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DyeStat Virginia
2000 Outdoor State Meet
AAA Finals - Day 2
Gar-Field girls, Bethel boys, Sheena Johnson, and Rickey Harris are the big stories
by Pearl Watts
The Gar-Field girls and Bethel boys claimed the team titles with Gar-Field's Sheena Johnson and Centreville's Rickey Harris providing the top individual performances at a sultry Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond this past Friday and Saturday.
The Gar-Field girls team, pre-meet favorites and runnersup to Bethel the past two years, put the meet out of reach fairly early with a huge contribution of 43 points in the field events alone and finished with a total of 79 points. Bethel provided the only legitimate opposition to Gar-Field and finished a strong second with 56 points while Hayfield (39), Oakton (36) and Western Branch (31) rounded out the top five.
The boys team race was much tighter with four teams within six points of each other. The Bethel boys came through the pack with important points late in the meet greatly aided by Gemayel Hazard's win in the 300 hurdles at 37.97 seconds and the Bruins clinched the team victory with a second place in the 1,600 relay (3:17.87). Bethel had just enough to outlast second place and defending champion Potomac (43 points), with early meet leader and Eastern Region champion Deep Creek third with 42 points while 1999 runnerup Centreville finished in fourth place this time around with their 40 point total.
In the girls portion of the meet, Gar-Field's Johnson set the tone early for the Indians on Friday. In the meet's first event final, the long jump, the senior headed to UCLA recorded a personal best of 20 feet, 2.5 inches to move to the number two performer thus far this season and win by almost a foot in an excellent event which saw thirteen girls jump eighteen feet or better.
Then in the running trials on Friday, Johnson left no doubt that the state meet was going to be a showcase for her talents as she recorded the fastest qualifying times in the 100 hurdles (14.72), 100 dash (11.91) and 300 hurdles (41.70). Johnson, then came back on Saturday morning to win the triple jump by more than a foot and a half at 40-7.25 to move to number six in the nation this season. The two time Track and Field News high school female athlete of the indoor season then came back in the afternoon running finals to successfully defend her title in the 100 hurdles in 13.82 in just missing the state meet record of 13.81 set by Lisa Wells of Manor in 1988.
Ten minutes after the 100 hurdles, Johnson returned to the starting line for the 100 dash and was the first out of the blocks and held the early lead before being overtaken by defending champion Ara Towns of Bethel who was the winner against a slight headwind in 11.81 to Johnson's runnerup time of 11.87. Johnson culminated her day with a meet record win in the 300 hurdles at 40.94 to win the event for the fourth consecutive year.
It was also Johnson's ninth state title overall to tie Paula Girven of Gar-Field (1974-76) for the most individual titles ever.
Gar-Field could not have won the meet without Johnson but also needed more than Johnson in order to win and added valuable points from Kira Sims with her second place finish in the pole vault and also sixth place in both the long jump and triple jump; Dionne Evans with her second place finish in the 1,600 run and with Takeitha Jordan notching fourth in the high jump and eighth in the triple jump while Katie Fricke grabbing sixth in the pole vault.
Runnerup Bethel had an excellent meet also and could have certainly made the score closer if not for a meet entry snafu in which Bethel had sent their regional meet director an entrant for that had sprint stars Marie Giles entered in the 400 dash and Asia Carroll set for the 200 dash but the state form did not and on appeal to get them reentered in those events, their request was denied.
Bethel still gave it their best shot with Towns winning the 100 dash and also anchoring Bethel to a win in the 400 relay for the third straight year at 46.74 with Giles and Carroll also on the squad. The Bruins also had Giles come from third place on her anchor leg of the 4x400 to take the lead on the homestretch to lead Bethel to the win for the second straight year and fifth overall since 1990 in 3:46.28 and also received third places from Carroll in the 100 dash (11.98) and their 3,200 relay squad (9:23.62).
Hayfield claimed the third place trophy with 39 points and had 38 of those points come from just two individuals, seniors Nikeya Green and India Odum. The previous week, Green had set a Northern Region meet record in the 800 trials at 2:10.64 and she used the trials of the state meet on Friday to set another record as she recorded a personal best of 2:10.12 to take down the 2:10.44 standard by Sharon O'Connor of Mount Vernon from 1998.
On Saturday, Green then first competed in the 1,600 run and with a 70 second opening lap had the early lead and then methodically cruised to victory in 5:03.49. Green then came back an hour and a half later for the 800 finals and held the lead through the first 400 in 63 seconds but was closely followed Jefferson's Kelley Otstott, Leslie Treherne of Western Branch and Petersburg's Nicole Cook. With 200 meters to go Green and Treherne had separated themselves slightly from Otstott and Cook and the final 100 meters was a duel down the stretch with Green prevailing in a meet record time of 2:09.30 with Treherne just a stride behind in 2:09.38. In what was probably the strongest girls 800 final top to bottom in meet history, Otstott was third in 2:11.38; Cook fourth in 2:12..94 and the fifth through seventh place finishers all ran under 2:16.
