Harrison Girls, Farmington Boys Take Top Honors in Regional Track Meet

"I just wanted to have fun."

For junior Laticia Sims, this rang out as the winning formula at the Division 1 regional track meet Saturday, where the school took home first place at . The boys team won with a score of 91.5 points.

Harrison High coach Mark Babcock said he was more than a little surprised at his team’s performance: The girls team squeaked past Farmington High, scoring 82 points to Farmington's 79. “I thought maybe we’d be in the top four to five teams, but we just did a great job," Babcock said. "All the kudos go to kids like Laticia (Sims) and (Tiera) Parker – on the biggest stages, they did it.”

Sims placed first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14:33 and first in the 300-meter low hurdles with a time of 43.51. Parker finished second in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, while Harrison's Molly Miller won pole vault with a 7-foot-8 vault.

“I got prepared pretty good and I wanted to race good. I just didn’t want to clip any hurdles,” said Sims, who transferred from Romulus High last year.

"She's a great kid. She's super-humble and she's just great to be around," said Babcock of Sims.

Vincent-Taylor paces Farmington boys en route to rout

Farmington routed their competition, beating Brother Rice, who came in at 78 points Saturday. The Falcons placed two top finisher, including senior James Vincent-Taylor, who beat West Bloomfield High’s C.J. Brathwaite to win the long jump by a quarter-inch margin at 22-foot-5 1/2-inches. D'Marco Mills finished first in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.84.

“Before that, he was third. He was dead tired, his body language was awful, and we just pulled him over and said, ‘Nothing technical, you just have to wrap your mind around making this jump,” said Farmington head coach Charles Bridges II said of Vincent-Taylor, who helped the team win its first regional title since 1971. “He did and I’m glad for him. He’s a good kid.”

The Farmington High girls team finished second with 79 points, led by Jacquelyne Zolynsky, Josephine Zolynsky, Olivia Salinas, Gabby DeFlorio, who placed first in the 3,200-meter relay with a time of  9:44.32. DeFlorio finished third in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:15.9, and second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.85, while Hailey Hurt finished fourth in the shot put with a score of 34-10. Aaron Howell finished third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 46.02.

The Harrison High boys team finished eighth with 47 points thanks in part to a 12-4 score in the pole vault from Kevin Lapinski, who placed first in the event. Brandon Palmer finished second in the pole vault at 10-11. Kyle Carter finished third in the long jump at 21-3.25 inches, while Darius Davis finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles at 40.69.

The boys team placed seventh and the girls team placed ninth, which led boys coach Jeff Simpson to say that the team "ran to its potential." The Raiders qualified its 400-meter relay team to the state finals with a second-place finish at 43:51. Senior Shammah Carter ran to a first place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14:98, and a third place finish in the 300-meter hurdles at 40.07.

The girls team finished sixth with a score of 49.5, led by Lauren Roberts, who finished third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12:86 and who finished fourth in the long jump with a score of 16-0.75.

For complete results, visit mhsaa.com.