This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, members of the Cummings girls track and field team while representing the Durham Striders Youth Organization, was in Virginia Beach, Virginia to participate in the 2024 Adidas Indoor Nationals Track Meet at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
Already proven performers on the state level, D’Anna Cotton, Brooke Packingham, Taylor Jordan and Diamond Moore proved to be among the most competitive athletes in the nation.
D’Anna Cotton, competing in the Championship Division, was a leading performer at the Nationals with 3 All-America finishes. Her first event on Friday was the triple jump, the one event she did not win at the North Carolina Indoor State Championship. By jumping 41 feet 1.5 inches on her first of 6 jumps, she put away an elite field that included 5 jumpers over 39 feet. This mark held up as the winning mark of the event. Her jump ranks as the 4th best in the nation, 1st in the state, 4th all time best jump in North Carolina history, 1st all time for a sophomore in North Carolina and 6th all time in US history for a sophomore. Continuing to show her versatility, on Saturday she placed 3rd in the high jump with a jump of 5-4. Finally, on Sunday D’Anna also placed 4th in the 60-meter hurdles in a personal best 8.83 to wrap up her 3rd All-American performance in 3 days.
Brooke Packingham, competing in the National Elite Division, placed 7th in the Long Jump 17-2.5 and 8th for 60 hurdles in 9.14. Her hurdles time was a personal best performance. She missed All-America status by 1 place in the long jump and 2 places in the hurdles.
Taylor Jordan, also competing in the National Elite Division placed 10th in the Long Jump with a jump of 16-11.75, and 1 spot from making the finals.
Finally, Diamond Moore competing in the National Elite Division was 14th in the Long Jump with a jump of 16-7.