As the final member of South Johnston’s 4x100 meter relay team, Snead picked up a couple seconds on Winston-Salem Carver’s relay team when the Yellow Jackets dropped the baton on the final exchange, giving the Trojans the inside track to the gold medal in the 4x100.

It was the banner performance for South in Friday’s NCHSAA 3-A state track and field championships, which were held at Irwin Belk Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University.

“I saw them drop the baton and I knew we had a chance to win,” said Snead, who helped the relay team, which also included Caleb Lucas, Antonio Davis and Demetrius Boswell to their personal best time of 42.5 seconds. “I got off to a really good start and built off that.”

Snead also placed sixth in the 100-meter dash.

Carver won the 4x200 and 4x400 and was primed to pull off the 4x100 until an awkward exchange resulted in their disqualification, putting a damper on their second place finish. Snead turned the final corner with the lead and kept it through the final stretch.

South Johnston’s boys team finished seventh in the team standings with 29 points. The girls’ team mounted eight points for the days’ events, tying for 25th place in the team competition.

Senior Teyon Eason finished third in the boys long jump for South with a leap of 21 and nine and a quarter inches. It was short of his personal record of 22 and three and a quarter inches.

“I feel like I could have done better,” said Eason, who plans to continue long jumping in college. “I hit the bar with the wrong foot.”

Jamel Allison of Mooresville, who won Boys’ Most Valuable Performer for the meet, won the long jump by jumping 23 and nine and a half inches.

Mooresville was first in the boys’ rankings with 75.5 points at the end of the day. Kelsey McCorkle won the girls’ MVP by winning both the 100 and 200 meter dashes.

The Trojans had success in the pole vault competition as both Courtney Raynor and Josh Bland had top-five finishes.

Raynor, who was seeded first with a jump of 10 feet, six inches, finished second and Bland came in fourth. Jordan Daywalt won for Statesville in the girls competition by jumping 11’6. Raynor repeated her vault of 10’6 in the finals.

“When I saw Jordan, I knew it was going to be hard to get first,” said Raynor, who plans to vault at Campbell University next year. “My form was off a little bit. Instead of turning over at the top, I just bent over it.”

Raynor’s top jump was 10 feet, six inches, a foot less than state champion Daywalt.

Boswell’s effort in the 200-meter run resulted in sixth place with a time of 22.2 seconds. South’s Tony Cerda ran in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs finishing 16th and 13th, respectively.

Chris Midgette finished 15th in the 3200. The Trojans’ 4x800 relay team with Midgette, Tony Cerda, Frankie Cerda and Patrick Worthington finished 15th in 8:48.72.

Kilty Walker placed 13th in the girls discus throw with a toss of nearly 86 feet.

Jacksonville won the girls’ team competition with 74 points while T.C. Roberson had 53.5 to finish second.