Richmond Hill junior Billy Cunningham got off a personal best jump of 24-0 to take first-place in the long jump on the opening day of the Class 7A state track meet which is being held through Saturday at Carrollton.

Cunningham, who had finished second in the Region 1-7A meet before taking first in last week’s sectional, got off his winning jump on his third attempt to beat Lee Niles of Brookwood who jumped 23-8.75.

The Wildcats’ Jada Brown took second in the shot put with a heave of 41-3.75 and was fourth in the discus at 120-9. Fellow junior Mmekom Inyang, one of the top players on the Richmond Hill girls basketball team, was third in the shot at 40-7. She ran on the 4 x 100 relay team which qualified for Saturday’s finals and just missed qualifying for the 100-meter hurdle finals when she finished ninth at 14.67 with the eight-place finisher clocked at 14.37.

Memphis Rich, who has signed to run at Sun Belt Conference champion Appalachian State, was fourth in the 3200 meters with a PR time of 9:12.67. Freshman Julia Anastasio was seventh in the 1600 meters.

Two Bryan County High School athletes also made their presence felt in the Class A-D1 meet being held at Rome as senior Austin Clemons, the school’s Male Athlete of the Year, finished fourth in the boys finals of the shot put and freshman Emily Johnson took third in the discus in the girls meet.

Clemons has signed to play football at Middle Tennessee State University while Johnson, who is one of the school’s up-and-coming softball standouts, appears destined to have an outstanding track career, too.

The Bryan County News will have complete results of how Richmond Hill and Bryan County athletes finished upon the meet’s conclusion Saturday evening.