A lot of action occurred in the first day of the 2009 VHSL Group AAA State Championships including a new meet record being eclipsed in the pole vault competition as the Central Region's two finest in Lizzie Powell of Patrick Henry and Emma Dejarnette of Atlee clearing higher than the previous mark of 12'0". Both vaulters cleared 12'1" with Powell able to the surpass the next height at 12'3" to win her first state title as a junior.
Dejarnette had to settle for state runner-up despite a great performance as did James Taylor of Nansemond River as his hopes of a quadrouple of state titles ended early despite reaching out to a personal best mark of 25 feet even in the long jump. Taylor was runner-up to none other than Ocean Lakes junior Justin Hunter, who might make history himself if he can win the triple jump on Saturday as he outleaped Taylor with a 25'3.75" leap of his own and also won his second state title in the high jump with a 6'10" clearance. The more noteworth note of each Taylor and Hunter's best jumps is that neither were wind-aided.
The Landstown duo of Marlena Wesh and Taylor Wheaton did not let down in the trial races on Friday as both aim to garner a combined five individual titles on Saturday if a successful sweep of the sprints for Wesh and hurdles for Wheaton. Wesh breezed through the preliminary rounds of the 100 (11.86), 400 (55.12), and 200 (24.08) as the clear cut fastest qualifier in all three events. Wheaton was equally impressive on day one with her clockings of 14.20 in the 100 meter hurdles and 43.28 in the 300 meter hurdles.
It is appears the longest races for both is where each will find the most competition with two qualifiers also under 56 seconds as well as two talented freshmen in Genamarie McCant and Shakeela Saunders in the 400 finals against Wesh, while Yvonne Amegashe of Potomac Senior was impressive in her qualifying race of the 300 meter hurdles at 43.28.
Grassfield had a duo of their own taking flight in the girls' long jump with a 1-3 finish from Karimah Shepherd (1st, 19-7.50w) and Jazmen Townsend (3rd, 19-2w).
The Lake Braddock girls reclaimed themselves as the top 4x800 in the state after a close second place indoors to Ocean Lakes with their 9:19.11 victory on Friday afternoon. The Ocean Lakes girls were a scratch from the event and Deep Run ended up being the toughest challenger in the field leading for most of the first two legs and holding on for second in 9:25. The top two finishes for both schools positions them well to make a push for top 5 team finishes on Saturday
The Albemarle boys may have won a second straight state title, but the learned news of their anchor leg Anthony Kostelac prior to the meet being out of the season with a stress fracture was certainly disheartening for a group aiming to take down the state meet record and possibly threaten for another team championship. Three of the four legs from the 7:30 national record 4x800 carried on though as Zachary Vrhovac took over the anchor duties from Kostelac and patiently waited until the final 150 meters to turn on the jets for a 7:55.48 win.
Although contested in a farway destination on the facility grounds of Todd Stadium, the top finishers in the discus put on a show with some outstanding marks led by champion Quintin Fortes of South Lakes at 175 feet then rounding out the top three were Carl Butler of Riverbend (2nd, 172'3") and Austin Hersh of James River (3rd, 167'4").
Jaleesa Williams of First Colonial followed up her indoor state title in the shot put with an outdoor crown to compliment it as she was able to muster a better mark (41'6.50") of a couple inches than returning state outdoor champion Kayla Lewis of William Fleming (2nd, 41'1").
Two of the top three finishers in the girls' long jump has given Grassfield an early lead with 16 points, while Hunter's two wins gave 20 points to a total of 25 produced on Friday by Ocean Lakes to lead the first day of competition. The meet resumes tomorrow at Todd Stadium with the unseeded section of the girls 3200 starting at 9:00 AM.
VHSL Group AAA State Championships - Day 1 Results
126 MileSplit US National Elites
Photos, videos, and interviews to be posted over the weekend.
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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