GIRLS:
Westfield and Centreville have split the last two district titles with Westfield winning over Centreville by 15 points last year and the Wildcats winning over the Bulldogs two years ago by three points, with a come from behind win in the 4x400 meter relay sealing their victory.
This year's edition also looks too close to call and may very well come down to the 4x4 once again as Centreville and Westfield look ready to dominate the majority of the action.
Centreville has the odds on favorite for the top individual point producer at the meet with Brittni Finch. The Wildcat junior is the defending champion and top seed for the meet in the long jump, triple jump and 55 dash and Finch should also see duty on the 4x200 and 4x400 relays as well.
The Wildcats also return defending champs in the 300 dash in junior Jordan Grant and the 500 dash with senior Cate Tisinger and have the top seeds in the high jump with sophomore Allie Darling and the shot put in junior Stephanie White as both Darling and White try to move up one notch from their second place district indoor showings of last year.
Westfield should match up with Centreville with almost equal points as the Wildcats in both the field events and running events. Westfield's biggest point showing in the field events should be in the pole vault where they are led by the top performer in the region thus far this season with senior Betsy Alter (11 feet).
The Bulldogs display quite a lot of balance on the track and return defending champions in junior Kerry Hartman in the 1,600 run and 1,000 run and with junior Haley Boone in the 55 hurdles, who is seeded second in that event behind Centreville senior Hana Tran.
Westfield also has plenty of sprint depth with sophomores Martina Green and Bianca Garrett along with junior Eman Bani and should be provided with long sprint and middle distance points with juniors Tasia Potasinski and Brittany Sevachko, as well as being very strong in all three relay events.
The battle for third place is split fairly equally among Oakton, Chantilly and Robinson. Oakton's highest seeded competitors in the field events are junior Julia Croote in the horizontal jumps and senior Rebecca Carbo in the shot put and in the running events with senior Meredith Tighe in the 1,600 and 1,000 runs.
Chantilly's big scorer should be budding distance ace Lia DiValentin. The Chargers sophomore comes into the meet ranked among the top three times in the state in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs after three successive weeks of impressive showings and is a strong favorite in both of those events.
Robinson may not win an individual event but is known for rallying around the relay events and do have steady sophomore Stephanie Bray looking to maybe challenge DiValentin in the 3,200 run as she works on improving what is already a state automatic qualifying time for this season.
Herndon is much improved over last year and the Hornets are led by junior Lauren Pinkston in the horizontals, senior sprinter Paige Bryan and sophomore distance runner Hiruni Wijayarante, while the top scoring hope for Fairfax lies with senior Anne-Marie Duncan in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.
BOYS:
Defending team champion Centreville looks to be installed as a slight favorite, although rival Westfield has appreciably closed the gap.
Centreville returns two defending champions with seniors Brandon Williams in the 55 dash and Brandon Davis in the long jump while Williams and Davis along with senior Paschal Mbawike look capable of making the 55 dash the top point producing event for the Wildcats.
Centreville also has the prohibitive favorite in the high jump in senior Phil Allison, important points in the triple jump and 55 hurdles with senior Daryl Hamilton and have a potential difference maker in their battle versus Westfield with senior Mark Hogan in the 1,000 run and key duty in the 4x800 and 4x400 relays.
Westfield could match or possibly better Centreville by a few points in the field events as both look to get over 40 points and approach 50 points in those five disciplines.
Westfield has senior Andrew Pittman back as the defending champ and top seed this season in the shot put, a solid number two seed in the high jump with senior Tim Davis and also have senior Kevin Dillard as the top seed in both the long jump (22-7.5) and triple jump (45-8.5).
Dillard is also the defending champ in the 300 dash and should score well in the 500 dash along with competing in either the 4x200 or 4x400 relay.
The 300 and 500 dashes will be key events for the Bulldogs as those two events could produce more than half of their running event points.
Sophomore Matt Anderson will be in the lineup with Dillard in both of those events as Anderson comes in as the top seed in the 500 dash with a state auto qualifier of 1:06.42 and also has the leading entry time in the 300 dash at a state auto of 35.77.
Oakton looks to move up a couple of spots from last year's fifth place team showing. The Cougars have the pole vault's top entry with senior John Capalbo and additional field event points in the jumps with senior Nick Bottini.
On the track, Oakton looks strongest in the distance events and capable of scoring almost half of their team total from the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.
The Cougars long distance contingent, state AAA runnersup in cross country this past fall, is led by junior Joe Lorusso followed by seniors Alex Nissen and Matt Saunders.
Herndon's Ermin Mujezinovic will have a tough road ahead in the 1,600 and 1,000 runs but the Hornets senior does come into the meet as the defending champion in both events and when he is on, is tough to beat.
Herndon's strongest event looks to be the 55 hurdles with senior Jeremiah Headen and junior Andrew Obcemea and the Hornets also have senior Matt Giorgis as just about the lone obstacle to a sweep of the top six medals by Oakton in the 3,200 run.
Robinson, last year's district runnerup, was hit about as hard by graduation as can be done in one year. The Rams top hope in the field events is with junior Asare Kwarteng in the horizontal jumps and on the track with senior Dan McHale, who has shown as much improvement in the last month as any distance runner in the state as exhibited by his state auto qualifying efforts in both the 1,600 and 1,000 runs last week.
Chantilly's top scoring event could turn out to be the pole vault with sophomore brothers Wesley Sun and Curtis Sun and the Chargers should pick up some points in the shorter races on the track from among seniors Jarel Highsmith, Oswald Cumberbatch and Omar Cumberbatch and junior Ray Urrutia while Fairfax looks to score in the high jump with freshman Brian Hallahan.
2007 Virginia High School Girls Indoor Rankings
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