Two Wood County high school athletes brought home gold from the state track and field meet in Austin on the opening day Thursday, May 1.

Mineola junior Tierany Neighbors needed just two vaults to win the Conference 3A pole vault and a third to set the state record.

She opted to wait until the bar was raised to 12 feet before entering the fray.

She cleared it on the first try, then waited as five others also made that height, and a sixth opted to wait until 12’6” for her final try.

Neighbors was then the only competitor to clear 12’6”, doing so on her second try after running through the pit on her first attempt.

When none of the others could make it over the bar at 12’6’, Neighbors had won the gold in almost anticlimactic fashion.

With the 3A state meet record at 13’, officials set the bar at 13’1” to give her a chance to break the record. She did it on the first try.

That gave her further attempts to increase the record, but she could not quite clear 13’9”.

Later that evening, Winnsboro junior Camden Capehart easily defended his Conference 3A 100-meter dash championship with a scorching 10.14 seconds to easily beat the field in a fast heat.

By comparison, the first four runners in 3A beat the winning time for Conference 4A.

Capehart would have handily eclipsed the Conference 3A record as well, but the time was wind-aided, which does not qualify for state records.

The record for 3A stood at 10.38, while the all-time state record for all classes was 10.13.

Records may not be set when the wind is faster than two meters per second (about 4.5 miles an hour), and it was measured at 3.7 meters on Thursday evening.

Capehart will have a chance for a three-peat next year and has already made a verbal commitment to attend Mississippi State for athletics.

Also competing on Thursday were junior Bryson Hobbs of Quitman, who placed eighth in the long jump with 20’10.5”.

Mineola senior Raylie Peebles placed sixth in the 800 meters, with a 2:24.23, moving up two spots after finishing the first lap in 8th place.

Alba-Golden boys had to wait an extra day for their chance, after Friday evening’s running events were postponed to Saturday due to impending weather.

Senior Wyatt Sutton in the 200 meters placed fifth and set a personal best at 21.97 seconds. The winning time was 21.54.

The boys 4x400 relay team placed ninth in 3:31.4. Joining Sutton were Cameron Lennon, Garrett Wright and Kayden Massie.