Eastern Region domination continues

RICHMOND, VA -- The Eastern Region once again dominated the state AAA outdoor track and field championships as they swept the team titles with Deep Creek repeating as the boys team winner and perennial power Bethel taking the girls crown this past weekend at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond.

The Deep Creek boys scored 23 of their 42 points in the three relay events and clinched the team title by winning the final event, the 4x400 meter relay, in 3 minutes, 18.31 seconds in the meet which had team scoring through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Northwest Region champion Colonial Forge and Central Region champ Thomas Dale tied for second with 37 points with Colonial Forge scoring 18 of their points in the high jump as Jerome Miller won with a leap of 7 feet and his brother Jason Miller finished second at 6-5 while Thomas Dale's big point producer was senior Alex Tatu with victories in both the 1,600 run (4:19.41) and 800 run (1:54.39).

Lake Braddock was the highest local team finisher in fourth place with 33 points to edge Northern Region team titleist Westfield's fifth place point total of 32 points. The Bruins were forced to compete without star hurdler Craig Gallimore, who was one of the favorites in both the 110 high and 300 meter intermediates but still bothered by a hamstring injury. Gallimore's availability would have conceivably put the Bruins over the top but Lake Braddock still put up a very solid effort keyed by victories in the long jump by Carl Hunter (23-1.25) and Steve Hoogland in the 3,200 run (9:33.43).

Westfield showed plenty of depth as they were able to score points in seven of the seventeen events led by junior Alvin Tondereau who finished third in the 300 hurdles (38.93), seventh in the 110 hurdles (16.25) and ran the leadoff leg for the Bulldogs' third place 4x400 relay (3:21.32) which also included Philippe Tondereau, Chris Courson and Chris Black.

Robinson finished in a three way tie for seventh as Robinson senior Steve Huntzinger made his final high school appearance in the state a grand one. On Friday, Huntzinger won his second consecutive discus throw title amidst swirling wind conditions with a farthest fling of 174-10 with First Colonial's Khaliff Mitchell (167-1) the only competitor within 24 feet of Huntzinger's winning throw.

On Saturday morning in a steady, light rain Huntzinger had his work cut out for him in the shot put since Mitchell had thrown 62-7 to win the Eastern Region title the week before and Huntzinger the Northern at 62-8. Mitchell got the competition off to a brisk start with an opener of 60-3 and Huntzinger came right back on his first throw of 61-0. Huntzinger improved his best to 64-0.5 and was able to hold off the imposing Mitchell, who managed to increase his best toss to 61-10.5 but could not overtake Huntzinger as the Robinson senior won his third straight outdoor shot put title.

The only other local winner was Reynold Smith, Jr. of Forest Park, who captured the triple jump at 47-8.5 to edge runnerup Alton Hewlett of Meadowbrook (47-6.5) and Smith also finished third in the long jump (22-9) and sixth in the 300 hurdles (41.14) to account for 19 of the Bruins' 27 seventh place points.

The highest place winners in the area in other events were Westfield's John Schenck in the 100 dash (5th; 11.14); Travis Parker of Robinson in the 400 dash (6th; 49.55); Woodbridge's Daniel Simpkins in the 800 run (6th; 1:56.06); Hayfield sophomore Brian Fussell in the 1,600 run (4th; 4:23.70); Mount Vernon's Ernest Asante, who was second in the 300 hurdles (38.59) and third in the 110 hurdles (15.52); Gar-Field's 4x100 relay of Terry Jackson, Darren Garrigan, Derek Liggins and Eric Coleman (5th; 43.24); Gar-Field's Jarmel Latney in the high jump (4th; 6-3); Lake Braddock pole vaulter David Hodulich (4th; 14-0) and West Springfield's 4x800 relay (2nd; 7:44.30).

The boys 4x800 meter relay was the best event, performance wise, from top to bottom and arguably the most exciting. The 4x8 was being run for the first time ever at the state outdoor meet as the last event on the Friday schedule which had previously contained only field events and trial heats in the running events. The wind velocity had died down considerably with temperatures very comfortable in the upper 60's. The nine teams in the top seeded section were all geared to running fast times since their relay members now had overnight to rest up for their next event, instead of one to two hours to recuperate when the 4x8's had previously been run as the first race on Saturday in past years.

