ER’s Mirianna Corea puts double stamp on illustrious career

ASHEBORO —When Eastern Randolph High School’s Mirianna Corea first began throwing the shot put and the discus, she admitted she never thought she would ever be any good at either. She had spent her younger years playing softball and a switch to these throwing events was something she never thought was in her future.

Now these throwing events have helped her secure a spot with the NC State track and field team this coming up fall.

Corea capped an unbelievable prep career by capturing both the state 3-A shot put and discus titles at the NCHSAA State 3-A Meet held last week at NC A&T State University. The state championships were the fourth and fifth of her illustrious high school career.

“If you would have asked me when I first started, I didn’t think I would 

be good at all,” Corea said of the day her sophomore year when ERHS track coach Clint Pugh was asking who could potentially throw. “I had always played softball. But I said I’d give it a try. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

The only meet she competed in her sophomore season, she said, she qualified for regionals. Then she went to the state meet and won her first title, that in the discus.

“I realized I had a pretty good chance if I started working,” she said. “I had to make a pretty difficult decision. I was a softball girl. 

“I started to get really good at this and I decided to focus on this. Winning that first one gave me a boost of motivation and a boost of confidence. It made me realize I could do something big.”

She won the 2025 shot put state championship and placed second in the discus that year, and won the shot put at this past season’s Indoor Track & Field Championship.

She finishes with five state titles in all. 

“It was an awesome feeling,” she said the day after winning. “A fifth one. I never would have thought in a million years I would have got one.”

It was a busy Thursday for Corea, who started at the discus event. Each participant gets three throws and the top nine get three more to determine the championship. Her toss of 121-11 was 13 feet and 10 inches better than second-place finisher Callie Capps of Mountain Heritage. 

As she headed over to the shot put event immediately after her discus toss, she knew she had won the state title.

“I got a high going there,” Corea said. “Discus is harder for me. You have to be very calm because it’s such a smooth motion. You can’t be amped up or tense. With the shot put, you have more room to breathe. The shot put is definitely more strength and the discus is more technical.”

She recorded a shot put toss of 38-3, which was more than four feet further than Wake Prep Academy’s Saniya Alston, who recorded a 34-1.

“I have some old videos of me throwing when I first started out,” Corea said. “I have grown so much. My form was terrible. I have grown so much just seeing those videos.”

It may seem funny, but Corea has worked hard to overcome a slight fear of competing.

“I would say the mental state of it has been the toughest,” she said. “Anxiety gets to me. Nerves. In the field events, it’s you only. All eyes are on you. Having a calm mindset is kinda tough.”

She said that problem is dissolving as she gets ready for college.

“I’m definitely getting used to it more,” she said. “I am more and more relaxed.”

Laurel Bernhardt, a junior at Providence Grove, also reached the awards podium by placing third in the girls 1600 meter run. Other top local finishers included several fifth-place showings: Roxanne Davis (ER, girls high jump), Caden Revelle (ER, boys high jump), Scarlett Hildreth (WHS, girls 1600-meter run) and Bernhardt in the 800-meter run.

Cassady captures title

One day earlier, at the NCHSAA state 4-A Track & Field Meet, Randleman High School’s Jazai Cassady captured the state title in the triple jump, an event he just started participating in this year. His leap of 46-0 was 2 feet, 4 inches further than Mason Anderson of Lake Norman Charter.

Cassady won the regional championship the week prior.

“This was my first year and I put a lot of work into jumping,” Cassady said. “I thought I could be pretty good at it.”

Cassady had a pretty simple philosophy entering last Wednesday’s state championships.

“Just stay humble, work hard and improve on my jumps,” he said. “Don’t look at other people’s results.”

Cassady had been a runner, competing in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run. “It just wasn’t for me,” he said.

So he started jumping. Finding the correct form didn’t take too long.

“If you jump too high, you can’t and you have to have the right amount of power,” he said. “I learned pretty fast. It took about two weeks and I was jumping 44. Another two weeks and I was jumping 46. I was thinking if only I had taken this up my freshman year.”

RHS also had a trio of fourth-place finishers in Alexis Vaughn in the girls shot put, Izaiah Troxler in the boys shot put and Bryson Nall in the boys 400-meter run.

Brennan Thomas was the first athlete from Uwharrie Charter Academy to compete in the state meet as she finished fifth in the girls shot put and 10th in discus. 

Other Top 10 finishers include Southwestern Randolph’s Kaiden Mabe, who was sixth in the boys 400-meter dash, and RHS’ Matthew Bowman, who was seventh in the boys pole vault.

Tyson vaults to state title

In the 6-A meet held Saturday at NC A&T State University, the third time was the charm for Asheboro High School’s Aaron Tyson. The AHS senior captured the state title in the pole vault after two previous showings at the state’s top meet.

Tyson, who qualified for the state meet as a sophomore but didn’t place and improved that to a fifth-place finish last year, captured the pole vault by clearing 14-0 on Saturday.

But, what a busy day Tyson had. He also placed fifth in the long jump, fifth in the triple jump and sixth in the high jump.

AHS’ Juan Pablo Munoz placed second in the discus and Jalaya Showers was third in the 100-meter dash and eighth in the 200-meter dash. Michael Mark also earned a top-five finish by finishing fifth in the 110-meter hurdles.

Full results for all three meets can be found at SportsTone.net.