Zoe Dorsey has proved one thing for sure in her brief but highly successful track career. No matter which school colors she’s wearing on her uniform, she’s a winner.
After briefly competing for Terry Sanford last season, Dorsey is back where she started her successful run as a middle-distance specialist at Fayetteville Academy.
Earlier this week she competed in the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association indoor track and field meet at the JDL Fast Track complex in Winston-Salem.
Dorsey took home first place in the 300- and 500-meter runs. She won the 300 with a time of 40.27 and the 500 with a time of 1:14.37.
Her approach to preparing for indoor meets is a little different from outdoors. At outdoor meets her two specialties are the 400- and 800-meter runs.
“I don’t train as much for indoors,’’ Dorsey said. “I deal with a lot of weightlifting drills, working on my mechanics a lot this time of year.’’
The actual running style indoors is different too as the indoor track is half the size of the outdoor track. “To pass people you have to do that strategically,’’ she said. “You don’t want to go on the outside lane on a curve. You would be running more distance.’’
While she was satisfied with her performance in the meet, including a personal best in the 300 meters, she wants to work on her starts a little more.
“I can get out faster, more explosive,’’ she said. “I was definitely happy with both my races since it’s the beginning of the season.’’
But she also added she’s got “a lot more training to do.’’
Going back to the 7th grade when she started running at the state meet level, Dorsey now has eight individual state titles competing in the 200-, 300-, 400-, 500- and 800-meter runs.
She’s had a few informal chats with coaches about college offers, but she’s keeping options open as far as where she wants to go.
One offer she said she would be interested in involves an endorsement as a result of the name, image and likeness policy recently approved by the NCISAA that would allow its athletes to profit off their image.
“It’s a way for us to get paid for our hard work and dedication,’’ Dorsey said. She added individual sports athletes are often not recognized for all the hard work they put in by themselves. “It’s a way for our name to get out,’’ she said.
• When he was a freshman at E.E. Smith, Zahir McPhail said Golden Bull track coach Raymond Johnson introduced him to the shot put.
McPhail tried out for the track team, made it, and said he had a pretty decent performance throwing the shot in his first real meet.
“I just felt it was a good way to show my strength, see how far I could throw a metal ball,’’ McPhail said.
At last Saturday’s NCHSAA indoor state track and field meet, McPhail did it better than anyone else competing at the JDL Fast Track facility in Winston-Salem. Of 21 competitors, McPhail was the only one to break the 50-foot mark, hitting a winning throw of 54-7.5 on his final attempt.
It was a step up from last year’s NCHSAA outdoor meet when he placed second in the state.
McPhail also competes with the Fayetteville Flyers track team, and it was there he was introduced to the importance of adding weightlifting to his training program. “I’ve only been doing it one year and it improved it a lot,’’ he said.
He added he felt nervous at the state indoor meet, but the energy was there for his final throw and he wanted to go home with at least a personal record.
“I started like a clap and everybody was clapping in the track stadium,’’ he said. “I went all out on my last throw.’’
The throwing area at the JDL Fast Track is in the middle of the facility, so McPhail felt he was in the spotlight. “It builds confidence,’’ he said.
He’s set big goals for himself when the outdoor season begins in a couple of weeks, including hitting a throw of better than 60 feet.
“I’m looking forward to it,’’ he said, “and being consistent.’’
• Congratulations to longtime Westover men’s basketball coach George Stackhouse, who earned the 400th win of his successful head coaching career with a 62-46 victory at home against Overhills this week.
The Wolverines are 21-1 overall and 13-0 in the All-American Conference with their final game of the regular season set tonight at home against E.E. Smith.
Westover’s only loss of the season was to Seventy-First in the Holiday Classic by a 59-57 score. Westover later beat the Falcons 70-59. The Wolverines currently have a 15-game winning streak.
• Congratulations to Westover’s Ari Fulton and Cape Fear’s Jayda Angel, who were named to the boys and girls teams for this year’s Carolina Classic All-Star basketball game pitting the top senior boys and girls from North Carolina and South Carolina.
Veteran Jack Britt coach Nattlie McArthur will serve as assistant coach for the North Carolina girls team.
The game will be held at John T. Hoggard High School in Wilmington on March 23.
According to the latest MaxPreps statistics, Fulton is averaging 18.7 points per game for Westover while hitting 55% of his shots from the field. He leads Westover in rebounds with 10.9 per game while handing out 2.7 assists.
He also leads in steals with 1.6 and blocks with 0.7, and is hitting at a 76% accuracy rate on free throws.
Angel averages a whopping 34.2 points per game, shooting 62% from the field. She also pulls down a team high 8.6 rebounds and hands out 5.6 assists and has 7.1 steals per game.
She hits 71% of her free throws and 51% of her 3-point attempts.
• The NCHSAA individual wrestling championships began Thursday in Greensboro. Congratulations to the following Cumberland County athletes who will be competing this weekend. An asterisk indicates a wrestler who was the regional champion in his or her weight class.
Boys
Jack Britt – Brycen Blaine.
Pine Forest – Jayvion Johnson*, Nyrell Gaskin-Brantley, Jacaden Brown, Samuel Gantt*, Jack Kancler, Jiwaun Fleming.
South View – Shamari Thompson, Christopher Ehrman, Kwa’Shawn Moore.
Westover – Connor Dean, Cory Cooper, NaZiah Rice.
Cape Fear – Tye Johnson*, Samuel Aponte*, Landon Sargent.
Terry Sanford – Troy Shannon.
Seventy-First – Donovan Frederick*.
Girls
Jack Britt – Isabella Hernandez, Sumaiya Aamoud*, Sophia Ozanich, Victoria Shepherd.
Terry Sanford – Amelia Pranka.
Pine Forest – Alyssa Miller.
E.E. Smith – Lianna Davis.
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