Pender leads Bruins to 12th-place finish in 2-A championship

GREENSBORO — Beddingfield High had just three athletes entered in the NCHSAA 2-A track and field championships Friday, but the Bruins ended up tied for 12th place out of 51 schools that scored in the competition at Marcus T. Johnson Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University

Beddingfield senior Asun Pender ended a spectacular high school athletic career with a pair of silver medals while junior Ivy Dawson and senior Nolan Gamwell each recorded a seventh-place finish in boys triple jump and boys 1,600-meter run, respectively.

Pender, who was the runner-up in both the boys long jump and triple jump earlier this year at the NCHSAA 1-A/2-A indoor championships, replicated that feat Friday at the combined 2-A and 4-A championship meet in Greensboro. He soared 23 feet, 1.5 inches in the long jump, eclipsing by nearly a foot his personal-record jump of 22-0.75 from the 2-A East Regional last weekend in Kinston. However, Friday’s jump was an inch and a quarter shy of the jump by East Burke’s Kenneth Byrd, who was named boys Most Outstanding Performer for the fourth time in his career (twice indoor and twice outdoor).

Pender was the top seed in the triple jump at 46-1, but even that wouldn’t have been enough to beat Byrd’s East Burke teammate Avery Fraley, who won it with a 46-1.5. Pender, who finished third in triple jump at the 2023 2-A outdoor championships, took second with a 45-3 to cap an impressive career for the senior who starred in football, basketball and baseball for the Bruins.

“He’s a special kind of athlete,” said Bruins head coach Ben Ellis. “Anytime the moment is big, he performs really well. It’s hard to predict, you know, what a kid’s going to do when they come out here, but, you know, he’s kind of proven when, if he’s got some competition or if somebody kind of outjumps him, he always finds a way to get his best jump in when he needs it most. So, not everybody’s like that. He’s got a very rare quality and that’s what makes him special.”

Pender was not 100% after missing the 2-A Neuse 6 Conference conference championship at Beddingfield two weeks ago with a sore ankle.

“That’s still kind of a nagging thing he’s dealing with, but he works harder than anybody rehabbing it, doing a bunch of different exercises and all that,” Ellis said.

Dawson, in his first trip to the state meet, just started the triple jump this year. He set a PR in Greensboro of 43-2.25, more than a foot past his regional seed jump of 42-3.5. Ellis said that Dawson definitely benefited from having Pender to learn from and compete against daily.

“I think they kind of have a friendly little battle, you know, going back and forth in practices and like today,” the Bruins coach said. “I think Ivy has definitely learned a ton from from Asun. Asun’s a great guy to have to kind of pick his brain a little bit and they’re different kind of athletes, size-wise and everything.

… A lot of guys that are just starting probably wouldn’t be jumping from a 40-foot board, but since Ivy sees it in practice all the time, we kind of just say, ‘Hey, man, let’s go ahead and do it.’ And then he does it and that’s kind of how you force yourself to go a little further, especially with triple jump. … He’s just worked really hard, too. He’s very similar to Asun in that once he learned how to do it, he just kept coming out and practicing and practicing and practicing.”

Gamwell capped an impressive Bruins career with his best finish in three trips to the state championship meet. He finished seventh in 4 minutes, 41.92 seconds, not quite his PR time of 4:38.84 that he set at the 2-A East Regional last week but still good enough for his first top-10 finish at state. Gamwell crossed the finish line a tad less than eight seconds behind winner Jack Anstrom of Seaforth in 4:24.23.

“He’s another guy who works his tail off at what he does and he loves it and it’s no surprise when these guys do well, because I know how hard they work,” Ellis said. “And that’s a testament to them, and they’re just the type of kids that just loved to go out there and try to get better.”

The trio gave the Bruins 20 points, tying them with Swannanoa Owen for 12th place. That was the highest finish of any team in the 2-A Neuse 6 Conference or the Times readership area and fourth behind Nash Central, Farmville Central and Elizabeth City Northeastern for East Region schools.

Greene Central tied with West Davidson for 23rd place and North Johnston deadlocked with Hertford County for 38th place with four points.

Sophomore Deitrich Williams led the Rams as he tied for fifth place in high jump and finished sixth in long jump. He also competed in triple jump but didn’t score in 10th place. Jaylen Chavez also placed seventh in discus for the Greene Central boys.

Sophomore Brian Jones was fifth in the boys 400 run in 49.79 to account for North Johnston’s four points.

Greene Central’s girls ended in a six-way tie for 39th place while North Johnston was in a five-way tie for 45th. Senior Marshaylah Sutton placed sixth in shot put for the Rams’ points. The Panthers got theirs from junior Samantha Boswell with a seventh-place finish in discus.

In the team competition, Burlington Cummings and High Point T.W. Andrews repeated girls and boys state 2-A champs, respectively. It was the 18th girls state crown for the Cavaliers while Andrews took home its 10th boys title.

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