Deep Creek boys heavily favored, but girls race is wide open

by Pearl Watts

To all, welcome to the 2003 AAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and apologies to all expecting the red carpet treatment entering the GMU Fieldhouse; who instead have been treated to a white blanket which has engulfed most of the state in recent weeks. This year's meet looks to have the girls team title among a handful of squads with almost all of them hailing from the Eastern Region, while on the boys side, Deep Creek appears to once again be the team to beat. With team scoring for all events through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis, depth is a nice ingredient to have, although the recipe usually requires points near the top.

On the girls side, the Eastern Region is loaded this year with Deep Creek, Menchville, Western Branch, Salem and Bethel separated by just 12 points at last week's regional championship. Those squads will get after it again this weekend with Northern Region champion Lake Braddock, Northwestern co-titleist Gar-Field and Hickory looking to also get in the mix.

Menchville is led by the state's outstanding performer thus far this season in senior Yvette Lewis. At last week's region meet, Lewis set a meet record in the long jump with her best effort this season of 19-4.5 and also set a meet record in the triple jump at 40-9.5, an event in which her best this season is 41-4. Lewis is also the number two seed in both the 55 hurdles and 55 dash and could also score in what should be a very competitive high jump. Menchville will also look for important points in the 4x200 relay and from Jelyn Quick in the 55 hurdles in their quest for the state title.

Western Branch cannot match the points that Menchville has in the field events but are capable of putting up big numbers in the dash events. Western Branch has Tosin Oluwole as the top seed in the 55 dash after her winning time of 7.10 at the Eastern Regional meet and will be looking for important points in the 300 dash from Marquita Allen. Western Branch also has Leslie Treherne as a huge factor as she comes in as the favorite in the 500 dash off of her impressive win last week in a meet record time of 1:14.37 with Treherne also a big part of Western Branch's 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Bethel is a team which you can never count out come state meet time and this year is no exception. Bethel will look for points from Lavonne Idlette in the triple jump and 55 hurdles and they also have the top seeded times in both the 4x200 (1:41.48) and 4x400 relays. Bethel also is seeded one-two in the 300 dash with freshman Francena McCorory and junior Britni Spruill and that event could go a long way in determining this year's team champion, just like it did last year.

Salem has one of the top all around performers in the state in senior Amy Seward, who should force Lewis of Menchville to be at the top of her game in both the long jump and triple jump. Seward is also capable of high jump points and Salem could also have a stake in the outcome of the 4x2 and 4x4 relays.

Lake Braddock romped in the Northern Region last Saturday but will find the points much tougher to come by this week. The Bruins should score in the field events with high jumper Ashley Haislip and shot putter Catherine Muehleib and are also seeded for points in the 4x200 and 4x800 relays.

Gar-Field has the state's top ranked shot putter in senior Tiffany Evans and also have senior Afua Amponsah coming off a very impressive Northwest Region meet where she was a triple winner in the 55 hurdles, 55 dash and 300 dash.

Hickory has the top AAA distance runner thus far this season in Jennifer Boyd as she comes off meet record setting performances from last week in both the 1,600 run (4:54.84) and 3,200 run (10:49.40).

Other top performers to watch include Shoshanna Pettes and Malaika Pettes from Central Region runnerup Armstrong. The Pettes sisters accounted for all of Armstrong's 58 points last week as Shoshanna won the long jump and triple jump and placed in the 55 dash and high jump while Malaika won the high jump and 55 hurdles and placed in the long and triple jumps.

Central Region champ Prince George has the top seeded vaulter in senior Rhian Jenks, who went 12-0 last week; Kellam is once again the team to beat in the 4x800 relay led by Natalie Sherbak and Kelley Taylor; West Springfield's Huma Husain is the top seed in the 1,000 run and should anchor the 4x8 for the Spartans and Shauneen Garrahan of Jefferson should aid the Colonials cause greatly in both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.

BOYS

On the boys side, Deep Creek comes in with an impressive resume as they show up with top times in both the 4x200 relay, 4x400 relay, 300 dash and 500 dash in addition to looking for strong showings in both the 1,000 run and 55 dash.

Deep Creek has Derron Flood as the top seed in the 500 dash after an impressive clocking of 1:04.16 at last week's region meet and John Hyman as the top seed in the 300 dash (35.21) with both Flood and Hyman seeing duty on the 4x200 (1:29.51) and 4x400 (3:23.99) relays. The defending indoor champs will also be looking for points from 55 dash region champ Antwain Carey (6.40), with Carey also on the 4x2 and from Desmond Perkins in the 1,000 run with Perkins also on the 4x4.

While Deep Creek appears to be the team capable of putting the most points up on the board, nothing is ever a given at the state meet and there are plenty of other teams looking to put their best day together on the most important day.

Central Region runnerup Thomas Dale has a chance for big points from senior distance runner Alex Tatu and with a sprinkling of other points in some spots could be one of the teams eyeing the first, second and third place team trophies. Tatu comes in as the top seed in both the 1,600 (4:14.17) and 1,000 (2:30.09) runs and Thomas Dale also has sophomore Dennis Boone capable of scoring in both the long jump and 55 dash.

Northern Region champ Lake Braddock is led by senior Craig Gallimore, the top seed in the 55 hurdles at 7.41 and the anchor of their 4x400 relay. Central Region champ Atlee has one of the top performers in the 500 dash in Anthony Easter while Northwest Region champ Gar-Field has Darren Garrigan in the long jump, 55 dash and as part of their 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Other top performers entered include Robinson senior Steve Huntzinger in the shot put. Huntzinger is the national leader at 63-7 and broke the 27 year old Northern Region meet record in the shot last week with a toss of 60-9. Once again, nothing is a gimmee at the state meet with Khalif Mitchell of Franklin County (59-3.25) and James Nixon of Great Bridge (58-0.75) possibly adding pressure to Huntzinger. Great Bridge also comes in with the top seed in the vault with Brian Webb (14-6) and Webb's teammate Daniel Brennan tied for the second seed with Justin Loda of Madison at 14-0. Other field event performers to watch include long and triple jumpers John Bailey of Colonial Heights (22-8.5; 47-3.5) and Reynold Smith from Forest Park (22-4; 45-2) along with Colonial Forge junior Jerome Miller, who set a Northwest Region meet record last week in the high jump (6-9).

On the track, Midlothian comes in with the best time by over ten seconds in the 4x800 relay (7:53.77) but there will be other teams probably loading the event up in Lake Braddock, T.C. Williams, Colonial Forge with Sean Leyh, West Springfield with Jeff Day and Jefferson with Keith Bechtol and Christo Landry. Others to watch on the track include Central Region champ Terry Thornton of Petersburg in the 55 hurdles (7.47); Joe Robinson in the 55 dash (6.26) along with Isaac Madison of Bayside and Nansemond River's Chris Robertson; Herndon's Steve Gillard and Timothy Nunn of T.C. Williams in the 500 dash; Wakefield senior Peter Quinzio in the 1,600 run and Green Run's Steven Walters in the 3,200 run.