A breakthrough day for Jamestown senior Andrew Mearns in the high school 3000 meter run at the Colonial Relays for Friday's events. Competing in front of the home crowd in Williamsburg, Mearns dueled it out with AAA indoor 1000 meter state champion Chris Tyson in the final lap of the 3K and had the strongest finish of the two with a 61 second last 400 meters for a 8:39.42 victory. His time converts to a 9:20 two mile and 9:17 3200 meter time, which would be a great improvement from his junior year best of 9:33. Tyson took second in 8:45.
Meanwhile, Natalie Baird of Park View also had an outstanding showing at the Colonial Relays on day one in winning both of the throwing events including a 42'9" personal best mark in the shot put and was consistent in the early morning and very cold competition of the discus throw with 5 of her 6 throws over 140 feet including a 145'1" best, which set a new meet record.
Atlee sophomore Emma Dejarnette set a Colonial Relays meet record in the pole vault as she cleared a personal best height of 11'2". She was nearly out of the competition at two earlier heights on her third attempt, but came through and end up moving on from her shaky start to win over teammate Rachael Hawks, who cleared 10'6".
Both Heritage's Sheanna Mitchell and Great Bridge's Kaleigh Morrison cleared 5'4" but earlier misses by Great Bridge freshmen Morrison gave Heritage senior Mitchell the win. Morrison is the younger sister of Virginia state pole vault record holder Mike Morrison.
Saint Basil Academy's (PA) Kathleen Davies was able to shake off Red Bank Catholic's (NJ) Erin Lunny for a 10:21.13 win and Washington-Lee senior Sarah Weber was able to slip past Lunny into second place with a solid runner-up time of 10:30.48.
It took a jump of 22'6" for J.R. Tucker's Marcus Robinson to claim the long jump title as the Mountain View pair of Cedric Hudson (2nd, 22'0.25") and Olu Olamigoke (3rd, 21'8.50" rounded out the top three behind the defending indoor AAA state champion.
The Hickory boys were able to break up a complete domination by the state of Pennsylvania in the 4x800 meter relay as they finished third with a state leading time of 8:08.07 with La Salle College (PA) just missing a sub eight minute performance with a 8:01.24 win. Pennsylvania had five teams at 8:12 or faster to make up the top six with Hickory.
Additional Colonial Relays Coverage:
Day 1 High School Results - Day 2 cancelled due to snowstorm.
Colonial Relays Video Interviews: Natalie Baird - Andrew Mearns
Colonial Relays Race Videos: Boys 3K - More to come!
Colonial Relays Photo Gallery - More photos to be added!