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NEWPORT NEWS, VA -- The Southeastern District Meet will be hosted on Wednesday in conjunction with the Beach District Meet at Christopher Newport University's Freeman Center. The meet should run fairly late with the 2:00 PM start time and two district championships being run off at the same venue, but there is no better activity for a Wednesday evening in Newport News than some great high school indoor track and field action.
Western Branch and Deep Creek appear to both have the top two teams in the Southeastern District for both the boys and girls. The Western Branch boys have two talented sophomores in Kevin Newsome and Kelvin Griffin, while the Deep Creek boys with new coaches have fielded another contending squad. The Deep Creek girls return several key members from last June's outdoor state team co-champions, but will give a strong test from the start at the district level from a balanced Western Branch squad.
Sophomores Griffin & Newsome lead Western Branch along with great relays
The Western Branch boys should be a competitive team on the state level for several years to come and especially with the pair of Newsome and Griffin leading the way. Griffin is the top seed in the triple jump on Wednesday and has the state's second best mark at 47'8.50". Griffin also should place high and possibly win the long jump with his 22'6.50" best.
Lakeland senior Predist Walker leads the long jump as the top seed by a slim half inch best over Griffin this season at 22'7" and hopes to win two individual district titles in his final indoor district championship as the district's best hurdler coming in at 7.52. Walker should challenge for the state championship in the 55 meter hurdles in March as only Matoaca's Aramis Massenburg has ran faster in the state this winter at 7.48.
Seeded right behind Walker in the 55 meter hurdles is Western Branch sophomore Kevin Newsome. Newsome has a 7.66 best this season and is also one of the top legs on Western Branch's strong relays. The 4x400 meter relay is their strongest event as they currently have the fourth fastest flat track time in the country at 3:23.31 from the St. Christopher's Invitational. They have yet to be defeated in the event this season with a loaded squad with wins at the CNU Showcase and St. Christopher's Invite.
Deep Creek's past formula to success is no different today....relays!
Western Branch will find one of the first tests from their biggest threat to a district team championship in the meet in the 4x200 meter relay as Deep Creek has one of the fastest times in the state from Virginia Tech with a 1:31.50 clocking. Deep Creek has a history of producing great 4x200 meter relays and track teams as a whole and this year is no exception. Relays are always the backbone of any Deep Creek squad and their 4x400 meter relay is solid as well with a 3:23.53 best.
Several of those relay members for Deep Creek are featured as some of the top seeds in individual sprint events on Wednesday. Keonta Coleman will be running on both relays in hoping to give Deep Creek first place finishes in each race as well as pick up another ten points with a victory in the 500 meter dash. Coleman has the top time coming at 1:06.48 and is the defending district champion in the event. Nansemond's Jared Bolsor should challenge after running a faster time than Coleman at Virginia Tech with a 1:06.79 clocking, but Coleman ran his time of 1:06.91 at Tech while having to leap over a pile of entangled runners.
The 300 meter dash could be the make or break event for Deep Creek and Western Branch. Curtis Campbell has the fastest time in the district for 500 meters at 1:06.38, but has opted to skip the event to go up against a slew of Western Branch sprinters and Indian River's Thomas Speller. Speller is one of the state's top returning sprinters and returns as the Southeastern District champ for 300 meters. Speller has a 35.35 best this year, but won in the 2006 at the district championships in a time of 35.03. Deep Creek's Campbell (35.53) and the Western Branch pair of Kelvin Griffin (3rd, 35.54) and Daniel Nix (4th, 35.97) have all ran under 36 seconds this seaso to make for one of the deeper events in the meet.
Another 60+ ft throw from Spellman possible?
There will be a decent amount of the attention from spectators focused away from the track and into the infield area when Oscar Smith junior Frede Spellman makes his way to the thowing circle for the shot put. Spellman recently became one of only a handful of Virginians ever to throw over 60 feet in the shot put after winning the St. Christopher's Invitational two weekends ago with a US top five performance of 61'2". Only in the indoor season of his junior year, it will be interesting to see if Spellman can approach Steve Huntzinger of James Robinson's 64'1.50" best from 2003.
Hickory should rack up points with distance squad & Nichols
Led by the Andrew's in Andrew Zohorsky and Andrew Earehart, the district and regional cross country champion Hickory squad should pick up considerable points in the distance events. With Zohorsky and Earehart, Hickory has the top two seeds in the 1600 and 3200 meter races. With the 4x800 meter relay being contested this past Saturday outdoors, it frees up Hickory's top two distance runners to pull off the distance double on Wednesday. Earehart is the top seed in both races, but not by much with teammate Zohorsky only a tick behind him in each event. Earehart has ran 4:32.93 and 9:45.07 this season for 1600 and 3200 meters respectively, while Zohorsky is at 4:33.70 and 9:46.51.
Hickory's Johnny Hume and Kody Oakes will also be in the mix for the 1000 meter run with no clear favorite in the event.
