PEMBROKE — The Lumberton girls track and field team finished tied for third in the Sandhills Athletic Conference meet on Wednesday in Pembroke and Pirates boys finished fifth. Purnell Swett’s boys and girls both finished eighth out of the eight teams participating.

For the Pirates girls, the third-place finish marked a great improvement from the team’s seventh-place finish the last time the conference meet was held in 2019.

“That was our challenge to the girls coming into the year was to try place in the top four, and work for it with the group that we’ve got,” Lumberton girls coach Adam Deese said. “We’ve had some good senior leadership. They exceeded expectations and I’m very proud of them. And the good thing about it is, those individual performances were all seniors, but those relay teams, they only had one senior on them.”

Lumberton tied with Jack Britt for the third spot with 86 points, behind first-place Pinecrest with 186.5 points and runner-up Richmond with 129. Purnell Swett had three points.

Senior Nasyari McCrimmon won the discus throw for the Pirates with a throw of 86 feet, 0 inches, nearly four feet ahead of runner up Hannah Lewis from Seventy-First. McCrimmon was the only event participant from Lumberton or Purnell Swett.

“(McCrimmon) was pretty excited about it — I think she shocked herself,” Deese said. “But I knew she was capable of it; each week she’s been getting better and better, and (setting a personal record) each week.”

The Pirates also had several second-place finishers, both in individual and relay events.

Senior Chadon Foreman was second in the 100-meter dash in 12.48 seconds and LaKayia Hunt finished third at 12.80; Aniya Merritt finished 11th in 13.57. Purnell Swett’s Jada Coward finished 17th in 14.09, with Sydnee Baker 24th at 14.99, Sequoia Lennon 26th at 15.26 and Jesha McNeill 27th at 15.46. Seventy-First’s A’Jaylah Yates won in 12.34.

The Pirates’ 4×100 relay team of Merritt, Foreman, Hunt and Keke Lawrence finished second behind Richmond in 51.58. Purnell Swett’s team of Coward, Lennon, Baker and Wren Jacobs finished sixth in 56.85.

Lumberton also finished second in the 4×400 relay. The team of Teresa Canady, Naisia Jones, Gist and Pollock finished in 4:54.51, 30 seconds behind Pinecrest. Purnell Swett’s team was disqualified in the event.

Lawrence, a senior, took second in both the long jump and the triple jump. Her best long jump was 16 feet, 1/2 inch, ahead of Hunt in sixth at 14 feet, 10.0 inches, Foreman in seventh at 14-09.50 and Pollock ninth at 13-07.00. Scotland’s Sanya Lacue won at 17-06.50.

Lawrence’s triple jump score was 32-10.00, four inches behind Pinecrest’s Reaga Scepurek. No other Robeson County athlete participated in the event.

“The majority of those girls are going to be in regionals,” Deese said of his second-place finishers. “Hopefully they can keep it going and have a good performance in the regional, and they can go to state.”

Foreman also finished third in the 200-meter dash at 26.59. Emerson Gist finished ninth in 28.03 and Niasia Cromartie was 27th in 36.72. For the Rams, Baker was 23rd in 30.87, Lennon 25th in 32.73 and McNeill 26th in 33.04. Jack Britt’s JaMeesia Ford won at 24.47.

Hunt finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles in 54.69 as the only Lumberton or Purnell Swett runner in that event. Pinecrest’s Arianna Russell won at 47.74, over four seconds clear of the field.

McCrimmon also finished fourth in shot put with a throw of 28-10.75. Jones finished 15th at 18-01.50; Richmond’s Jakerra Covington won the event at 33-00.00.

Gist finished sixth in the 400-meter dash in 1:07.87, ahead of Lumberton’s Kyleigh Pollock in eighth in 1:09.60 and Naisia Jones in 18th at 1:17.04. Purnell Swett’s Coward was ninth in 1:10.39, with Halie Allen 16th at 1:13.12, Zoey Woodell 20th in 1:21.51 and Haley Freeman 21st in 1:43.45. Jack Britt’s Ford won at 56.70, over five seonds ahead of second place.

Purnell Swett’s Shania Hunt led the Robeson County contingent with an 11th-place finish in the 800 meters in 3:13.15, behind victor Lauren Wimberly from Pinecrest at 2:37.25. Woodell was 16th in 3:24.94 and Allen 17th in 3:43.92.

The Pirates’ 4×200 relay team of Merritt, Gist, Pollock and Sydney Jacobs finished fourth out of five teams in 1:54.81.

No girls athlete from Lumberton or Purnell Swett participated in the 1600 meters, 3200 meters, 100-meter hurdles, high jump and pole vault. No relay team from either school participated in the 4×800 relay.