The race featured a matchup of state indoor runnerup Midlothian which had finished third at the prestigious Penn Relays in 7:47.98 a month ago against state and national indoor champ West Springfield, which had run 7:50 both indoors and outdoors this year. Midlothian held a slight lead over West Springfield through their first three legs of Ryan Witt, Robert Gielow and Taylor Matthews as they matched up against the Spartans first three of Tim Kwak, Joe McMahon and John Cook.

Going into the anchor leg, Midlo's Andrew Baker held a one stride lead over West Springfield's Jeff Day with the time after three legs at 5:49 and both teams with a shot at Menchville's meet record of 7:46.83 set in 1995. Baker was able to stay a stride ahead of Day until the last 100 meters and Baker then put his head down slightly and gradually pulled away to win in what was to be the only meet record on either the boys or girls side of the weekend at 7:42.93 with West Springfield also under the old meet standard and with a new school record of 7:44.30.

There were also plenty of fast times behind the top two as Lake Braddock also set a school record at 7:50.96 to edge Deep Creek (7:51.00) for third place with Westfield was fifth in a school record time of 7:52.92, Herndon sixth at 7:53.69, Jefferson eighth at 7:55.21 for one team point and Oakton running a very creditable 7:55.99 for what was amazingly, a non-scoring ninth place.

The girls side team scoring has the top two spots conceded as Peninsula District rivals Bethel and Menchville squared off at the state level once again with Bethel riding freshman Francena McCorory's wins in the 100 and 200 dash and anchoring a come from behind victory in the 4x100 relay to score 63 points and offset Yvette Lewis of Menchville's 38.5 points from the long, triple and high jumps; 100 hurdles, 100 dash and 200 dash as the Monarchs totaled 57.5 points.

The weather from Saturday's action, which started as a steady rain, then became partly cloudy with very strong, gusty winds for about three hours followed by a hailstorm and then a half hour respite of non-precipitous weather followed by strong rain, caused the postponement of the girls vault until 5:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon with a majority of the 28 girls entered still remaining in contention.

Thus, the third place trophy is still in doubt, but with 16 of the 17 events completed and with Bethel and Menchville not able to change positions because they have no pole vault qualifiers; Salem is currently in third with 41 points and Gar-Field is fourth at 36 points with neither of those schools having any vaulters. Lake Braddock is fifth with with 35 points and have Cristina Zuniga and Abbey McGrath of the Bruins still in contention while Eastern region teams claim the next seven of eight spots and ten of the top thirteen team places overall.

Individually, the Eastern Region dominated as well, as the team scoring would indicate as the Northern Region claimed one title and the Northwest three. From the Northern, the Robinson 4x800 meter relay team of Meredith Brooks, Vicki Moore, Joanna Rodgers and Sam Ference (2:15 anchor leg) triumphed by 40 meters in a school record time of 9:12.13 with Kellam second (9:18.98) and Jefferson third (9:23.17).

The Northwest victories were accomplished by Gar-Field as seniors Tiffany Evans and Afua Amponsah accounted for all of the Indians' 36 points. Evans easily took the shot put at 45-4 with Hayfield senior Ashley Crocker second (40-8) and in the discus Evans came from behind to win on her final throw of 139-3 with Lake Braddock senior Jessica Sawers the runnerup at a personal best distance of 134-7. Amponsah was the winner of the 100 hurdles in 14.82 with all of the dash times slowed by the steady headwind on the homestretch and Amponsah also finished third in the 300 hurdles (45.35).

The top area girls performers in field events included Lake Braddock's Ashley Haislip second place finish in the high jump at 5-4 with Amy Seward also at 5-4 but the winner based on fewer misses at the previous height; Shea Spann of Mount Vernon in the triple jump (4th; 37-2.5) and Oakton's Kathleen Woody in the long jump (17-10.75).

Top performers in the running events included Potomac freshman Candace Robinson in the 100 dash (12.94) and 200 dash (25.96); Woodbridge freshman Brittney Hazel sixht in the 400 dash at 60.57 in the very windy finals after running 57.16 in the relatively placid Friday trials; senior Jemissa Hess of C.D. Hylton, who finished third in both the 800 (2:14.74) and 1,600 (5:04.80) runs; Forest Park junior Beth Fahey in the 3,200 run (3rd; 11:14.13); Lake Braddock's sixth place 4x100 meter relay team of Jessica Preko, Meredith Brill, Cristina Zuniga and Jenny Eakin (49.61) and Lake Braddock's 4x400 relay squad of Zuniga, Brill, Abbey McGrath and Christine Francois (5th; 4:01.37).