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Vicksburg's Rodrianna Hall stands on the podium with her silver medal after finishing second in the Class 5A girls' long jump at the MHSAA state track and field meet on Wednesday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg's Rodrianna Hall celebrates with coach Deatra Cable, left, and friends after finishing second in the Class 5A girls' long jump at the MHSAA state track and field meet on Wednesday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg's Layla Carter competes in the girls' triple jump at the MHSAA Class 5A state track and field meet on Wednesday. Carter finished third in the event. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High teammates Rodrianna Hall, left, and Layla Carter talk during the Class 5A girls' triple jump at the MHSAA state track and field meet on Wednesday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg's Jakayla Brooks runs in the Class 5A girls' 4x200 meter relay Wednesday at the MHSAA Class 5A state track and field meet in Pearl. The Missy Gators finished second in the event. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg's Shaniyah Walker runs in the Class 5A girls' 4x200 meter relay Wednesday at the MHSAA Class 5A state track and field meet in Pearl. The Missy Gators finished second in the event. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High's girls' 4x200 meter relay team of Amiya Hall, Gewel Porter, Jakayla Brooks and Shaniyah Walker celebrate on the podium after finishing second in the event at the MHSAA Class 5A state track meet Wednesday in Pearl. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg's Layla Carter trips on the final hurdle in the Class 5A girls' 100 meter hurdles at the MHSAA state track and field meet on Wednesday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

South Delta's girls' 4x200 meter relay team of Shariah Clark, Christie Carter, R'Renua Ousley and Ankeyria Ousley stand on the podium with their silver medals after finishing second at the MHSAA Class 1A state track meet on Wednesday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

PEARL — Rodrianna Hall qualified for the MHSAA Class 5A state track meet in both the long jump and the high jump. The only problem was that they were scheduled for the same time.

Forced to pick one event or the other, she chose wisely.

The Vicksburg High junior skipped the high jump and finished second in the long jump. She had a leap of 17 feet, 6 inches, to finally win a medal that had eluded her for her entire high school career. Hall finished fourth in the long jump each of the past two years.

Hattiesburg’s Lenasia Drummond won the Class 5A title on Wednesday, with a mark of 18-2 1/2.

“I’m very happy. I’ve been working three years,” said Hall, who also finished fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 35-6 1/2. “Every year I came up short, and this year I had to show them what I could do.”

Hall’s silver medal was one of three that the Missy Gators won at Wednesday’s state meet.

Layla Carter posted a mark of 36-6 3/4 to finish third in the triple jump, but became the talk of the meet for another — and much more unfortunate — reason.

While running the 100 meter hurdles, Carter clipped the final hurdle, landed awkwardly on her left leg and fell to the ground in obvious pain. She remained on the ground for several minutes before coaches and trainers wrapped her leg and carried her off.

Carter was taken by ambulance to University of Mississippi Medical Center and was to have an MRI Wednesday night. Vicksburg coach Deatra Cable said Carter suffered a hip injury. The severity was not fully known, but Cable said it did not appear that any bones were broken.

Carter did not finish the 100 meter hurdles because of her injury, and was scratched from the 300 meter hurdles later in the meet.

The Missy Gators’ third medal came in the 4×200 meter relay. The team of Jakayla Brooks. Amiya Hall, Gewel Porter and Shaniyah Walker clocked a time of 1 minute, 44.98 seconds to finish in second place.

Ridgeland pulled away on the final leg and won the Class 5A title in the relay with a time of 1:42.81.

Vicksburg had the lowest seed time of the eight teams in the 4×200, but ran up front the whole way.

“We just ran,” Walker, who ran the anchor leg, said with a laugh. “I originally thought we were going to come in third, but I knew I had a little bit extra wind to finish so that’s what I did.”

Like Hall, Walker earned her first state meet medal. The junior finished fourth in the 400 meters in 2021 and sixth last year.

“It feels good. This is my first out of all my years in high school to win a medal at state,” Walker said.

In their other events Wednesday, the Missy Gators got a seventh-place finish from McKenzie Edmond in the 300 meter hurdles; an eighth-place finish from Terri Boyd in the 400 meters; a sixth from Amiya Hall in the 200; and fourth place in the 4×100 meter relay and seventh in the 4×400.

Vicksburg tied with Pearl River Central for fifth place in the Class 5A girls’ team standings, with 40 points each. Brookhaven won the team title with 123.5 points.

In the Class 3A meet, Port Gibson claimed state championships from two of its youngest athletes. Seventh-graders Amari Trevillion and DaBriel McCauley won the 400 and 800 meters, respectively, by razor-thin margins.

Trevillion posted a time of 1:00.04 in the 400 meters to beat Holly Springs’ Tiara Leverson by .33 seconds. Alcorn Central’s Ellie Pellizzer was third in 1:00.89.

McCauley had a time of 2:29.18 in the 800 meters, just two-hundredths of a second ahead of Saint Patrick freshman Bella Jordan.

The two championships helped Port Gibson net 46 points and finish fourth in the Class 3A girls’ team standings. Alcorn Central won the team title with 109 points.

In the Class 1A meet, South Delta tied French Camp for the girls’ team championship with 91 points each.

South Delta sophomore R’Renua Ousley was a double champion in the hurdles events. She won the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 16.66 seconds, and the 300 hurdles in 47.12 seconds.

Ousley’s teammate Takiya Jackson finished third in the 100 hurdles to snag a bronze medal.

Ousley was also on the 4×200 meter relay team that finished second in 1:48.96. She was joined by Ankeyria Ousley, Christie Carter and Shariah Clark. Carter also finished second in the long jump.

South Delta’s 4×400 meter relay team won the Class 1A title, and the 4×100 team was second.

The Bulldogs added one more state title, as Jamyai Jackson won the discus with a throw of 91 feet, 6 inches.

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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