The Story

by Pearl Watts

The Eastern Region was the dominant force this past weekend with Bethel
taking the girls team title and Deep Creek the boys team crown at the state
AAA championships held at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond.

The Bethel girls, led by seniors Ara Towns and Asia Carroll, were just too
strong for the rest of the state in dominating the sprint events as they
piled up 88 points for the victory with state indoor titleist Lake Braddock
second with 53.25 followed by Salem of Virginia Beach in third with 39 points
as they just edged fourth place Oakton and their 38.25 point total.

On the boys side Deep Creek utilized their prowess in the sprint and
jumping events along with a clutch second place finish in the last event, the
1,600 relay, to win with 64 points. Central region champ Petersburg, led by
all around star Jerome Mathis, finished second with 47 points while defending
outdoor team champ Bethel was a strong third with 44 points. The Northern
Region took the next three spots with state indoor team champ Lake Braddock
fourth with 34 points followed by South Lakes and Robinson in a tie for fifth
with 25 points.

Speed kills in a variety of ways and the Bethel girls proved the statement
applies to track and field as they piled up a total of 40 points in the 100
and 200 meter dash events alone in addition to also claiming the 4x100 and
4x400 relay titles; virtually winning the meet off of those four races.

The Indiana University bound Ara Towns capped a superlative career in
which she has been an integral part of the Bethel team for all four years as
she won the 100 meter dash title for the third year in a row in 12.07
seconds, finished second in the 200 dash for the second year in a row at
25.31, placed third in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, 10.75 inches
and anchored the winning 4x100 relay team (46.94) as Bethel won that event
for the fourth year in a row with Towns on all of those squads.

Carroll, normally a basketball player during the indoor track season who
gives Bethel a big boost during the outdoor season, was second to Towns in
the 100 dash (12.45), won the 200 dash in 24.82 and was also part of the
winning 4x100 relay. Bethel also was aided in the field events by senior
Amanda Walker who totaled 14 points with her second place finish in the shot
put (44-7.5) and third in the discus throw (119-11), had junior Jessica
Cassell place in the high jump and 400 dash in addition to running on the
winning 1,600 relay (3:52.91) which Bethel won for the third year in a row
and look to the future with freshman Britni Spruill who was fifth in the 100
dash in addition to running on both of the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Indoor state champion Lake Braddock did not give up without a fight as they
scored in 10 of the 17 events for their runnerup 53.25 point total. The
leading point scorer for the Bruins was once again junior Alexandra VanHeuven
as she set personal bests in finishing second in both the long jump
(18-11.75) and triple jump (39-2) and was also eighth in the 100 meter
hurdles. Lake Braddock claimed one individual win as senior Sarah Beale won the 400
dash in 57.28 over freshman Faraign Giles of Tallwood (57.69). The Bruins
also recieved third place finishes from Stephanie Hollar in the pole vault
(10-6) and their 4x400 relay team of Shawnette Adams, Courtney Sanders, Sarah
Beale and Louise Beale and a 4-6-7 finish in the 3,200 run from Cheryl Carr
(11:27.21), Kelly Swain (11:34.41) and Heather McCarthy (11:41.30) to round
out the bulk of their scoring.

Third place Salem had sophomore Amy Seward play a part in 33 of their 39
points. Seward, the indoor state titleist in both the long jump and triple
jump, added the outdoor versions as well in winning the long jump with a
personal best of 19-4 and added another personal best in the triple jump as
she overtook VanHeuven on her final jump with a leap of 39-7.5. Seward also
anchored the 4x100 relay team for Salem to second place (47.70) and ran the
second leg of her squad's fourth place 1,600 relay (3:56.32).

Fourth place Oakton was led by junior Keira Carlstrom, who was involved in
24 of the 38.25 points for the Cougars. Carlstrom first split 2:15.6 on her
anchor leg of the 4x800 relay to help grab third place for Oakton in 9:29.55.
An hour later Carlstrom came back in the 1,600 run and ran with the lead pack
through a relatively slow state meet pace of 74 seconds for the first 400
meters, 2:34 at 800 and 3:54 at 1,200 meters. C.D. Hylton sophomore Jemissa
Hess then made a strong move on the backstretch of the final lap before being
overtaken by Carlstrom with 200 meters to go with Carlstrom winning in
5:06.89 followed by Hess in second at 5:09.26 and sophomore Megan Isaacs of
Menchville third (5:11.31).

Carlstrom then came back to place second in the 800 run at 2:18.47 with
Hess third in 2:19.05 and senior Nicole Cook of Petersburg the winner in an
excellent time of 2:10.76, considering the headwind of between 5-10 miles per
hour on the homestretch side of the track.