The Pirates boys finished fifth with 41 points; Pinecrest won the boys meet with 232 points, dominating over runner-up Hoke County, who had 138.5, and third-place Jack Britt, who had 124.5. Scotland finished fourth ahead of the Pirates with 63 points. Purnell Swett had 15 points, narrowly missing seventh place behind Seventy-First, who had 16.5.

“I would actually say it exceeded my expectations by a little. I think (2019) we finished fourth, the last time we had a (conference) track meet,” Lumberton boys coach Todd Nicoll said. “We found a way to get some points in some different places; just had to move some people around and figure out where we could score the most points.”

Lumberton’s boys had two second-place finishers. Junior Gavin Mayes finished second in the 1600 meters in 4:55.92, behind Pinecrest’s Adrian Archer at 4:51.73. Purnell Swett’s Brayden Wilkins finished eighth at 5:47.03 and Gab Scott was 12th in 7:08.45.

Mayes was also fourth in the 3200 meters at 10:50.66, behind three Pinecrest runners including Archer, the winner at 10:12.29.

“(Mayes) ran his best 3200 (meters) of the year, and finished fourth, and he finished second in the 1600, and I don’t think he (had a personal record) on that, so he can run a better race than he did and still finished second; that says a lot,” Lumberton boys coach Todd Nicoll said.

Junior Ernest Bratcher was second in the discus with a throw of 114-08, over 30 feet behind Jack Britt’s Ricardo Leak at 145-00. The Pirates’ Kosi Locklear was 12th at 86-07.

“Ernest does everything for us, he’s like our Swiss army knife,” Nicoll said. “He’s a great athlete.”

Keith Underwood finished third for Lumberton in the 100-meter dash at 10.95, behind winner James Murray from Hoke County at 10.25. Lorenzo Chavis finished 10th for the Pirates at 11.29, Jacoby Pevia was 11th at 11.38 and Walter Bostic was 18th at 11.65.

Jermaine McNeill had Purnell Swett’s best individual performance with a fourth-place finish in that event at 11.05. Garyen Maynor was 16th at 11.57, Zeke Snell 22nd at 11.89 and Lakota Locklear 23rd at 12.03.

The Rams’ Kenneth Locklear finished fifth in the 400-meter dash at 53.22 behind winner Richard Billings, from Jack Britt, at 50.10. Luke McNeil was 17th for the Rams at 58.34, Josiah Brooks 24th in 1:02.72 and Connor Chavis 25th in 1:04.66. Lumberton’s Devon McLean finished ninth at 55.02 with Brandon Ferguson 13th at 56.09.

Chavis led the Pirates in the 200-meter dash with an eighth-place finish in 23.46. Brandon Ferguson was 16th in 24.35 for the Pirates; Purnell Swett’s four runners in the event were all disqualified.

Ricardo Regino finished 10th for Lumberton in the 110-meter hurdles in 21.43 as the only Lumberton or Purnell Swett participant. Pinecrest’s Nahjiir Seagraves won in 15.82.

Kalaen Mulroy was 10th for the Pirates in the 300-meter hurdles in 59.36, with one other Lumberton runner disqualified. Pinecrest’s Jaiden Washington won in 43.43.

Purnell Swett’s Wilkins finished 11th in the 800 meters in 2:22.74, with Lonnie Maynor 13th in 2:35.47 and Scott 16th in 2:54.16. One Lumberton and one Purnell Swett runner were disqualified in the event. Jack Britt’s Brian Marquis Jr. and James Stover tied exactly for first place at 2:00.61.

In the relays, Lumberton finished fourth out of the four teams who finished in the 4×100 relay, as Pevia, Chavis, Bostic and Underwood finished in 45.87. Purnell Swett’s team was disqualified. Hoke County won at 42.91.

Lumberton also finished fourth in the 4×400 relay, as McLean, Brandon Ferguson, Cody Locklear and Javin McRae finished in 3:52.79; Purnell Swett’s team was disqualified. Jack Britt won in 3:34.49.

Purnell Swett finished fourth of four teams in the 4×800 relay, as Brooks, Wilkes, Maynor and Kenneth Locklear finished in 9:49.71, behind Pinecrest, who won in 9:04.53.

The Lumberton team of Pevia, Chavis, Underwood and Brandon Ferguson was seventh at 1:35.63 in the 4×200 relay; Purnell Swett’s team of Maynor, Snell, Lakota Locklear and Jermaine McNeill was eighth at 1:41.32. Jack Britt won in 1:30.46.

Kosi Locklear finished eighth for Lumberton in the shot put with a throw of 35-07.50, behind winner Ricardo Leak of Jack Britt at 45-04.25.

No Lumberton or Purnell Swett boys athletes participated in the high jump, pole vault, long jump or triple jump.