Mathews High School athletes competed in the VHSL Class 1/2 Combined Indoor Track State Championships on March 2-3 at Liberty University.

As a team, the MHS boys placed 18th out of 34 squads, while the MHS girls came in 20th out of 30.

The highest placing athlete for Mathews was Keith Taylor, who came in second place in the boys’ 500-meter dash, finishing the race in 1:09.41, just one second behind the winner, Alexander Gomez-Hernandez of Galileo Magnet High School in Danville. Taylor dropped one second off his best time, and the winner also dropped a second off his best time.

Cameron Stearns came in fifth in the boys’ 3,200-meter run with a time of 10:30.56. And the boys’ 4x800-meter relay team of Gavin Dustin, Grayson Camp, Dylan White and Stearns finished that race placing 10th in the state with a time of 9:29.01.

For the girls, Sarah Taylor took fifth place in the finals of the 55-meter hurdles in 9.68 seconds. She also came in sixth in the girls’ high jump, clearing a...