On Saturday, Cook and Carlstrom
appeared to be possible beneficiaries of heavy rains from Friday evening.
The rain first started during the Friday running trials of the 400 dash for
both boys and girls and picked up in intensity during the 300 hurdle trials.
The girls 800 trials were next with three heats scheduled. The first heat was
run in a downpour and the second heat was even worse as the girls splashed
their way around two laps of the track.

Lightning in the distance finally stopped the splashdance before the final
heat of the girls 800, which Carlstrom and Cook were to be a part of. The
evening's acitivities were then postponed until the following day with all of
the girls in the 800 run eligible for a two section final based on time with
the boys 800 trials also removed from Friday's docket to a two section final
on Saturday.

Also affected was the girls and boys 200 dash trials as those sprinters had
to come back at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday for their trial heats. The boys high
jump, which had been suspended while under a steady rain after everyone left
had attempted 6-4, was also resumed on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. with the
bar at 6-6 for the remaining competitors. The discus throw, which had
completed its trial throws and was in the finals and amazingly continued for
most of downpour, was also resumed on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. for the
nine discus finalists.

Although Cook of Petersburg, had to only run one race, it was a good one as
the senior sped through the first 400 in 62 seconds and was at 1:35 for 600
meters as she won by almost seven seconds in 2:10.76 for one of the top times
in the country.

Besides Beale of Lake Braddock and Carlstrom of Oakton, the only other
individual winner was Jefferson senior Krystle Moss in the high jump. Once
again, the battle for first place in that event was between Moss and her
Concorde District rival Bonnie Meekins of Oakton. By the time Moss and
Meekins saw the bar raised to 5-7, they were the only
two left in the competition and both easily cleared on their first attempt.
The bar next went to 5-8 with Moss jumping first. Moss cleared on her first
attempt with Meekins missing on her first attempt.

With Meekins now not able to defeat Moss on the basis of more misses even
if she cleared 5-8, Meekins passed to 5-9. Moss then set a personal best in
clearing the bar at 5-9 on her first attempt. Now Meekins could still not win
even if she made 5-9 because of her previous miss at 5-8; so she passed again
with the rule not being three misses at one particular height, but three
consecutive misses.
Now Moss, who was not getting much rest, would attempt another personal
best of 5-10. Moss missed on her first attempt and so did Meekins but then
Moss cleared on her second attempt for another p.r. The bar then went to 5-11
and Moss soared over the bar for another personal best to move among the
national leaders with Meekins finally missing on her third consecutive try at
clearing a height.

The other area win was in the first running final of the day at 12:30 p.m.
on Saturday by the Robinson girls 4x800 relay team of sophomores Lauren
Hovland, Sam Ference, Joanna Rodgers and senior Michelle Gregory. Hovland
kept the Rams squad with the lead pack after her opening leg of 2:20.5 and
Ference did the same with her second leg split of 2:22.9. The race was then
broken open on the third leg by Rodgers with her carry of 2:17.3 to open a
five second lead and Gregory maintained the lead with her 2:17.2 anchor.
Robinson was clocked in an excellent time of 9:18.02 with the Northern
Region taking the top five spots with the West Springfield team of sophomores
Jen Powers, Kelly Osborn, Huma Husain and junior Mo Hagan second in 9:23.82
while Oakton was third in 9:29.55, Langley fourth at 9:31.34 as Leslie
Schultz went 2:16.3 on her anchor leg and Jefferson fifth in 9:32.37 with
Kelley Otstott on anchor (2:16.4).

The other field event winners were Kira Barcus of Atlee and Lindsay
Neuberger of F.W. Cox. Barcus tied the meet record in the pole vault with her
winning height of 11-0 to repel the Northern Region trio of Kathryn Pettine
of Westfield in second, Hollar of Lake Braddock third and Centreville's
Alicia LaRoche fourth, all of whom cleared 10-6.

Neuberger, a junior who is one of the top throwers in the nation, captured
the shot put by over three feet at 48-2 and the discus throw by almost
fifteen feet at 137-2.

The other running event winners were senior Jeannie Addison of Thomas
Jefferson Governor's School in Richmond, who broke away from North Stafford
junior Kristyn Shiring in the final two laps of the 3,200 run to win in
11:08.51 with Shiring second in 11:14.70 and in the hurdles Kellie Wells of
James River won the 100 meter version in 14.70 and Keosha Sanders of Brooke
Point the 300 meter variety in 42.96 with Menchville sophomore Jelyn Quick
second in both (14.89; 44.19).

