FRANKLINTON - The 2021-22 Southern Nash High boys track and field team continues to carve out its own corner of the school's trophy cabinet as the Firebirds added the NCHSAA 3-A Mideast Regional meet crown to its largesse this spring.

Southern Nash, which has won the Scott Jones Memorial Classic as presented by The Wilson Times, the 2-A/3-A Big East Conference championship and the Nash County Championship this season, was led by winning performances by T.J. Taybron in the long jump, Tralon Mitchell in the 100-meter dash and Isaac Joyner in the pole vault in Friday's meet at Franklinton High. The Firebirds totaled 82 points to get past runner-up Hillsborough Orange with 73.5 while Durham School of the Arts was third in the 24-team field.

This was Southern Nash's first foray into the Mideast Region after competing in the East Region for years previously in the 3-A Big East Conference for more than a decade.

“Finishing sixth in the region last year and the five (teams) above us being gone, I felt good about the Mideast,” said Firebirds head coach Sterling Leonard. “The East scarred our knuckles. I also saw the same traits from Orange and Durham School of Arts. We did a lot of work on them. The East did prepare us.”

Southern Nash will send nine entries to the NCHSAA 3-A boys track and field championship meet Friday, May 20, in Greensboro while only Chasity Hopkins will represent the Ladybirds, who were 16^th out of 22 at the Mideast championship. Mitchell will compete in three events at the state meet after winning the 100 and finishing third in the 200 while running anchor on the Firebirds' third-place 4x100 relay. His time of 11 seconds flat was a tenth of a second faster than 100 runner-up Shyhiem Cooke of Triton. Mitchell ran the 200 in 22.39 to finish third. He was part of the 4x100 team with Justin Braswell, Mitchell Jones and Zyshone White that finished third, one of two Firebirds relays to qualify.

Senior T.J. Taybron was two inches shy of his season best with a leap of 21 feet, 4 inches, to win the long jump. He was one spot out of qualifying for states in the triple jump, coming 5 ¾ inches from finishing fourth. Freshman Tylik Mitchell, the MOP of the Scott Jones Memorial, placed third in the triple jump with a 43-0.75 while Franklinton's Donovan Estes was the winner with a leap of 43-7.

Southern Nash picked up the most points in pole vault when Joyner leads a trio of Firebirds into the state 3-A meet. He soared to a winning height of 11-6 while teammate Tyler Maner was second after reaching 10-6 in fewer tries than third-place Gabe Ocampo of Eastern Alamance or Southern Nash's Thomas Copeland in fourth place.

The Firebirds' 4x800 relay team of D.J. Pridgen, Bryson Rackley, Jayden Whitaker and Logan Saunders finished fourth in 8:35.63 to earn a state meet berth. Narrowly missing a spot on the bus to Greensboro was senior Kahari Caudle, who finished fifth in the 110 hurdles in 16.40 seconds, a fifth of a second behind fourth-place Ethan Wilson of Pittsboro Northwood.

Hopkins was fourth in the girls shot put with a heave of 30-5.25.