PEARL — At the Class 6A state track meet, Caleb Watts was in a class by himself.

The Warren Central senior set the benchmark in the boys’ shot put competition with a throw of 50 feet on his first attempt. Seven other challengers took their shots at bettering it, but it easily stood up to give Watts the state championship in the event.

It’s the first individual state track and field championship for a Warren Central athlete since Matt Waddle won the boys’ pole vault in 2011.

“I practiced. I put in the work to get it. It feels great,” Watts said. “I wasn’t expecting all this. What a year.”

This was Watts’ first season of track and field, but he dominated the shot put as if he’d been doing it his whole life. He was nearly two feet better than the nearest competitor at last week’s North State meet, and won by more than three feet on Friday.

Brandon’s Monterrio Davis won the silver medal with a throw of 46 feet, 11 inches. Tupelo’s Andrew Ray got the bronze with a distance of 46 feet, 2 ½ inches.

Watts was so dominant Friday that four of his six throws would have been good enough to win. One of the other two attempts still would have medaled. Of the 42 other attempts his challengers made, only three were even better than 46 feet.

“I thought my best was going to be around 49 something. I thought I probably could throw farther, maybe 52, but I didn’t have to,” Watts said. “I was just so happy to get 50 that I stopped right there.”

Watts’ shot put championship was the highlight of the day for Warren Central’s small contingent at the state meet. Its only other medal was a bronze by Raven Thompson in the girls’ high jump.

Thompson cleared a height of 5 feet to tie Pearl’s DeKari Courtney, and they shared a step on the podium. Meridian’s Zaria Jones won with a height of 5 feet, 6 inches, and WC’s Kiara Lockhart was seventh.

The rest of the day was mostly cameo appearances for the Lady Vikes and Vikings. In addition to her third-place finish in the high jump, Thompson placed sixth in the triple jump. Distance runner K.K. McCarley was sixth in the 3,200 meters and eighth in the 1,600 meters. McCarley also qualified for the state meet in the 800 meters, but pulled out of that event because of a nagging quad injury that flared up during the 1,600.

Thompson went immediately from the high jump pit to the triple jump. She actually received her high jump medal in between attempts of the triple jump.

Willie Smith finished fifth in the boys’ high jump and Miraculous Powers clocked a time of 14.91 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles — only two-tenths of a second away from the winner Shakim Buckley of Gulfport, but still only good for sixth place.