worse."

Steven Hall of Southern Durham took third in the 300 hurdles.

Southern Durham's Jamario Clayton won the boys long jump with a mark of 22-11.

West Johnston junior Maraya Slatter backed up her indoor 4-A 800-meter championship by winning the outdoor 800 title. She edged Becca Deloache of Myers Park at the line.

Apex senior Andie Cozzarelli finished second in the 1,600 and the 3,200 meters. The two-time defending 3,200 champion lost to Lauren Bishop of Pinecrest by three seconds. Kimberly Spano of North Mecklenburg won the 1,600.

Southeast Raleigh's 4x100 relay team finished second, as did Cary's all-freshman 4x800 relay team.

Also bringing home silver medals were Green Hope's Karen Kazaglis in the pole vault, Durham Jordan's Zakiya Tyson in the 100, JaQuanda Wright of Knightdale in the 100 hurdles on the girls side. For the boys, Clayton's Kyle Barbour, seeded 10th, was a surprise runner-up in the discus.