Girls track and field preview: Apex’s Sydnei Murphy chases four titles

Sydnei Murphy won three N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A indoor track and field championships and is taking aim at four outdoor titles this spring.

Murphy, a senior at Apex, won the long jump and triple jump outdoors in 2014, was second in the 100 and sixth in the 200.

She won the jumps and the 55 meters in the indoor titles.

“Four is the goal,” Murphy said. “That’s what I’m shooting for.”

Winning four individual 4A girls titles is believed to have been done only twice. Southeast Raleigh’s Gabby Mayo won the 100, 200, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles in 2006. Southern Durham’s Jacinda Evans won the 100, 200, long jump and triple jump in 2008.

“I think it is possible. The way the competition times are spread out, you can have a little time to recover,” Murphy said. “But you’d have to have an incredible day to win all four.”

Murphy did not compete in the triple jump until she was in high school.

“I couldn’t get it. It didn’t come natural,” she said. “The coach asked me to try because he thought I might be able to pick up a few points. I thought he meant points in dual meets and maybe the conference meets.

“But I worked at it and sort of got the rhythm.”

She had the longest triple jump in the nation by a high school girl during the indoor season.

This story was originally published March 1, 2015 at 12:15 AM with the headline "Girls track and field preview: Apex’s Sydnei Murphy chases four titles."