Western Branch's 1000m Swedish SMR Race Video
VA Highlights so far on Friday at the 2013 New Balance Outdoor Nationals:
- The Western Branch boys won the state's first national title of this year's New Balance Outdoor Nationals with a 1:53.54 victory in the 1000 meter Swedish Sprint Medley Relay. Their relay team consisted of Daiquan Lawrence, Rashard McKennelly, Byron Robinson, and Corey Jones.
- The Southeastern District produced two All-American relays in the Swedish SMR with the Nansemond River girls claiming 3rd place in 2:15.55, while the Western Branch girls were able to place 5th overall from a slower section with a time of 2:17.29.
- Two Richmond area athletes could be All-Americans in the multi-events between Cosby's De'Nisha Smith in the girls' heptathlon and Glen Allen's Ben Greene in the boys' octathlon. Smith has completed her events and already earned All-Americans to finish 3rd overall in the heptathlon with 4507 points as her performances included a 14.58 100 meter hurdles, 4-7.75" high jump, 28'6.50" shot put, 24.39 200 meter dash, 17'5.75" long jump, 60'11" javelin throw, and 2:23.75 800 meter run. Meanwhile, Greene found his way into the top 6 contention for All-American honors after 6 events (5th, 3921 points) completed on Friday and two more to go on Saturday between the javelin in 1000 meter run.
- In the Championship 5K races to conclude day one of events, Carolyn Bethel of Hidden Valley ran one of the faster 5K times recorded in state history of high school girls with a 10th place effort of 17:06. George C. Marshall's Mackenzie Haight was the top finisher from Virginia for the boys with a personal best time of 15:11 for 18th place, while trailing behind him in time were fellow Northern Region runners Nick Tuck (15:15) of Lake Braddock and Louis Colson (15:23) of Thomas Edison.
- The state of Virginia went 1-2 in the emerging girls 4x200 meter relay with swift times from Western Branch as the champions in 1:41.65 and Armstrong as the runners-up in 1:42.46.
- The Granby boys rolled to a time of 1:29.25 to grab second place in the emerging elite boys 4x200 meter relay.
- Lee-Davis junior Shakiya Sheppard was a double winner last week at the MileStat.com Elite Track Gala and has continued her excellent jumping onto nationals as she claimed the emerging elite division title in the girls triple jump with a personal best mark of 38'3.50. Brunswick freshmen Bria Stith also earned a medal in the event with her 5th place mark of 37'5".
- Grassfield's Grant Holloway is back after missing the state meet entirely two weeks ago. Holloway won the freshmen long jump on Friday with a PR mark of 22'3.50". Holloway later competed in a great freshmen 400 meter dash race with two of the state's brightest future stars in himself and T.C. Williams freshmen Josephus Lyles. Both had huge PR races with Holloway as the winner at 48.58 followed by Lyles in second place at 48.73.
- The Western Branch track program has hauled in a hoard of medals on day one at nationals including in the emerging elite 800 SMR with the boys' relay taking first in a time of 1:34.05, while the Western Branch girls placed 5th in the same event with a time of 1:51.31.
- Following an unfortunate DQ at the state meet, Deep Run sophomore Matthew Novak bounced back in a strong way down in Greensboro to finish second in the emerging elite mile race with a time of 4:16.88.
- Private school state champion Libby Parrish of St. Catherine's took 8th place in the emerging elite girls mile in a time of 5:05.20.
- The Osbourn Park girls were the top qualifiers in the emerging elite 4x100 meter relay prelims with a 47.70 clocking. The Armstrong girls also made the emerging elite finals in the 4x100 with the 4th fastest clocking in the prelims at 49.07. Meanwhile, the Kettle Run boys were 10th in the boys preliminary heats at 43.93. In the finals, both Osbourn Park and Armstrong went faster with the Osbourn Park girls clocking a swift winning time of 47.17 to win the event by over a second, while the Armstrong girls were clocked at 48.70 for fifth place.
- South County junior Morgan Knight ran the third fastest time in the emerging elite division of the girls 100 meter hurdles at 14.63 to move onto the finals. Thomas Dale's Louis Rivers (14.69) and Brunswick's DaJuan Seward (14.71) just missed the emerging elite finals of the boys 110 hurdles. Knight maintained her place of third in the finals, but was able to lower her time to a big PR effort of 14.43 (previous PR before meet of 14.74).
- After running a strong leg on Osbourn Park's 4x100 meter relay earlier in the day, Kiana Hairston also moved onto the finals in the 100 dash for emerging elite girls with a 12.08 clocking. She would later place 6th in the finals with a time of 12.13. James Robinson's Ayo Raymond just missed the finals for boys as he posted the 10th fastest time in the prelims at 10.79.
- With 1:55 open 800 leg on anchor in junior Josh Willard for the Clover Hill boys SMR, their relay was able to garner a third place finish in the emerging elite division race with a time of 3:35.83.
- In the middle school mile race, Brandon McGorty, the younger brother of Chantilly star Sean McGorty, finished second place in a time of 4:43.25. He will be joining the Chantilly program in the fall as an incoming freshmen with his oldest brother Sean graduating (while middle brother Ryan will be entering his junior year at Chantilly). In the girls' middle school race, Veritas School 8th grader Morgan Lewis finished 5th with a time of 5:17.98.
- Nansemond River freshmen Brandee Johnson dipped under 57 seconds in the 400 meter dash for the first time at Greensboro with a third place performance of 56.46 in the freshmen 400 meter dash event on Friday.
- Central Region discus champion Denise O'Rourke of J.R. Tucker was able to secure a medal in the emerging elite division of the discus with a sixth place mark of 125 feet and 9 inches.
- Two girls from Virginia finished among the top 6 in the emerging elite 400 between Mount Vernon junior Jasmine Hill (5th, 57.07) and Liberty Christian Academy senior MIcah Brickhill (6th, 57.09), while L.C. Bird junior Nichelle Scott was just off the top 6 cut-off in 8th place at 57.20.
- Private school state champion Eric Ways of Woodberry Forest won his slow section in the emerging elite boys 400 and nearly pulled out the win with his 3rd place overall performance of 48.56.
- Competing in the finals of the freshmen 100 meter dash were Northside's Aleah Keaton, Granby's Kobe Smith, and Grassfield's Grant Holloway. Keaton, who ran on Northside's Group AA state champion sprint relays two weeks ago in Harrisonburg, finished 7th with a time of 12.51 in the finals. Smith (5th, 11.05) finished one place ahead of Holloway (6th, 11.06) in the boys' finals as Holloway earlier had won two freshmen only events in the long jump and 400 meter dash.
- In the freshmen two mile races, Group A 1600 state champion Julia Wood of Rappahannock ran a personal best time of 11:22 to place 10th in a very competitive field of 9th grade girls. Meanwhile, Cox's Jonathan Lomogda was able to earn a medal in the freshmen boys' 8 lap event as his final time of 9:43.22 inserted him into fourth place overall.
- Recent Group AAA state champion pole vaulter Lucas Wratcschko cleared a height of 14'8.25", which was good enough to secure him a medal and sixth place finish in the emerging elite boys' pole vault.
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