Green's Hayfield teammate India Odum added the shot put outdoor crown to her indoor title from this past March with a big throw of 43-5.5 in the finals to overtake early trials leader Lindsay Neuberger, a sophomore from Frank W. Cox who finished second at 41-7.5 in an excellent competition which saw the top four girls all exceed forty feet. Odum also put it together in the discus throw to set a personal best by almost eight feet with her effort of 128-8 which was good for second place.
The other multiple individual event winner was Chantilly's Alyssa Aiken. The Chargers senior, headed to the University of Texas, easily defended her title in the 400 dash where she is the record holder at 53.45 with a win in 53.83 to become the number nine performer in the nation this year. Aiken also put together an excellent start, smooth curve running and a strong finish in the 200 dash for a surprisingly easy victory over a solid field in 24.44 and added a fourth place in the 100 dash (12.04) to tally 25 points by herself for Chantilly.
Fourth place Oakton recorded two wins, in the high jump and 3,200 relay, and both were about as close as you could get. In the high jump, Oakton sophomore Bonnie Meekins and Jefferson junior Krystle Moss both cleared 5-5 but missed on all three attempts at 5-6, necessitating a jump off for first place since both had identical marks throughout the competition. With the bar set a 5-6 for one more attempt before it would be moved down an inch if neither cleared the height, Moss missed on her attempt at 5-6 but Meekins followed with a clean attempt to win the event. Meekins said, "it was a big help to jump after Krystle. At a lot of meets she has a higher seeded height than I do and I jump before her. At this meet I was following right behind her and after her miss (at 5-6) I didn't feel any pressure on my attempt at 5-6 because I had a chance to win or at the worst still be tied if I didn't make it." Oakton also won the 3,200 relay in one of the most exciting races of the day. The 3,200 relay was originally scheduled to be run in two sections of eight teams apiece but was changed to a one section final of sixteen teams. That certainly helped the event because it moved Bethel out of the slower seeded section into the race with the faster seeded section dominated by the Northern Region. Bethel jumped out to an early lead after the first leg and held their ground throughout the next two legs to have a five second lead over Oakton and seven second lead over defending champion Jefferson into the anchor legs. Bethel's Kristin Reedy went out hard for the first lap and still held about a three second lead over Jefferson's Kelley Otstott and Oakton's Keira Carlstrom but with 200 meters Otstott had moved to Reedy's outside shoulder and Carlstrom was at her inside shoulder. Hitting the final straightaway, Carlstrom found just enough room to get by Reedy on the inside and her final split of 2:13 brought Oakton the victory in 9:22.32 with Jefferson off of Otstott's 2:11.4 split second in 9:22.89 and Bethel third at 9:23.62.
Other victories were recorded by Lake Braddock's Erin Swain who prevailed through the heat to win the 3,200 run by more than 100 meters in 11:04.23 and said, "I felt great for the first six laps but the last two laps were really tough." Mount Vernon's Donisha Freeman, who won the discus title last year at 127-4 won it again this year at 135-11 and said, "Last year I didn't feel any pressure because I wasn't the favorite. This year even though I was the favorite I still didn't feel any pressure although after India Odum threw 128 feet I told myself to keep my concentration and improved from 133-5 in the trials to the 135-11 mark." One other meet record was set as the pole vault continues to improve in its second year of existence at the state level with four girls breaking the old meet record of 10-6 with their 11-0 vaults. Danielle Taylor of Frank W. Cox was the winner based on fewer misses at 11-0 with Kira Sims of Gar-Field second and April Banks of T.C. Williams and Centreville sophomore Alicia LaRoche tieing for third at the same height of 11-0.
