East Columbus High School’s Jasmine Young and Kayla McLean will be among the gold medal contenders in Friday’s state 1A girls track and field meet at the North Carolina A&T University track at Greensboro.

Young has the best effort among state 1A qualifiers in the long jump at 18 feet, 2 inches, and McLean leads qualifiers in the shot put with a toss of 33 feet, 10.5 inches.

Both took runaway victories in their respective events at last Saturday’s Mid-East 1A Conference meet at Rowland.

Young’s best effort in the long jump is 14 inches better than the closest qualifier in the rest of the field while McLean’s effort is more than 11 inches better than the other qualifiers in the shot put.

“East Columbus has never won a championship in the state track and field meet, so we are excited about their chances on Friday,” said ECHS track coach Travis Conner. “We’re hoping for another real good day from them.”

Young, a junior, took second place in the long jump at last year’s state meet with a jump of 17-4.

McLean, a senior standout on the ECHS softball team who has signed to play at Methodist University, is competing in track and field for the first time this season.