Another fellow Hampton Roads area athlete was an event winner at the Armory as Heritage senior Octavia James won the 55 meter hurdles in a time of 8.22. James appears to be in prime shape as the season has begun as she has dropped her personal best time by considerable amounts in her first two competitions. She came into this indoor season with a personal best time of 8.77, but posted a 8.54 last weekend at VMI and came back this weekend at the Bishop Loughlin Games to drop her time by thirty-one hundredths of a second. She certainly has to be favored as one of the strongest contenders to win this year\'s AAA state crown in the event as last year\'s race was won in a time of 8.29. James is already ahead of that time with little less than 3 months away from the state meet.
McCorory also had two fellow Lady Bruins competing with her in New York. Joy Henry finished third in the 300 meter dash behind McCorory in a time of 40.43. In the 600 meter dash, an event not contested in Virginia, Bethel senior Shakirra Pinnock posted a time of 1:40.08. Pinnock was last year\'s Group AAA state runner-up at 500 meters and with her personal best of 1:14.67, is the top returnee for this year\'s event in the state.
The Potomac Senior High School duo of Kharya Brown and Fallon Hutcherson were also seen in action at the Bishop Loughlin Games. Brown went 40.50 in the 300 meter dash to place fourth, while running a time of 7.29 in the 55 meter dash to finish fifth overall. Hutcherson competed in the same events as Brown as she finished behind her teammate in the 300 meter dash (41.80), but was ahead of her in the 55 meter dash as she took runner-up honors in the event with a time of 7.23. Both senior sprinters will be headed to NC State A&T next year as college teammates.