Freshmen were the class of area track and field this season. Now, a pair of Lady Eagles and a Lady Panther will head to Greensboro for the 2A State Track and Field Championships today looking for state titles in a variety of events.

Alex Tavenier will participate in two events — the 1,600-meter and 3,200 meter runs. Tavenier was a known commodity coming into the season after a superb cross country in the fall.

"It wasn't really any kind of surprise," Northeastern coach Jesse Cassino said. "She's run well all year. I think she was undefeated in every individual (distance) event throughout the season."

Tavenier ran third in the 1,600 at the regional meet Saturday with a time of 5:51.52. Though she had also qualified for the 800-meter run at regionals, she decided it would be better to skip that event. That strategy paid off with a 12:55.61 run in the 3,200.

"After she ran the 1,600, we talked and she felt like she could win the 3,200 if she didn't have to run the 800," Cassino said. "So I just had her start the race and step off. Sure enough, she ended up winning the 3,200 by about 15 seconds."

While Tavenier may have been expected to run this weekend, Rochelle Butts was a bit more of a surprise. Cassino said he knew about her from when she ran at River Road Middle School last year.

"I didn't realize how fast she was until she got to the high school level," Cassino said. "She's been steadily improving throughout the entire season."

Butts ran a 27.72 in the 200-meter dash at regionals, good enough for a third-place finish.

One thing Cassino said helped Butts was getting used to starting from the blocks.

"Coming into the year, she wasn't used to running out of blocks," Cassino said. "As soon as we got her coming out of there, her times just dropped. She ran under 13 seconds in the 100 and qualified for regionals in the 200."

Pasquotank's lone qualifier was Anesha Bembury. Bembury qualified in the discus.

"I knew that she could excel throughout the year, because she's a very hard worker." Pasquotank coach Cleon Cunningham said. "It's paid off with all of the work she's done throughout the year."

At the regional meet, Bembury led the event through the preliminaries and until the last throw of the finals. Her 101-foot-4-inch throw on her first attempt held up until a 103-foot throw in the final bumped her back to second.

Still, it was a season best for Bembury.

"It was the first time she's broken 100 (feet)," Cunningham said. "But throughout the year, she's been improving. When she won the conference, she threw 93 feet, so she improved almost 10 feet at the regional."

The state meet is set to begin at 11 a.m. today at the Irwin Belk Track at North Carolina A&T University.