In the closest team battle of district week in the state of Virginia, the Prince George girls squeaked out a half point victory over defending champs Matoaca at the Central District Meet. Meanwhile, the Thomas Dale boys were challenged by others, but were able to walk away with their third straight district indoor team championship on Thursday at the Arthur Ashe Center.
Errors with the results prolonged the drama in trying to determine the girls' team champion at the Central District Indoor Track and Field Championships, but the correct scoring finally came out with Prince George on top with 130.5 points and 2006 Central District champions Matoaca in a heartbreaking second place at 130 points. If one was looking at first place finishes and district individual champions alone, it would appear that Matoaca would be a runaway winner.
Matoaca had some talented individuals leading them up front in Thursday's events at the Ashe Center. Matoaca senior Mia Aghaji in particular had a banner day. After clearing 5'8" in the high jump last summer during AAU track, Aghaji had struggled a bit in the event this season in her specialty event. However, she was very fine tuned and in top form at the Central District Championships as she cleared an indoor personal best height of 5'7" to set a new meet record in the high jump. Aghaji also improved by over a foot from her indoor best in the triple jump and nearly eclipsed her top outdoor mark of 38'2" from the summer of 2006 with a winning leap of 37'10" on Saturday. Aghaji will definitely need to be competing in top form at the state meet as the state has three high jumpers at 5'8" this season with Ashley Gatling, DeShana Briggs, and April Sinkler.
Aghaji also placed second in the 500 meter dash (1:26.34) and scored in the 55 meter dash with a sixth place finish (7.90).
Winning the 55 meter dash for the girls was Aghaji's teammate and defending AAA 100 meter state champion Shanneka Claiborne of Matoaca as she continues to roll to fast times on spikeless tracks as she went 7.17 in dash event. Claiborne was also a member of the first place 4x200 meter relay (1:56.04).
Matoaca swept the distance events as well to give them a well balanced lineup as senior Lauren Alley crossed the line first in the 1600 (5:41.02) and 1000 (3:23.32) meter races, while Katrina Whitt easily won the 3200 meter run in 12:58.19.
Matoaca junior Jasmine Van Story was the seventh individual district champion of the meet for Coach Price's squad with a throw of 32'6".
However, despite the stockpile of first place showings for Matoaca, it was not enough to repeat as district team champions. Prince George winning the final event of the day in the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 4:29.32 turned out to be points needed to put the Lady Royals on top with Matoaca finishing third in the relay race.
Junior Corinna Brown was the lone individual champion of the meet for Prince George as she picked up a decent chunk of team points with a win in the long jump at 16'10", a second place showing in the triple jump at 36'11.50", and a 5 foot clearance to take fourth in the high jump. On the track, Brown also finished third in the 500 meter dash (1:27.04) and ran on the victorious 4x400 meter relay squad.
Like Aghaji, Colonial Heights star sprinter Shae Wilbon looks to be starting to compete in top form come championship season after some rough early season outings. After finishing second to Claiborne in the 55 meter dash with a 7.43 clocking, the Colonial Heights junior came back to earn running event athlete of the meet honors by posting solid Ashe times of 1:22.81 and 43.75 in the 500 and 300 meter dashes respectively. Her 500 meter time was two seconds faster than two weeks ago at the Last Chance meet at the Ashe Center.
The Thomas Dale boys were able to pick up points here and there, while really distancing themselves from challengers Matoaca and Petersburg in the distance races with the 3200 meter run ending up as the nail in the coffin.
With three of the top four finishers in the race, Thomas Dale tallied up 23 points to give them the space they needed to not worry about the 4x400 meter relay having any role in deciding the team championship. Thomas Dale sophomore Eric Williamson won the 22 lap event in 10:56.24 with teammates in junior Nathaniel Kister (2nd, 11:21.75) and freshmen Chris Martin (4th, 11:40.42) picking up key points in top four finishes.
Kistner had won the 1000 meter run earlier in 2:49.20, while Williamson had finished third in the 1600 meter run with Knights teammate Neil Bishop starting the distance sweep for Thomas Dale in a 4:46.39 victory.
Thomas Dale's other ten point win of the meet came from senior Terrance Green with a top mark of 42'1.50" to barely edge out Petersburg's Justin Yelverton (42'1.00") in the triple jump.
Matoaca and Petersburg had to share claim of the district runner-up trophy with 113 points. Matoaca was led by state leading hurdler Aramis Massenburg as he picked up an easy district championship in the 55 meter hurdles with a 7.71 clocking, while winning the high jump competition at a height of 5'10". Massenburg also finished third in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump and 55 meter dash.
