Deep Creek boys, Western Branch girls overcome obstacles
by Pearl Watts
The Deep Creek boys and Western Branch girls teams from the Eastern
Region
both successfully overcame obstacles to capture the team titles
at the AAA
state championships held at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond this
past
Friday and Saturday.
The Deep Creek boys survived a lane violation in the 400 dash
which cost
them seven points and the failure of their top seeded 4x100 relay
team to
place at all. Despite those obstacles, the Hornets went into the
4x400 relay
knowing that a win in the event would guarantee them their second
straight
outdoor title and the quartet of John Hyman, Roy Anderson, Desmond
Perkins
and Derron Flood took care of business in winning the event in 3:17.29.
In state meet scoring through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1
basis,
Deep Creek came out on top with 35 points with Lakeland the runnerup
with 30
points. Lake Braddock and Heritage tied for third with 27 points
while South
Lakes and Oscar Smith each scored 25 points to tie for fifth place.
The Western Branch girls overcame obstacles by getting over them
very
swiftly by way of senior Lauren Taylor, who was a double winner
in taking
both the the 100 hurdles in 14.00 and the 300 hurdle barriers in
a fine time
of 42.96. Western Branch also had sophomore Tosin Oluwole play a
big part in
the victory with her win in the 100 dash (12.25), second place finish
in the
200 dash (25.05) and as the anchor of the third place 4x100 relay
team
(48.27) which also included Shakirra Pinnock, Monika Brown and Marnita
Patterson.
Taylor and Oluwole thus played a part in 44 of Western Branch's
points and
they got over the top with a key second place finish in the 800
run from
junior Leslie Treherne (2:12.67) and a big fifth place finish in
the 1,600
run from senior Amber Blain (5:14.34), who came into the event as
just the
number eleven seed.
Western Branch's 56 point winning total was just enough to hold
off a
strong Oakton squad led by seniors Bonnie Meekins and Keira Carlstrom
as the
Cougars scored 51 points to claim the runnerup spot. Meekins won
the high
jump at 5-8 and was a surprise winner in the long jump at 18-7.25,
in which
she was entered as just the ninth seed, to help stake Oakton to
the early
lead on Friday.
On Saturday, Carlstrom won the 1,600 run as expected, leading
the field
from the start in a tactical race which saw splits of 80 seconds
for 400
meters and 2:38 at 800. The pace picked up after that and junior
Jennifer
Boyd of Hickory, C.D. Hylton's Jemissa Hess and Carlstrom hit the
1,200 mark
at 4:54. Carlstrom then showed her superior speed to the field and
clocked
69.9 on her final lap to gain the victory at 5:03.88 with Boyd second
(5:06.55), fast closing Oakton freshman Danielle Light third in
5:11.65 and
Hess fourth at 5:14.31.
Carlstrom also came back to finish second in the 3,200 run in
11:18. In
that race, Carlstrom, Boyd and Lake Braddock's Kelly Swain led the
pack
through the first 1,600 in 5:40 with Swain then taking over the
front
running duties. With 800 to go Boyd removed all doubt as to who
the eventual
winner would be with a 77 second penultimate lap and 76 seconds
for her final
lap enroute to her win in 11:03.26 under very warm, breezy conditions.
Salem finished third on the girls side with 42 points but were
stymied
somewhat by stalwart Amy Seward cutting her foot following the regional
meet
and requiring 19 stitches. Seward still managed to finish second
in the long
jump, third in the triple jump and was part of the winning 4x100
relay team
for Salem which also included Andrea Easley, Claudine Smith and
Lintera
Harvin (47.32).
Double winners on the girls side included junior Yvette Lewis
of Denbigh
and senior Lindsay Neuberger of F.W. Cox. Lewis won the triple jump
39-0.25
and closed very well in the last 50 meters to take the 200 dash
in 24.97 and
was also third in the 100 dash (12.43).
Neuberger, one of the top implement throwers in the nation, won
the discus
throw for the second year in a row and also the shot put for the
second
consecutive year (44-11).
One meet record was set on the girls side with senior Kira Barcus
of Atlee
breaking her own state record by one foot in winning the pole vault
at 12-0
with Oscar Smith senior Stephanie Garcia second at 11-6 in an excellent
competition which saw six girls at 11-0 or better.
Other winners included the West Springfield 4x800 relay team of
Katie
Freund, Jen Powers, Mo Hagan (2:15.2) and anchor Huma Husain (2:14.3)
running
9:15.34 for a 40 meter victory and the third fastest time in state
meet
history and Tallwood sophomore Faraign Giles was the strongest down
the
stretch in winning the 400 dash (55.47).
In the 800 meter run, Centreville sophomore Dacia Barr led the
field
through the first lap in 66 seconds and then held off Leslie Treherne
of
Western Branch until the 200 meter mark where Treherne was able
to surge to
first on the curve. Barr was a step behind Treherne coming into
the
homestretch and gradually gained ground and caught Treherne with
40 meters to
go. It was then one slight surge after another before the edge went
to Barr
at the line in 2:12.61 and Treherne second in 2:12.67 in one of
the best
races of the day.
The other victory on the track was Bethel's 1,600 relay foursome
of
Patricia Beckham, Britni Spruill, Charrisse Bullock and Jessica
Cassell. They
kept bragging rights for that race belonging to the Peninsula District
for
the fifth straight year as Bethel won the race for the seventh time
in the
last 13 years and fourth straight overall at 3:52.73.