BOYS

The Deep Creek boys team, a close third a year ago outdoors who moved up
to second place indoors in March, took one more giant step again in capturing
the team title with 64 points. The Hornets were staked to a strong start from
the outset in the field events where they put together 24 points. Deep Creek
senior Quentin Matthews defended his high jump title as he won at 6-8 on the
basis of fewer misses over rivals Keith Moffatt of Menchville and John
Hubbard of George Washington-Danville. Deep Creek also grabbed 14 points in
the long jump with Chris Clifton second in the long jump at 23-9.25 and
DeAngelo Hall third at 23-0.75.

On the track, Deep Creek used their speed to score a convincing win in the
400 relay with the team of Hall, DeAndre Hyman, Marlon Fields and freshman
anchor Antwain Carey in 41.76 and also had Hyman finish second in the 200
dash (22.16) and Carey third in the 100 dash (11.27). However, the Hornets
did not have anything locked up until the very end. Going into the final
event, Deep Creek had a nine point lead over a Petersburg team which was the
top seed for the 4x400 relay. The Deep Creek quartet of Reggie Halsey,
Marlon Fields, Nathan Healy and DeAndre Hyman were able to come through with
a second place finish in 3:17.26 with Petersburg not placing among the top
eight, for the deceptive 17 point margin of victory.

Petersburg once again relied almost entirely on the efforts of senior
Jerome Mathis, as his outstanding performances almost siglehandedly secured
second place as he scored 42 of his team's 47 points. On Friday Mathis won
the long jump on the last jump of the entire competition with an effort of 24
feet one inch to move past Clifton of Deep Creek. Also on Friday, Mathis led
all qualifiers in the 100 dash at 10.77 and kept himself in the high jump at
6-4 with an amazing five step choppy approach from the side in the rain on
the slippery high jump apron.

Mathis came back on Saturday to finish fifth in the high jump at 6-6, took
second in the triple jump at 46-9.5 and was never headed from the first
couple of steps out of the blocks to win the 100 dash by almost .4 seconds
into a headwind at 10.87 and was the winner by almost a half second in the
200 dash, also into a headwind (21.68). Petersburg also got a total of five
points in the two hurdle events from Terry Thornton but were hoping for more
help for Thornton in those events in addition to leaving Mathis with far too
much ground to try and make up in the 4x400 relay.

Third place Bethel utilized a one-two finish from Domonick Richmond (47.74)
and Marcus Satchell (47.91) in the 400 dash, a second place from Gemayel
Hazard in the 300 hurdles (38.10) and a win in the 4x400 relay with the team
of Hazard, Satchell, Rashaun Hicks and Richmond in 3:16.81 over Deep Creek
(3:17.26) and Hampton (3:17.55) for Eastern Region bragging rights.
Lake Braddock was the top local team with 34 points and had Frank Francois,
Craig Gallimore and Garrett Brickner involved in all of the points.
Brickner finished fourth in the high jump at 6-6 and sophomore Gallimore
competed extremely well against the rest of the state in placing fourth in
both the 110 high hurdles (14.75) and 300 intermediate hurdles (38.66) and
ran a leg on the sixth place 4x400 relay.

Francois found himself in third place going into the anchor leg of the
4x800 relay behind both Clover Hill and Kecoughtan but put himself with the
leaders after an opening 54 second 400. Francois pulled to a two stride
advantage at the 600 meter mark over Clover Hill's Ed Altman and maintained
the slight lead to the finish. Francois split 1:51.9 on his anchor carry to
give the Bruins squad which also included Peter Gardella, Jimmy Judge and
Steve Hoogland the victory in 7:53.75 with Clover Hill second in 7:54.20.
Francois also set a new school record for Lake Braddock in the 800 run with
his time of 1:53.17 and anchored the sixth place 1,600 relay team which ran
3:22.48.

