The St. Aloysius Lady Flashes nimbly sidestepped their last obstacle and are heading to the Class 1A state meet on course to contend for their first team championship in track and field.

Alyssa Engel finished first in the long jump, triple jump, 200 meters and 4×400 meter relay, as the Lady Flashes won the Class 1A South State team title Saturday at Madison Central.

St. Al will send 11 individual athletes and one relay team to Friday’s Class 1A state meet in Pearl, and has qualified in 13 of the meet’s 17 events. It finished first in seven events at the South State meet, and will bring quality as well as quantity to its pursuit of a team title.

“We lost three more today, but we qualified in 13 of 17 events. So we’re going in strong,” St. Al coach Keiko Booth said. “Not only being deep, but having those strong competitors is really going to help.”

In addition to Engel’s strong showing, the Lady Flashes got victories from Maggie Waites (pole vault), Olivia Curtis (high jump) and Madelyn Polk (1,600 and 3,200 meters) on Saturday. Waites also qualified for state in the 100 meters.

The 4×400 team of Engel, Alyssa Counts, Dede Apenyo and Claire Jamison also finished first.

Counts (discus), Tori Thomas (shot put), Mary Kalusche and Laura Phillips (100 meter hurdles), Apenyo (200 meters) Madalyn Burke (3,200 meters) and Grace Burnett (1,600 meters) also qualified for the state meet.

The St. Aloysius boys team also won the South State team championship, outpointing Nanih Waiya 154-98.

DeMichael Harris won in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and was second in the triple jump. Luke Eckstein (1,600 and 3,200 meters), Tae Warnsley (110 and 300 meter hurdles) and Josh Price (discus and shot put) were all double winners.

The relay team of Warnsley, Emanuel Islam, Connor Bottin and Lofton Varner finished first in the 4×400 and second in the 4×200.

Islam was also a double qualifier in the hurdles, coming in third in the 300 and fourth in the 110.

In the Class 6A North State meet, also held at Madison Central, Warren Central’s boys 4×200 meter relay team qualified for the state meet by setting a school record with a time of 1 minute, 28.88 seconds.

The team of DeEdrick Wilson, Joe’Vontae Shorter, Lawrence Lewis and Nick Caldwell finished third in the race. The same team finished second in the 4×100 relay with a time of 42.7 seconds.

The Class 6A state meet is next Saturday at Pearl High School.

In the Class 5A girls North State meet at Oxford on Saturday, Vicksburg got wins from Tymesha Nabors in the 100 meter hurdles, Jade Douglas in the 800 meters, and in the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relays. It qualified for the state meet in seven events.

Keiyana Gaskin (100 and 200 meters) also qualified, as did the 4×400 relay team of Char’Davia Anderson, Lily Brown, Jamiracle Williams and Nabors.

The 4×100 relay team was Nabors, Gaskin, Mikayla Banks and Destiny Allen.

Nabors, Gaskin and Allen teamed with Kiona Patton to win the 4×200 relay.

In the Class 5A boys North State meet, Vicksburg’s Leon Miles won the 300 meter hurdles and was second in the 100 hurdles. He was also part of the winning 4×400 relay team, along with Jarrod Squire, Darius Tucker and James Stirgus.

Other Vicksburg qualifiers were Quincy Brown (high jump) and Squire in the 400 meters, and the 4×100 relay team of Chris Davis, Tedarius Brown, Terrion Carter and DeShawn Calvin.

The Class 5A state meet will run alongside the Class 1A meet Friday at Pearl.