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Porter's Chapel Academy's Schaffer Bell receives his gold medal from coach Daniel Slayton after winning the MAIS Class 3A boys triple jump championship on Friday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Schaffer Bell wears his gold medal after winning the MAIS Class 3A boys triple jump championship on Friday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Mia Abdo competes in the girls triple jump at the MAIS Class 3A state track and field meet on Friday. Abdo finished fourth in the event. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Mia Abdo lands in the pit during the girls triple jump at the MAIS Class 3A state track and field meet on Friday. Abdo finished fourth in the event. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Porter's Chapel Academy's Schaffer Bell competes in the MAIS Class 3A boys high jump at the state track and field meet on Friday. (Daniel Slayton/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Samantha Edwards receives her ribbon for finishing fourth in the 3,200 meters at the MAIS Class 5A state track meet on Friday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Samantha Edwards runs in the girls' 3,200 meters at the MAIS Class 5A state track meet on Friday. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

CANTON — The last time he competed in the triple jump, Schaffer Bell missed winning by a quarter of an inch. He was determined not to let it happen again, and didn’t.

The Porter’s Chapel Academy junior blew away the field Friday with a personal-best mark of 38 feet 6 inches to win the MAIS Class 3A championship at the state meet at Canton Academy.

Bell was four inches clear of runner-up Carson Hendrickson from Regents of Oxford.

“My last meet I jumped 37 and I lost by a few inches. That really clicked something inside me that I don’t want to lose by something like that again. So I just kept working hard,” Bell said.

Bell jumped 37-3 at the Class 3A South State meet on April 23. Sylva-Bay Academy’s Micah Odom hit 37-3.25 to edge him out.

On Friday Bell jumped 38-6 on the second of six attempts to set the benchmark no one could reach. Bell and Hendrickson were the only ones among eight competitors to clear 38 feet, and Hendrickson didn’t get there until his final attempt.

“It really hit me when I had practice and I didn’t want to go, but I had to go if I wanted to win it,” Bell said. “I jumped a 38-something yesterday and it really clicked that I had the potential to get as far as I did.”

Bell’s victory came in the first of three events that he competed in Friday. He was sixth in the high jump and added a bronze medal to his gold with a third-place finish in the long jump.

His teammates Jase Jung and Lakelan Pecanty were fifth in the high jump and eighth in the long jump, respectively.

The shine from the gold medal was bright enough to overshadow anything else.

“It sounds amazing,” Bell said of being a state champion. “To be a state champ is really a title to have. I used to dream of stuff like this, in any sport really. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Porter’s Chapel had five entries between its boys and girls teams in Friday’s field events at Canton Academy. It will have six more in the running events Saturday at Jackson Prep.

For PCA’s girls’ team, Marley Bufkin finished fourth in the long jump while Mia Abdo was fourth in the triple jump.

Abdo had a mark of 30 feet, 4.75 inches in the triple jump that was respectable but still well behind the three podium finishers. Harper Leach of Regents of Oxford won with a leap of 32-9.5, Charly Allen of Desoto School was second at 32-5.75, and Lydia Killebrew of Central Holmes was third at 31-1.5.

Abdo, a sophomore, won the South State championship and improved from a fifth-place finish at the 2024 state meet but was still disappointed.

“I think I can do better because I’ve done better,” she said.

The MAIS Class 5A meet also started Friday with field events and the 3,200 meter run at Jackson Academy. St. Aloysius had two athletes competing, as Julia Moberley finished eighth in the girls’ discus and Samantha Edwards placed fourth in the 3,200 meters.

Edwards entered the state meet undefeated in the two-mile race but she — and everyone else — was running for second place behind Simpson Academy’s Lilly Overby.

Overby, a junior, lapped two runners on her way to a winning time of 11:25.78. East Rankin Academy teammates Jewel Baker and Audrey Mayatte were second and third, 11 and 28 seconds back respectively, and Edwards was fourth in 11:58.36.

Overby’s time was a second off the Class 5A record she set in 2024.

Edwards said the fast pace set by Overby was hard to match. Overby opened a 100-meter lead by the third of eight laps while Baker, Mayatte, Edwards and Simpson’s Layla Warren were all in a pack together. Warren finished fifth, in 12:05.12, after the group separated with two laps remaining.

“It was really hard because Lilly Overby is so fast and everyone tries to stay with her on the first lap. I think the first lap was faster than my mile pace,” Edwards said. “It was definitely starting fast and trying to hold on the whole time. That makes it really hard to finish strong because it’s already been taken out of you.”

Edwards will get another crack at Overby on day two of the state meet, in the 800 and 1,600 meters at Jackson Prep. Overby is the reigning champion in both events. Edwards finished fourth in the 800 last year and third in the 1,600, although both were much closer than Friday’s blowout in the 3,200.

“The 1,600 is my better event. I’m hoping that one will go well,” Edwards said. “But it’s really hard to say because I haven’t run as fast as they have all season.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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