Robinson scored 25 points to tie for fifth place with senior distance
runner L.A. Snead and sophomore weightman Steve Huntzinger doing all the
scoring. Snead was fifth in the 1,600 run at 4:19.80 with Oakton's Matt
Maline the winner in 4:13.67. Snead and Maline were content to run with the
lead pack through the first 400 in 65 and hit the 800 mark at 2:08. Alex Tatu
of Thomas Dale (2nd; 4:14.40) and Tallwood's Alex Clayton (3rd; 4:17.89) then
took over at the 1,200 mark in 3:10 with Maline and Snead at 3:12. Maline
caught Tatu and Clayton with 200 meters to go and then held off Tatu down the
homestretch for the win.
In the 3,200 run Snead was sixth in 9:38.48 with junior Matt Keally of
Ocean Lakes leading the field through the first 800 in 2:18 and hitting the
halfway point at 4:36 and was never really tested the rest of the way as he
won in 9:17.93.
Huntzinger of Robinson socked away 18 points for the Rams with a first and
second place finish. Huntzinger came in as the number three seed in the
discus throw and grabbed second place at 155-2 with Sherando's Andrew Kenney
the winner at 157-5.
The surprise was the shot put where Huntzinger was seeded seventh at a
personal best outdoors of 51-10.25 but came away the winner at 55-2 which was
a p.r. by more than two feet either indoors or out. Huntzinger, the lightest
of all those in the finals but also the loudest and most demonstrative,
looked to have a mark in the 56-57 foot range also in the trials but was
called for a foul for touching the side of the toe board.
Huntzinger said, "I was surprised. I went into the meet looking to win the
discus and ended up taking the shot. After second place in the discus I was
pretty loose for the shot. I felt like I had nothing to lose and let it go."

Alan Webb

Also letting it go was Alan Webb of South Lakes, who established one of the
two meet records on the boys side with his win in the 800 run at 1:47.74
which is the number five performance ever among high schoolers and makes him
the number four performer ever behind California's Michael Granville
(1:46.45; 1996), Mississippi's George Kersh (1:46.58 and 1:47.29; 1987) and
California's Pete Richardson (1:47.31; 1981).

Webb, who had been ready to run in the 800 trials on Friday night only to
find out ten minutes before he was to line up that the trial heat had been
cancelled, seemed undeterred on Saturday by the change in his schedule. With
an appreciative crowd greeting him before the race and clapping throughout
the race, Webb responded by taking the lead after the first 150 meters and
roaring through splits of 26.0 for 200 meters, 54.4 at 400 meters and 1:20.2
at 800 meters enroute to chopping almost two seconds off the meet record of
1:49.61 set by West Springfield's Sharif Karie in 1997.

Webb's South Lakes teammate Richard Smith was also impressive in finishing
second in 1:52.17 and Webb and Smith came back in the slower seeded section
of the 4x400 relay with Kanda Karmo and Justin Smyser to win their section in
3:17.77, less than one second off the winning time from the fastest seeded
section. Smith split 48.7 on his third leg carry and Webb blistered his
anchor leg in 47.4 and although he did have the benefit of a running start,
that time was under the winning time of the 400 dash (47.74).

Webb said, "The plan in the 800 was to go out in 53 to 54 seconds and run
pretty evenly the whole way. It was a slight negative split, but I usually do
that. It was a little too windy on the homestretch side of the track to think
about the national record but I wanted to at least get under 1:48.0 so I'm
pleased about that.

"In the 4x400 relay I felt okay but didn't think I had gone that fast since
I tied up a little bit in the last 100 meters. It would have been nice to
have been in the fast section. Even though I was going hard it seems like you
can go just a little harder when there are other runners close to you."

Webb spent Sunday at the White House and got to meet President Bush and his
family during the weekly tee-ball youngsters game on the lawn and said, "it
was tons of fun." Webb sat next to Congressman Jim Ryun, whose mile record of
3:55.3 from 1965 he broke last week in Eugene,Oregon with his 3:53.43. Webb
said Ryun told him, "he was happy for me to break the record and told me to
keep on running well and don't let the press put too much pressure on what
I'm doing."

Webb's next competition will be the adidas Outdoor National Championships
in Raleigh, North Carolina June 15-16 where he will anchor the South Lakes
4x800 relay squad for sure and possibly also the distance medley relay team
before competing in the 1,500 meter run trials at the USATF Championships to
be held in Eugene, Oregon June 21-24.

Webb said, "I will be training pretty hard this week and next. I'm in the
last training cycle and want to get as much oomph out of it as I can. If I go
hard and get some good training in it may take my mile equivalent time down
another second or so."

The other meet record set was by Alonzo Moore of Phoebus who broke the long
standing mark in the triple jump set by Roger Bennett of Gar-Field in 1983 of
50-9.5. Moore, who had never gone over 50 feet in competition before, got the
Phoebus rooting section going on his first jump of the trials with a mark of
50-0 and then nailed the record on his following attempt with an effort of
51-9.25 to move to second in the nation among high schoolers this year.
Other winners were Centreville junior David Sullivan, who won the pole
vault for the second year in a row, this time with a personal best effort of
15-4 and with a very close miss at a new state record of 16-0.75 while
Nansemond River junior Esteban Guzman captured the 110 hurdles in 14.25 and
Oscar Smith junior Rashad Gardner the 300 hurdles (37.99).

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