Dominion District Championships Meet Summary

Photo by Tom Veazey

Highlights below from the 2013 Dominion District Indoor Track & Field Championships held on Wednesday, February 6th at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond.

• Complete Results
• National Elites (5)
• Photo Gallery by Tom Veazey - To be posted soon!

Girls Highlights:

• Alexandria Moseley led the Cosby girls to another district track team title with 180 team points as Moseley was the individual district champion in four events between the long jump (17'10"), triple jump (17'10"), 55 meter dash (7.44), and 500 meter dash (1:20.80). Moseley has really taken over the mantle from Megan Moye as the top individual performer for the defending Group AAA state champion Cosby girls this winter and looks to continue that dominant performance into the regional meet next weekend.
• The Cosby girls dominated the 500 with the top four finishes between Moseley, Molly Novak (2nd, 1:22.30), Jayden Metzger (3rd, 1:24.07), and Gina D'Orazio (5th, 1:24.45). Novak and D'Orazio later went 1-2 in the 300 meter dash as well to build an even larger team lead for the Lady Titans.
• The Clover Hill girls were second in the overall team standings and able to crest over the 100 point total overall. A sweep of the top three places in the high jump led by multiple state qualifier Julia Logan (5'0"), while sophomore Maddie McElfresh's first district title in winning the 3200 meter run in a personal best time of 12:04.67 gave the Cavaliers (105 pts) a late surge over Manchester (98 pts) for the runner-up team trophy.
• Winners last weekend at Virginia Tech in the 1000 and 3200 meter races respectively, Midlothian teammates Tessa Riley and Kara Dickerson went 1-2 in the 1600 meter run with Riley as the winner at 5:20 and Dickerson as the runner-up at 5:24. Both are headed to ACC schools next year with Riley signing with Wake Forest and Dickerson becoming a Wahoo for the University of Virginia.
• After her last 1000 meter race at the Ashe Center ended a lap early along with the rest of the field due to officials' error at the East Coast Invitational, Cosby's Elena Wirz was able to complete the 6 7/8 laps race at the Ashe Center for a 3:12.19 win and followed in closely by teammate Cary Reynolds for second place at 3:14.68.
• There are no prelims at the Dominion District meet, but the fast section of girls 55 meter hurdles got essentially a prelim run when they had to re-run their first race after a timing system malfunction. In the second go around, Midlothian sophomore Alice Babashak (8.74) beat out another sophomore in Manchester's Jonniece Scott (8.90) after the door was open for both to go for a district title when favorite and defending champion De'Nisha Smith of Cosby was held out off the meet due to a minor injury. 
• James River senior Bianca Davis was able to spoil the Manchester throwers' plans of sweeping the shot put competition as her best mark of 33'8.25" inserted her ahead of Manchester's crew of Sidra Morris (2nd, 32'9"), Tiara Habeebullah (3rd, 32'5.50"), and Kiana Flournoy (4th, 40'11") .

Boys Highlights:

• The Manchester boys built such a huge lead in the field events that no team including a strong Midlothian squad on the track could make up the difference. Manchester's Christian Rogers and Micah Todd both launched themselves to big marks in the Ashe Center in the horizontal jumps with UVA recruit Rogers winning the triple jump with a leap just under his meet record mark from a year ago at 46'8.50", while Todd achieved a new personal best in the long jump at 22'4.25" with teammate Rogers in second place (20'9").
• The Lancers of Manchester also ruled the throws with three of the top four marks in the boys' shot put as senior Ezra Hill (48'7") claimed the district championship in a close battle with Clover Hill's Jordan Smith (48'5.75").
• The only field event which the Manchester boys didn't win, they scored 23 points in with 5 of the top 7 finishers in the high jump as Midlothian's Will Kendall edged out Manchester's Michael Averett on earlier misses as the tiebreaker for the district title at 6'0".
• Manchester kept the momentum going into the first several running events on the track with a 4x800 meter relay victory, while four of the top five in the boys 55 meter hurdles were Manchester's own with Averett as the district champ at 7.78 and long jump champ Todd as the runner-up at 7.97.
• Midlothian began their rally on Manchester with the 55 meter dash as while L.C. Bird's Jordan Branch won in a 6.64 clocking, Midlo sprinters were well represented with Daniel Jackson (2nd, 6.68), John Gerard (3rd, 6.74), and Taylor Stout (5th, 6.88) as three of the next four fastest. 
• Cosby swept the 4x200 meter relays with their boys' squad (1:40.44) following up their girls' victory in 1:54.26, which ran away with it by a 7 second margin. Midlothian boys were right on Cosby's heels in second at a 1:40.77 clocking.
• With all the young talent found on his team including the Hahn brothers, Midlothian senior Andrew Gorsuch reminded the rest of the district that he is still a very capable distance runner as well by winning two district titles in his first district indoor meet with times of 4:36.62 and 2:41.15 respectively in the 1600 and 1000 meter races. The 1000 meter race was a great battle till the end between Gorsuch and Cosby's Thomas Negron (2:41.82). Teammate Colin Hahn, a two-time district champ last spring as a freshmen, was second in the 1600 meter run at a time of 4:38 before later winning the 3200 meter district title in a time of 10:13.35 and fellow sophomore team member Evan Benjamin three seconds back at 10:16.05.
• A lot tougher to run a fast time for 500 meters on a spikeless 145 meter flat track found at the Ashe Center compared to the 200 meter banked track which Cosby junior Michael Kokal rolled out last weekend in a PR run of 1:05.84 to win at the Virginia Tech Invitational. It was a five second slower difference for Kokal in winning the Dominion District 500 title at the Ashe Center as he got a challenge from Huguenot's Crendell Fuller (2nd, 1:10.70) in his 1:10.30 victory.
• The difference was nearly three seconds slower for Midlothian's John Gerard after dipping well under 36 seconds at Virginia Tech in the 300 meter dash then winning his district meet on Wednesday with a time of 38.02 as Huguenot's Fuller once again had to settle for the district runner-up role in a time of 38.63.