Martin Luther King Girls
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The Royals of Martin Luther King High School out of Nashville dominated the early part of the last decade winning three titles in a row from 2010 to 2012 and on Tuesday they ended the decade long title drought with a dominating performance putting over 40 points between themselves and runner-up Tennessee High scoring 117 points to the Vikings 76. It was the largest margin of victory of any team competition across the three day championship. Here's a breakdown of how they compiled their points.
Results | Videos | Photo Albums
MLK | Tennessee | |
| Event Wins | 6 | 4 |
| Events w/ Multiple Scorers | 3 | 1 |
| Total Events Scored | 11 | 13 |
| Total Points | 117 | 76 |
Ten, Eight, Or Six
On paper, you may look at the side by side above and wonder how there was a forty point margin between the teams at the end of the competition so here's one more stat to help explain:
| MLK | Tennessee | |
| Top 3 Finishes | 13 | 6 |
Of the fourteen times the a Royal scored on Tuesday, they were putting 10, 8, or 6 points on the board for MLK in thirteen of them. That only occurred half the amount of times for Tennessee. In football terms, MLK was scoring a touchdown every possession while the Vikings were having to settle for field goals. Individually, six girls from the MLK roster scored 10 points or more in open events with LaNaya Roberts winning the discus for the second year in a row, Beyonca Lovelace Coleman placing runner up in both throwing disciplines, Amya Joy eclipsing 20 with a win the pentathlon and runner up finish in the low hurdles, Nevaeh Hyde runner up in the highs and right behind Joy in the lows, Koriona Boyd placing second and third in the 400m and 200m respectively, and Aaliyah Varnado sweeping the short sprints. The 200m would ultimately put the competition out of reach.
After placing runner up in 2022, Coach Ron Moseley was all smiles this year when we caught up with him after the trophy presentation.
As Moseley states, the team will graduate two key contributors in Hyde and Boyd as will Tennessee who will lose Zoe Arrington and Kendall Cross. Both teams will return a solid nucleus of athletes and I believe we can anticipate their names being toward or at the top of the standings when we write this article next year. Congratulations to the Lady Royals. Now onto the boys.