The Bethel boys team could not rely on one dominating peformer to turn the trick for their team but instead had enough ponts spread out through their squad to come through with their team victory. Bethel hurdler Gemayel Hazard was the top individual point producer for the Bruins with his win in the 300 hurdles at 37.97 and Hazard also added a fourth in the 110 high hurdles (14.51). Bethel also got fourteen relay points with their second place in the 1,600 relay (3:17.87) and third place in the 400 relay (42.14), had Domonick Richmond finishing second in the 400 dash (47.02), Marlin Manley in a tie for second in the high jump at 6-8 and Dwayne Kindrick was seventh in the 200 dash (22.39) to close out their scoring for the close victory. Runnerup Potomac had senior Rico Lloyd responsible for most of their points as Lloyd notched wins in the long jump at 24-1.25 and the 100 dash in 10.55; finished second in the 200 dash (21.57); anchored the 1,600 relay to fourth place in 3:21.23 and was seventh in the triple jump (46-6.25) to help account for 35 of Potomac's 43 points. Senior Jason Lewis chipped in with a fifth in the 800 run and sixth in the 1,600 run but it was not quite enough for Potomac. Third place Deep Creek, the Eastern Region champion, was strong in the field events with a win by junior Quentin Matthews in the high jump at 7-0.25, a third place in the shot put by Brian Joyner (53-8.5) and also received eleven points in the long jump from Chris Clifton (3rd; 23-8.5) and Willie Smith (4th; 23-1.5). Deep Creek also won the 400 relay at 42.01 and sat in the lead with 42 points with five running events left but were out of scoring possibilities and saw Bethel and Potomac overtake them. Fourth place Centreville scored 40 points from just two individuals as senior Rickey Harris won three events and set the only two new meet records on the boys side and sophomore David Sullivan took the pole vault. Centreville coach Matt Murray said, "as good as Rickey is and can be, he almost outdid himself today." After Harris had led all qualifiers on Friday in the 110 hurdles (14.27), 400 dash (47.03) and 200 dash (21.81) , the Centreville star scintillated even further on the track in Saturday's finals. The first victory for Harris was the 110 high hurdles in which he broke the 1984 meet record set by Calvin Holmes of Denbigh of 13.67 with his clocking of 13.50. Harris was as explosive as he has ever been out of the blocks for the 110 highs and beat the entire field to the first hurdle for his exceptional and personal best effort of 13.50 to move into a tie for the national lead in the event for this outdoor season. Next came the 400 dash and is usually the case in the one lapper for him, Harris was not out fast and had to make up ground on three runners to be close to the lead with 200 meters to go. From there on Harris powered past the field to win in a meet record of 46.21 and became the current U.S. high school leader. The winning time for Harris broke the 400 meter dash record of 46.25 set by Warwick's Kerry Wooden in 1987 but is not the fastest one lap turned in state meet history, with that distinction belonging to Ronnie Ray of Ferguson who set a then national record of 45.8 for the 440 yard dash (402.336 meters) in 1972. Harris then hit the trifecta with a good start in the 200 dash which put him virtually even with defending champion Rico Lloyd of Potomac as they hit the final straight and Harris's strength against a slight headwind helped him to prevail in 21.35 with Lloyd the only finalist in the field within five meters of Harris at the finish. Although he set a personal best in the 110 hurdles and avenged a loss to Lloyd from last year's state meet in the 200 dash Harris said, "the most pleasing victory was the 400. I wasn't shooting for the record, I was just looking for the victory and fighting a swirling wind and a great field in the 400. I really like this track, it is soft enough to cushion the shock from sprinting but can still produce some fast times." Centreville's David Sullivan won the pole vault, which was the final finishing event of the day, at 14-0. Sullivan and the Great Bridge duo of senior defending champ Jimmy Tran and sophomore Daniel Garrett were all tied for first at 14-0 which created a jumpoff beginning at 14-0. Garrett had a good attempt at the height but knocked the bar loose on his way down. Sullivan was next and was cleanly over for a potential victory. Tran then had his attempt and was cleanly up and over the bar but brushed it with his chest on the way down to seal the win for Sullivan. Sullivan said, "it hasn't quite sunk in yet. I came into the competition thinking I had a chance to finish in the top three or four but after I had maybe the best jump of my life to make 14-0 on my first attempt (prior to the jumpoff); as I released the pole and headed down to the mat I started thinking that maybe it was going to be my day." Other Northern Region victories were recorded by the South Lakes 3,200 relay team of Brendan Leahy (2:00.0), Kanda Karmo (1:56.8), Yonathan Kebede (1:58.9) and sophomore Richard Smith with an anchor of 1:53.9 as he exploded past the Midlothian anchor on the final straight to give the Seahawks the win in 7:49.85. South Lakes also had junior Alan Webb run all alone from the gun through a 2:03 first 800 enroute to an easy victory in the 1,600 run in 4:19.77. Webb was not as fortunate in the 800 run as he got himself virtually boxed in from the outset of the race which saw the leaders go through the first 200 in a relatively slow 28 seconds. Woodside junior Curtis Parker took over the lead on the second lap and had enough left to prevail in 1:53.81 as Webb's late charge was not enough. Webb was second in 1:54.30 with the region taking the next two spots also with Harun Iman of Wakefield third (1:54.78) and McLean junior James Small fourth (1:55.08). The other running event victors were the Heritage 1,600 relay team which came close to the 1983 meet record of 3:14.15 set by Marshall-Walker with the number four state performance all time at 3:14.66 which also moved theim to number six in the nation this year and by Midlothian's Austin Smith in the 3,200 run at 9:32.88. The other field event wins were by Jason Fludd of Brooke Point who moved into a tie for number four all time on the state meet triple jump list after bounding 49-11.5 for the victory; sophomore Jason Dixon of Maury won the shot put on his last attempt in the finals at 53-11.5 to overtake Marshall's T.J. Stahl (2nd; 53-9.5) with the shortest winning distance in the event since 1958 and Mike Wanderer of Granby won the discus at 151-7 which is also coincidentally the shortest winning effort in that event at the state meet since 1958.
