East Chapel Hill junior Clark Cunningham won a bronze in the discus, and junior Gabe Strathern had two top-10 finishes, to highlight the Wildcats' day at the NCHSAA state 4-A track and field championships on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University.

Strathern placed fifth in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet even, and his 43-6.5 in the triple jumped placed him ninth in that event Saturday.

Cunningham, consistently ECH's leader in throws this year, hit 150-5 with the discus, the second best mark by a junior in the state.

East Chapel Hill finished in 26th place in the boys' team standings and 49th in the girls' standings.

ECH junior Alison Smith, a PAC-6 champion, was the lone female to score for the Wildcats, taking sixth in the 3,200 meters in 11:14.9.

Charlotte Vance won the men's team title. Raleigh Wakefield won the climatic 4 x 400 meter relay in a record-setting time of 3:49.83, breaking a 13-year mark held by Greensboro Grimsley, and won the female's team title by seven points over Southeast Raleigh, 49-42.

Tigers, Panthers place in 3-A

Seniors Danny Phillips, Wes Sutter and Liam Stott all finished among the top 15 runners in the 800 meters Saturday at the NCHSAA 3-A championships to help Chapel Hill finish 20th in the state meet.

Stott, Sutter and Phillips then teamed with classmate Nash Stapleton to run a 2:07.87 in the 4 x 800 relay for a bronze. Eastern Alamance's James Fladeland, Tyron Alston, Michael Tomayo and Jake Hurysz won the relay with a state record time of 7:48.48. '

The Tigrs Hill earned 9 points in the males' team standings, and Orange (1) was 56th.

Orange's Dylan Skinner (4:27.78) placed eighth in the 1,600 meters to earn the Panthers' their lone point, and sophomore teammate David Rocker placed 15th in the discus with a throw of 118-7.

Orange's girls placed 24th with 10 points, and Chapel Hill's girls were 39th in their meet with five.

Chapel Hill's relay team of ninth-grader Tristan Van Ord, junior Ahna Weeks and seniors Meg Duffy and Lindsay Savelli ran a 9:57.29 to take sixth in the 4 x 800.

Lindsay Savelli took eighth in the 800 meters and Van Ord eighth in the 1,600 for the Tigers' other scoring. Sarah Jane Kerwin was among the leaders in the 3,200 meters, but was disqualified for a "uniform violation" -- having rolled down the waistband of her shorts.

The Panthers did most of their scoring in the field events, where Sherri Owens placed sixth in shot with a put of 36 feet and seventh in the discus with a throw of 109-7. Orange's Michelle Dees hit 5-0 in the high jump for a fourth place.

The Panthers' best finish on the track was 14th in the 4 x 800 relay; junior Emily Cash, sophopmores Claire Cates and Kanesha Bigelow, and ninth-grader Indy Reid-Shaw clocked a 10:37.77.

Isaac Presson won the 1,600 and set a new state 3-A record in the 800 of 1:52.07 to lead Asheville to the men's team title in the 3-A track and field championships. Winterville South Central earned its first NCHSAA state women's 3-A track and field championship, led by junior Danielle Butts' wins in both the high and triple jump.

Northwood, Gibbons fall

Both the 3-A and the 4-A finals in the 20th annual N.C. High School Athletic Association state dual-team tennis championships went down to the last doubles match on Saturday at the Burlington Tennis Center. But the 2-A wasn't nearly as dramatic.

Newton-Conover had little trouble earning its first men's dual-team 2-A title after three consecutive runner-up finishes, as the Red Devils rolled past Northwood 5-0.

Newton-Conover won five singles matches in convincing straight-set style to finish the year with a perfect 25-0 dual team record. Northwood wound up 15-7 overall.

Cardinal Gibbons was bidding for its fifth straight state title, this time at the 3-A level after winning four straight as a 2-A school. But Asheville swept all three doubles match to rally for a 5-4 victory.

The No. 1 doubles match was the last to finish and thus was the clincher. Morris Porter and Tito Poplowski of Asheville won a dramatic tiebreaker 10-8 to take an 11-10 pro-set victory over Chris Geaslen and Matt Daly, who were the state 3-A doubles runners-up last weekend.

Asheville, whose only other appearance in the men's dual team finals was back in 1996, when it won the 3-A title, finished 19-1 overall while Cardinal Gibbons was 22-5.

In the 1-A, Mount Airy and Durham's North Carolina School of Science and Math had to battle into doubles after splitting the six singles matches, but Mount Airy (16-2) grabbed two wins in doubles and took a 5-3 triumph for its fourth men's title. NCSSM suffered its first loss after 19 victories.

In the 4-A, Winston-Salem R.J. Reynolds No. 3 doubles team of Dillon Segur and Dale Fetterman outlasted Raleigh Broughton's Andrew Waddell and Alex Pollack 10-8 to secure a narrow 5-4 victory. Reynolds finished 19-2 overall while Broughton wound up 24-2. The Caps were in the finals for the 12th time, with eight state crowns, but it was their first final since 2007.

Regionals move

Fayetteville will be the new host city for the NCHSAA's Eastern Regional basketball tournament, starting with the 2010-11 season Sectional winners in the NCHSAA playoffs advance to regional play, with four men's teams and four women's teams from each classification qualifying. The regional winners advance to state championship games in Raleigh or in Chapel Hill.

Co-rec softball

The Carrboro Recreation & Parks Department is accepting registration for its popular Co-Rec Softball League. The fall adult co-ed league will play on Tuesdays and Thursdays from late July through October.

A team fee of approximately $540 (depending on the number of teams) is required before play begins, with at least $200 due at registration.

Call 918-7364 for more information.

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