ERA Track & Field finish the season highly ranked

    The MAIS 5A East Rankin Academy (ERA) Patriot Track & Field teams recently completed their regular season, and their performance puts many of the athletes in position to vie for MAIS 5A individual and team titles.

    Following ERA’s stellar cross-country season, the track and field team kicked off the year with February meets at the Pearl High School Opener and the Hattiesburg Forerunner Invitational. Notable results included freshmen distance runner Audrey Mayatte winning the 800m race at Pearl, and then contributing to the winning 4x400 and 4x800 girls relay teams, giving her new personal records in all three distance races and a Mississippi MileSplit athlete of the week nomination. The Hattiesburg meet included top three finishes from many Patriot athletes and featured a batch of new sixth graders who also made their mark: Jillian Breland winning discus, Cade Vowell winning long jump, and Edie Tate winning both long jump and triple jump.

    

March featured several meets at Canton Academy with notable efforts from seventh grader Leah Collipp, picking up a hat trick to win the varsity 800m, 1600m, and 3200m in a single meet; freshmen hurdler Katie Simpson winning both the 100m and 300m hurdles; freshmen Rosa Garcia winning both long and triple jump; eighth grader Addison Derrick winning both the JV shot and discus; and the varsity girls team sweeping all four relays. The teams closed out the month winning the small school division at the Rankin County Championships at Northwest Rankin High School. Leah Collipp’s efforts during the latter part of March earned her a MileSplit athlete of the week nomination.

    The team was back in Hattiesburg in April to face off against 6A Presbyterian Christian School in their invitational and then to Jackson Academy to compete for the Junior Varsity MAIS 5A District 2 Championship. The JV girls won their second consecutive JV district title with individual event titles going to Katie Lee Tadlock in pole vault, Addison Derrick in discus, Rosa Garcia in long jump and tying with teammate Abby Raines for the high jump title, Emily Williams in the 400m and the JV girls team winning both the 4x100 and 4x800 relay titles. Among the JV boys’ team top three finalists, freshmen sprinter Aiden Harrell won JV district titles in both the 100m and 200m sprints.

    Collectively, the East Rankin Academy girls and boys are highly ranked as they head into varsity district competition. 

    Head Coach David Hopper expressed how he “has been impressed with the improvement in depth and commitment from his athletes, especially his junior varsity boys.” Additionally, “the return of East Rankin graduate and University of Alabama thrower Coach Steven Boozer has aided in the rapid improvement in both discus and shot-put athletes.”