In the boys competition, two meet records were set, both in the
field
events. On Friday, Menchville senior Keith Moffatt put the high
jump standard
to lofty heights as he first broke the 1987 state meet record of
7-1 by
Armstrong's Alexander Coles with a jump of 7-1.25 to become the
eighth AAA
state meet performer to go 7 feet or better. Moffatt then upped
the mark to
7-2 and then set a personal best ever mark of 7-3 for his final
clearance.
Saturday's field event meet record belonged to Centreville senior
David
Sullivan, who broke Lawrence Johnson of Great Bridge's ten year
old mark of
16-0 with his winning vault of 16-1 and in so doing became the only
three time winner of the event besides Herndon's Kevin Myers, who
turned the
trick from 1970-72.
Sullivan did not come into the event until 14-6 with only Great
Bridge
senior Daniel Garrett and Dinwiddie junior Wayne Odom left in the
competition
and he easily cleared that height. Odom ultimately finished third
at 15-0
after not clearing 15-6. Garrett cleared 15-6 on his first try but
Sullivan,
who had gone 16-4 to win the Northern Region title the week before,
did not
clear 15-6 until his third try saying that he had not gotten his
steps down
properly until then.
Garrett then put the pressure on. Jumping before Sullivan in the
rotation,
Garrett made 15-9 on his first attempt causing Sullivan to then
pass that
height since he would gain no advantage. The bar then went to 16-1
to set the
stage for Sullivan's meet record clearance with Sullivan then having
two
fairly decent attempts at 16-8.
The boys side had a double winner in the field events as Robinson
junior
Steve Huntzinger captured the discus title on Friday at 166-0 and
then came
back on Saturday to win the shot put for the second year in a row,
this time
at 59-3. Saturday's other field event final was a topsy turvy triple
jump as
the top six qualifiers from the trials flip flopped their way through
the
finals before indoor state champ Nick Crumpton took the lead out
of the sand
on his next to last jump as the Langley junior won with a distance
of 46-2.75
with long jump champion Chris Walker of Norview second at 45-11.5.
In the running events, South Lakes senior Richard Smith once again
provided
his usual set of highlights. In the 4x800 relay, the Seahawks first
three
runners (Jonathan Gohrband, Matt Greenspan, Zack Haber) got Smith
the
baton in third place, six seconds behind leader Maggie Walker and
four
seconds in back of Nansemond River. Smith did not proceed with his
usual
tactic of trying to close the gap almost all at once, but instead
steadily
cut into the lead off of a 53.6 first 400. Smith then chased Maggie
Walker's
Jarrett Ridgeway for most of the second lap before exploding down
the final
homestretch to give South Lakes the victory in 7:53.09 off of a
1:49.7 anchor
split.
Smith then came back in the 800 run and after a tactical first
400 meters
in 58 seconds, found himself in third place with 200 to go behind
seniors
Matt Wolak of Mills Godwin and leader Phil Gaeta of Oakton. Wolak
caught and
passed Gaeta entering the homestretch but with 70 meters to go it
was Smith's
turn and he won going away in 1:52.78 with Wolak second (1:53.98)
and Gaeta
third (1:54.24).
Smith's final race was also impressive as he split 47.5 on his
anchor 4x400
relay leg to move South Lakes up to fourth place (3:21.04) behind
winner Deep
Creek (3:17.29), runnerup Hampton (3:18.41) and the third place
T.C. Williams
squad with four juniors (3:20.58).
Other race winners, in the hurdle events, Lakeland senior DeAndre
White
pulled to the lead over the final three hurdles to win the 110 high's
in
14.59. Lake Braddock junior Craig Gallimore, who had not raced in
almost a
month and was the only non-senior in the eight runner race, was
second in
14.69 and Gallimore came back to win the 300 hurdles in 38.56 with
trials
leader and defending state champion Rashad Gardner of Oscar Smith
falling
after hitting the fifth hurdle.
In the sprints, Lakeland's DeAndre White was the leadoff runner
on the
squad which included Aaron Seaborn, William Baker and Michael Cross
which won
the 4x100 relay by almost a half second in 41.98. In the 100 dash,
Heritage
senior Michael Johnson got off another one of his explosive starts
and ran
away from the field to an easy victory in an impressive 10.59.
Charles Cox of Kempsville, the 100 dash runnerup at 10.82, recovered
from a
slow start in the 200 dash and came from fifth place with 50 meters
to go to
win in 22.18 and in the 400 dash, pre-meet favorite Quentin Bowens
of
Heritage withstood a challenge from Bethel's Marcus Satchell to
win the one
lapper in 47.57 to Satchell's 48.26.
In the distance events, Thomas Dale senior Alex Tatu was among
a tight pack
which went through the sultry 1,600 run in 66 seconds for the first
400 and
2:10.7 at 800 meters. Tatu and Wakefield senior Abdi Dubed then
picked up the
pace and pushed each other through 1,200 meters at 3:13.3. Tatu
continued his
solid second half of the race in running to a time of 4:15.15 for
the victory
with Dubed second in 4:18.34 and Jefferson sophomore Christo Landry
closing
hard for third (4:18.88).
The 3,200 run was all Matt Keally of Ocean Lakes. Taking the lead
from the
start, Keally posted fairly even splits for the first 1,600 in going
through
at 4:29.0. Keally's pace eased off somewhat in the 90 degree weather
for the
second half of the race but not enough to not insure a win by 100
meters at
9:13.61.
Virginia State Meet
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