Columbia High School hosted its second meet of the season on Saturday, with the boys and girls both placing second at the Columbia High Invitational.
The CHS boys tallied 142 points while the girls finished with 87 behind the two Vanguard squads, which saw its boys score 246.5 and its girls score 287. The meet featured 10 boys teams and eight girls teams, which included the Fort White boys placing fourth with 36 points and the Branford boys finishing ninth with five.
Top performances for the Columbia boys included LaWarren Newton winning the 400m (50.55) and Omarion Udell winning the 110m hurdles (15.04) as well as the 400m hurdles (59.40, area best this season). Udell was part of the 4x400 team with Mekah Combs-Turner, Nathan Matsubara and LaWarren Newton that won with a time of 3:36.21.
The CHS boys also won the 4x800 relay (Joshua Thompson, John Ringenberg, Jacob McLeod and Matsubara) in 9:42.62, while Matsubara won the 800m in a time of 2:04.17 ahead of Ringenberg (third at 2:21.47) and McLeod (fifth at 2:20.85). Thompson also posted a pair of third-place finishes in the 1600m (4:51.42) and 3200m (10:48.85).
Jeffery Deal led the Tigers in the field events, winning the javelin (39.20m) while placing second in the shot put and fourth in the discus (33.30m).
Leading the Fort White boys was Lafayette transfer Ezekiel Powell, who won the 200m (22.72m) and place fourth in the 100m (11.84). Powell also ran with Jhailynd Cooper, DeSean Lally and Tafari Moe on the winning 4x100 relay team (44.91).
For the CHS girls, the top overall performance was Kyndall Norris, who won the javelin throw with a toss of 30.94m (area best this season. Norris also finished third in the shot put (8.85m) while teammate Amiya Newton was fourth (also at 8.85m), and Newton then finished fifth in the discus (23.21m) while Norris took sixth (23.10m).
In the 4x400m relay the team of Omari Foster, Kensi Shaw, Jaliyah Montgomery and J’Liyn Smith won the 4x400 relay with a time of 4:18.89, and that quartet team was also runner-up in the 4x100m relay (49.32). In the girls 4x800m relay, Laelle Thompson, Kensi Shaw, Kiara Thompson and Melanie Gordon were also runner-up (12:17.98).
Shaw also placed third in the 200m (26.68, area best this season) and Gordon was fourth in the 3200m (15:10.74).