MAC Track & Field Championships; NCA Women Shine

Tuesday, May 5, the Metrolina Athletic Conference held its track & field championships at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. The afternoon was met with warm temperatures, beautiful sunshine – and teeming with a multitude of athletes from six different schools. Being the smallest of the schools in attendance, NCA was certainly outnumbered; however, it was not outmatched by sheer determination and talent! The meet proved to be not only a quality meet, but also proved to be quite competitive. Lots of great athletes and teams performed well, including our women’s relay teams, women’s jumps and our men’s distance runners.

The most impressive feats of the day were featured in the women’s relays. From NCA, our women’s 4x100m relay( Melonie Mallette Dejah Washington, Zhateya Jones and Jonica Lockhart), 4x200m relay (Onesti Barnett, Jonica Lockhart, Dejah Washington and Zhateya Jones) and 4x400m relay (Jonica Lockhart, Onesti Barnett, Dejah Washington and Melonie Mallette) won gold medals (first place) in each relay – and set a new meet record in the 4x200m and 4x400m relays!

Junior, Zhateya Jones, took first place in the women’s triple jump, and in the men’s running events, Junior, Austin Moore, won the 3,200m (2-mile) race with tough determination!

We can’t stress enough how extremely proud we are of these young athletes and how their talent, hard work and dedication has payed off for them. Track can seem very much an individual sport, but in reality, individual contributions are what makes the team better and stronger! We are excited about the future of our track program and are elated to see the student-athletes’ hard work paying off! Way to go, Knights!