Matoaca teammate Jamar Parham won the 55 meter dash with a swift clocking of 6.69 without spikes. Parham and Massenburg both played key roles as legs on Matoaca's first place 4x200 meter relay (1:41.01) as they won a close battle over Petersburg (1:41.21).
Errors with the results prolonged the drama in trying to determine the girls' team champion at the Central District Indoor Track and Field Championships, but the correct scoring finally came out with Prince George on top with 130.5 points and 2006 Central District champions Matoaca in a heartbreaking second place at 130 points. If one was looking at first place finishes and district individual champions alone, it would appear that Matoaca would be a runaway winner.
Matoaca had some talented individuals leading them up front in Thursday's events at the Ashe Center. Matoaca senior Mia Aghaji in particular had a banner day. After clearing 5'8" in the high jump last summer during AAU track, Aghaji had struggled a bit in the event this season in her specialty event. However, she was very fine tuned and in top form at the Central District Championships as she cleared an indoor personal best height of 5'7" to set a new meet record in the high jump. Aghaji also improved by over a foot from her indoor best in the triple jump and nearly eclipsed her top outdoor mark of 38'2" from the summer of 2006 with a winning leap of 37'10" on Saturday. Aghaji will definitely need to be competing in top form at the state meet as the state has three high jumpers at 5'8" this season with Ashley Gatling, DeShana Briggs, and April Sinkler.Aghaji also placed second in the 500 meter dash (1:26.34) and scored in the 55 meter dash with a sixth place finish (7.90).
Winning the 55 meter dash for the girls was Aghaji's teammate and defending AAA 100 meter state champion Shanneka Claiborne of Matoaca as she continues to roll to fast times on spikeless tracks as she went 7.17 in dash event. Claiborne was also a member of the first place 4x200 meter relay (1:56.04).
Matoaca swept the distance events as well to give them a well balanced lineup as senior Lauren Alley crossed the line first in the 1600 (5:41.02) and 1000 (3:23.32) meter races, while Katrina Whitt easily won the 3200 meter run in 12:58.19.
Matoaca junior Jasmine Van Story was the seventh individual district champion of the meet for Coach Price's squad with a throw of 32'6".
However, despite the stockpile of first place showings for Matoaca, it was not enough to repeat as district team champions. Prince George winning the final event of the day in the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 4:29.32 turned out to be points needed to put the Lady Royals on top with Matoaca finishing third in the relay race.
Junior Corinna Brown was the lone individual champion of the meet for Prince George as she picked up a decent chunk of team points with a win in the long jump at 16'10", a second place showing in the triple jump at 36'11.50", and a 5 foot clearance to take fourth in the high jump. On the track, Brown also finished third in the 500 meter dash (1:27.04) and ran on the victorious 4x400 meter relay squad.
Like Aghaji, Colonial Heights star sprinter Shae Wilbon looks to be starting to compete in top form come championship season after some rough early season outings. After finishing second to Claiborne in the 55 meter dash with a 7.43 clocking, the Colonial Heights junior came back to earn running event athlete of the meet honors by posting solid Ashe times of 1:22.81 and 43.75 in the 500 and 300 meter dashes respectively. Her 500 meter time was two seconds faster than two weeks ago at the Last Chance meet at the Ashe Center.The Thomas Dale boys were able to pick up points here and there, while really distancing themselves from challengers Matoaca and Petersburg in the distance races with the 3200 meter run ending up as the nail in the coffin.
With three of the top four finishers in the race, Thomas Dale tallied up 23 points to give them the space they needed to not worry about the 4x400 meter relay having any role in deciding the team championship. Thomas Dale sophomore Eric Williamson won the 22 lap event in 10:56.24 with teammates in junior Nathaniel Kister (2nd, 11:21.75) and freshmen Chris Martin (4th, 11:40.42) picking up key points in top four finishes.
Kistner had won the 1000 meter run earlier in 2:49.20, while Williamson had finished third in the 1600 meter run with Knights teammate Neil Bishop starting the distance sweep for Thomas Dale in a 4:46.39 victory.
Thomas Dale's other ten point win of the meet came from senior Terrance Green with a top mark of 42'1.50" to barely edge out Petersburg's Justin Yelverton (42'1.00") in the triple jump.
Matoaca and Petersburg had to share claim of the district runner-up trophy with 113 points. Matoaca was led by state leading hurdler Aramis Massenburg as he picked up an easy district championship in the 55 meter hurdles with a 7.71 clocking, while winning the high jump competition at a height of 5'10". Massenburg also finished third in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump and 55 meter dash.
Matoaca teammate Jamar Parham won the 55 meter dash with a swift clocking of 6.69 without spikes. Parham and Massenburg both played key roles as legs on Matoaca's first place 4x200 meter relay (1:41.01) as they won a close battle over Petersburg (1:41.21).