Hoptown’s Teal leads Tigers to 14th-place finish as state meet

Hopkinsville High School junior Keyshun Teal is coming home from Lexington with a pair of top three finishes in the KHSAA Class 2-A State Track and Field Meet.

Teal took second place in the 300-meter hurdles Friday in a time of 40.67 seconds, which was just behind John Hardin senior Carter Lawrence, who broke the tape in 39.55 seconds.

The Tigers' star was the top seed in the 110-meter hurdles and was seeking a rare state crown for Hoptown. Things were looking his way, but Teal stumbled on the last hurdle and he ended up taking third place in a time of 15.49 seconds. Covington Catholic's Jacob Keller held off Mercer County's Ian Alcorn and Teal to the finish line. Keller broke the tape in 15.29 seconds while Alcorn was runner-up at 15.35 seconds.

Hopkinsville, which won its first Class 2-A, Region 1 title last week, was 14th in the state meet with 17 points. The Tigers missed out on a top 10 finish by four points.

Covington Catholic won the boys' Class 2-A state title with 105.5 points. Lexington Catholic was second with 51 points and Mercer County took third with 50.

The Tigers' freshman Mychael Pulley had one of his best performances of the year and went to the podium with a seventh-place finish in the high jump. He had a leap of 5-feet, 10-inches.

Jaylen Ray earned a spot on the podium by taking eighth place in the long jump with a leap of 20-feet, 5.5-inches.

Hoptown's 4x200-meter relay team of Jaylen Ray, Teal, Willie Ennels, and James Bradley Jr., narrowly missed the podium, finishing 11th in 1:35.59.

The Tigers' 4x800-meter relay team of Tyson Cavinder, Savior Davis, Carlo Jones, and LaMareon Jeffers earned a 10th-place finish in 8:48.54.

Meanwhile, the Lady Tigers' Leaunna Wilkerson narrowly missed the podium. The freshman ran ninth in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 17.34 seconds.

Senior Alexis Herrera-Lovato finished her Hopkinsville High School career with a ninth-place finish in the 800-meter run. She crossed the finish line in a time of 2:29.53, missing the podium by only two seconds.

Region 1 champion Calloway County won the girls' state title with 108 points. Lexington Catholic scored 81 points to finish runner-up, and Bourbon County finished third with 57 points.

HHS Results:

Boys: 110-meter hurdles - Kayden Humphrey, 11th, 16:48. 100-meter dash - James Bradley Jr., 19th, 11:88; Willie Ennels, 22nd, 12.11. 4x100-meter relay - (Bradley, Jr., Humphrey, Teal, Mekhi Manning Lewis), 21st, 47.39. 400-meter dash - Jayon Bass, 21st, 53.54. 300-meter hurdles - Humphrey, 17th, 44.76. 200-meter dash - Ennels, 22nd, 24.54. 3,200-meter run - Cavinder, 17th, 10:37.84. 4x400-meter relay - (Carlo Jones, Savior Davis, Jeffers, Bass), 17th, 3:43.11. Triple Jump - Pulley, 12th, 40-00.75. Girls: 1,600-meter run - Lauren Mayes, 20th, 5:54.99. 4x100-meter relay - (Jayla Brunson, Heaven McCollough, Laelah Watkins, Wilkerson), 19th, 55.50. 400-meter dash - Alanni Quarles, 15th, 1:04.64; Grace Cansler, 17th, 1:05.06. 300-meter hurdles - Wilkerson, 23rd, 56.04. 3,200-meter run - Mayes, 21st, 13:05.87. High jump - McCollough, 19th, 4-06.

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