The Alabama High School Athletic Association track and field championships continued Friday in Cullman and Gulf Shores. Dallas County, Southside-Selma, Ellwood Christian and Keith were the local schools in action.

Southside’s Christopher Davis posted the highest finish of any athlete from Dallas County as a whole Friday when he finished fourth overall in the 4A boys’ triple jump. Davis cleared 41 feet, 6.25 inches in Gulf Shores to earn the Panthers five points.

“He’s been a productive member of the team all season long as far as point wise and getting medals,” said Southside coach Jason Bothwell. “He’s really taken ownership of the craft of being a complete jumper this year.”

Southside’s Damon Watts also finished 15th in the triple jump.

Southside’s 4×100 boys relay team also competed Friday, finishing 14th in preliminaries. The relay team failed to qualify for Saturday’s final.

Davis will compete again Saturday in the boys high jump. Southside’s Antanya Dudley will also compete Saturday in the girls javelin throw.

Dallas County also has athletes participating in the 4A-7A championships in Gulf Shores. After moving up from 4A to 5A, the Hornets are getting a chance to see first hand how tough things are at one of the state’s highest classifications.

“We’ve had a pretty good couple of days,” said Dallas County head coach Robert Dolbare. “We fought really hard and have been introduced to some new competition in 5A that we’ve never seen before. The kids have really done a good job of stepping up to the challenge and competing against a higher level than we are used to.”

The Hornets’ Caleb McDougal finished sixth in the boys 5A discus throw with a total of 114 feet, 1 inch to earn Dallas County its only three points of the day.

Dallas County’s Kanyce Hardison competed in the discus and javelin Friday. Battling a hand injury, Hardison finished ninth overall with a total of 77 feet, 10 inches in the discus and finished 24th in the javelin.

Quintavis Parker will be the only Hornets’ athlete competing Saturday. Parker will run the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. He qualified fourth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.76 seconds. Dolbare thinks Parker has a real shot of heading back to Plantersville with a high finish.

“It’s really, really close and it’s really anybody’s game because it’s so tight,” Dolbare said after looking at the results from the 110-meter qualifying times.

Dallas County’s Marquel Brenson also competed in the shot put Thursday and finished eleventh overall.

In Cullman, Keith’s Jeremiah Campbell qualified eighth in the 1A boys’ 100-meter dash preliminaries and will run for the state championship in that event Saturday. Campbell was only a tenth of a second outside of fourth place in the qualifying race.

Markeisha Irby failed to qualify in the 1A girls’ 100-meter dash after finishing 16th in preliminaries.

Travis Goldsby for the Bears also failed to qualify in the boys’ 200-meter dash after finishing 15th in the qualifying race.

Ellwood Christian’s 4×100 boys relay team finished sixth in the qualifying race with a time of 49.03 seconds in the school’s only event of the day.

The final will be held Saturday.