Hickory will need more than just points out of their distance runners in order to keep up to speed with the likes of Western Branch and Hickory. With the likes of Kevin Nichols on their roster, Hickory has the potential to knock off one of those teams if they have a subpar day. Nichols can pick up considerable points in several individual events. He is the defending district champion in the high jump and has a 6'6" best this season, but Lakeland's Chris Copeland will make another win tough as he has also cleared 6'6". However, Nichols is still looking to match his junior year best height of 6'8" this season. Seeded fifth in the long jump at 22'0" and third in the 55 meter dash at 6.54, additional points can also be gained from the Hickory senior.
Hickory also can pick make up points in the pole vault with three of the top four seeds.
Indian River's Speller was part of a great tandem last year with All-American sprinter Toriano Moody, but with Moody now graduated it is Speller's turn to step up as the district champ for 55 meters with a the top time entering the meet at 6.49. He should be hard pressed in the event though by Oscar Smith's Andrew Banks and others.
The Southeastern District girls should be just as fiercely contested for the team title as well as many individual events. Great Bridge is the defending champions, but strength in the distance events and Janet Brown is only half in existence this season for the defending champs with the graduation of multi-event star Brown. Kristy Tobin, defending indoor and outdoor state champion for 1600 meters, should be able to cruise to victories in the 1600 and 1000 meter races with a 5:06 and 3:00 season best. She should not be tested until the state meet, but may decide to gun for fast times on CNU's 200 meter indoor track at the district and regional meet to make sure of good seeding at the state championships.
It really should be a two way battle for the team title between Deep Creek and Western Branch. Deep Creek has to be given the slight advantage with the athletes they return from last spring's state champion squad. The team has two talented young sprinters in junior Keshia Rudolph and sophomore Myesha Barr.
BIG favorites Rudolph & Barr in sprints to lead Deep Creek girls
Rudolph will be the heavy favorite in the 500 meter dash as she is the current state leader in the event after clocking a 1:16.65 effort on the banked track at Virginia Tech. Heavy favorite could be an understatement as she is nearly a full five seconds faster than the next ranked competitor in the event.
Barr is also a top seed who will be strongly favored to win as her season best time of 40.91 gives her a decent amount of breathing room over the Western Branch pair of Jessie Gaines (42.74) and Brittney Smalls (42.75).
Those are the only individual running events that Rudolph and Barr will be competing in on Wednesday evening as they are putting the rest of their stock in their relays, which is a good investment to win a district championship. The Deep Creek girls should run away with the 4x400 meter win to close out the meet, which could put them over the top of Western Branch as they have 15 seconds to spare on Western Branch (4:15.03) heading into Wednesday with a 4:00.43 season best.
Deep Creek will have its hands full in the 4x200 meter relay though with Western Branch as the Lady Bruins have one of the faster flat track times in the state in the event with a 1:46.68 clocking from St. Christopher's. Deep Creek is seeded second in the event at 1:48.88 and hope with strong legs from Rudolph and Barr that they can take down Western Branch in the event and set the tone for the meet.
Western Branch girls can pick up points in clusters in 55, 3200, and others
Western Branch will be looking for the opposite to happen in the 4x200 meter relay and key off of a win to do well in other events. The 55 meter dash is an event that Western Branch could really put some distance on Deep Creek as they feature the top three entries in the event with Brittney Smalls (7.26), Jessie Gaines (7.32), and AMber Mitchell (7.40). Deep Creek's Barr (7.46) will hope to break them up, but it will be a tough task to accomplish.
Western also has two of the top three hurdlers in the meet with Gaines at a 8.45 season best and Ermesha Fair at 8.81 best. Gaines shares the top time in the district with Deep Creek sophomore Chantal Luedeke, so this event could come down to a photo finish between the two Southeastern District hurdlers.
Fair will be counted on for big points in the long jump and triple jump as will several of her teammates. Fair has the best mark this season in the district in the triple jump at 35'10.50" and ranks only behind Deep Creek's Krystle Matthews (16'4") in the long jump at 16'00.75".
Teammate Jessie Gaines could be Western Branch's biggest point contributer by the end of the night as she is entered in three running events and two field events. In the jumps, Gaines will be expected to finish in the top three in both the long jump (15'11") and triple jump (35'1.50" as the third and second seeds respectively. With three running events on her plate, she will not be able to run on Western Branch's 4x200 meter relay leaving them vulnerable to defeat to Deep Creek in the event without one of their top legs. Then again, the only win that matters is at the end for the team who is allowed to raise the district team championship trophy.
The backbreaker though for Western Branch's chances at knocking off the 2006 outdoor state champs might come in the shot put as Deep Creek has the four best throwers in the district with Tiphani Harris (35'9.50"), Jasmine Walton (34'5.25"), Brittany Brunson (33'5"), and Myrisha Mullen (32'8"). The point damage down in the throwing event could be too much to overcome.
Western Branch has great balance on their squad with a distance squad to complement their sprinters and jumpers. In the 3200 meter run, Western Branch has four of the top six seeds including top seed Callen Powers at 11:27.60 to possibly equalize plenty of points to come out of the throws for Deep Creek.