FAIRFAX, VA -- While all the attention and excitement was focused on Robert E. Lee's Sean Holston in his quest to become the first Northern Region male athlete ever to sweep all the metric sprint events at the indoor regional championship in the 55, 300, and 500 meter dashes, which included a US #7 all-time run in the 500 on Saturday, there was certainly a full meet found at George Mason University for the Northern Region Meet which saw plenty of great team and individual battles.
The Lake Braddock girls streak of regional team indoor championships came to an end at four as the Lady Bruins finished third in the team standings with 61 points. However, as shown this past fall in cross country with the Lake Braddock girls finishing second in the state after failing to qualify for the state meet in the previous year, one of the region and state's historically strong programs has the ability to quickly rebuild back to the top.
Centreville will hold the crown for at least one year as they racked up 84 points over the course of the day to win the regional team championship. The Lady Wildcats were led by junior Brittni Finch, who won two events and finished runner-up in another two. Finch, the returning AAA state champion and state meet record holder in the long jump, finally popped a big jump and it came in similar style to her state meet record mark on the final attempt in the finals. With a 19'10.25" best last year as a sophomore, Finch had only been able to muster a best of 18'4" heading into the regional championship. However, on her last jump on Saturday, Finch leaped to a season best mark of 19'0.25".
She would be upstaged in the event though by a sophomore in Tynita Butts of T.C. Williams as Butts leaped to an eventual mark of 19'00.75" in an earlier attempt to improve upon her previous best by a full foot and upset the state champion. The big day for Butts did not end in the long jump as she won her second regional title later in another duel with Finch in the high jump competition. Butts came in with a best clearance of 5'3" in the event and ended the day as the Northern Region champion at a height of 5'6". While Finch had another second place showing to Butts in the event, she had no reason to frown in an event that she rarely competes in as she improved four inches from her PR in the event with a clearance of 5'4".
Finch finally got her first win of the meet after two close runner-up showings to Butts in the 55 meter dash as she got the victory in a head to head race with Butts in the finals of the short sprint with a 7.28 clocking as Butts was the regional runner-up at 7.36. The Centreville junior raised her individual point total to 36 for the team cause with a top jump of 37'5.50" in the triple jump.
Three individual regional champions were featured on Centreville's first place 4x200 meter relay with Finch, Jordan Grant, and Cate Tisinger. Finch led off and Tisinger brought it home in a season best time of 1:45.20. Anchor leg Tisinger later came back in the 500 meter dash in a great race which saw George Marshall's Jacqueline Hargrove take the field through 300 meters close to her personal best at the distance, but only to see Tisinger pass by her in the final strides as Hargrove tightened up. Tisinger was clocked in at 1:17.61 with Hargrove in second at 1:17.96.
Meanwhile, Grant made it a sprint sweep for the Centreville ladies with Finch and Tisinger picking up earlier wins in the 55 and 500 meter dashes as the Centreville junior successfully defended her regional title in the 300 meter dash in a time of 41.12. It was the second year in a row that the same trio from Centreville took each of the three sprinting events at the Northern Region Championships.
Grant and Tisinger closed out their day as the final two legs for their 4x400 meter relay, which ended up in second place with a time of 4:06.06 to further distance themselves from other team contenders. The relay event ws won by an underclassmen dominated squad from James Robinson in 4:03.33 as only their opening leg senior Lauren Hallauer is the only relay member that is not a freshmen or sophomore.
Patriot District champions West Potomac snuck into second place at the very end with some late meet points from a 3200 meter regional title by junior Elizabeth Heath in a time of 11:12.40, second place finish in the triple jump by Kat Lee, and slow section win in the 4x400 meter relay. Heath was never seriously challenged in the 3200 meter race as she took the lead early and no one followed her as she ended up finishing nine seconds ahead of Herndon sophomore Hiruni Wijayaratne (11:21.35) for her first regional title.
Heath had earlier ran on the 4x800 meter relay, which ended up picking up eight points with a second place finishing run of 9:40.57. Westfield with the state's leading time at 9:19, ran with three of their four "A" team members as Tasia Potasinski sat out to rest for a double in the 1600 and 1000 meter double. Their top two legs in Kerry Hartman and Brittany Sevachko ran third and fourth legs and Hartman seized the lead for good to hand off to anchor Sevachko with plenty of breathing room as they cruised to a 9:33.43 win. Next week's AAA State Meet should have a classic 4x800 battle between Westfield and two-time defending indoor state champions Midlothian as they push for the meet record of 9:12 set in 1999 by Thomas Jefferson.
Kat Lee was of course Miss Everything for the West Potomac squad competing in various events throughout the day. The West Potomac junior finished second in both the triple jump (36'4.75") and pole vault (10'0"), while taking third in the long jump at 18'1". Lee also scored in the 300 meter dash with a fourth place finish (42.40).
The Westfield girls ended up fourth as a team in a very competitive team competition with 5 1/2 points separating two through four. While the distance crew contributed points with the win in the 4x800 meter relays as well as high finishes from Brittany Sevachko in the 500 meter dash, Kerry Hartman in the 1000 meter run, and Tasia Potasinksi in the 1600 meter run, pole vaulter Betsy Alter was the team's lone individual champion on the day as she did it in meet record breaking style with a clearance of 11'1" to best the previous one year old record height of 11 feet set by last year's AAA state champion Nicole Kazuba of Chantilly.
One of the big bright spots for the Lake Braddock girls was senior Allison Jones picking up a momentum booster and win heading into the state meet by defeating state leader and state title favorite Samella Koroma of T.C. Williams with a best throw of 41'3" as Koroma was well off her season best of 43'4.50" with a second place mark of 40'10".
Defending AAA state champion for 1000 meters in Yorktown sophomore Andrea Oaxaca is coming into top form at the right time as shown by her 2:57.36 regional victory over a strong field of competitors. Her time is the fastest this season by any AAA girl as she defeated Westfield's Kerry Hartman, who had held the previous top seed time for the state meet at 2:58.06. Oaxaca ran a best time of 2:56.06 to win last year's AAA State Meet, which was fourth fastest all-time in state meet history. The top three times in state meet history all came in the 2000 state race with Kecoughtan's Elizabeth Bayne (2:53.90), Thomas Jefferson's Kelley Otstott (2:55.05), and Hayfield's Nikeya Green (2:55.91).
Scooting past Hartman at the line to take second to Oaxaca in the 1000 meter run was W.T. Woodson senior Sarrah Hadiji as the William & Mary recruit had an impressive double in breaking three minutes for the first time in the 1000 meter run at 2:59.62 after winning the 1600 meter run earlier in 5:05.66 in a highly anticipated matchup between Chantilly sophomore Lia DiValentin. The pace went out in 2:38 for 800 meters with Hadiji leading and she made a move to break away in the final 400 meters and no counter move came from either DiValentin (2nd, 5:05.66) or Westfield's Tasia Potasinski (3rd, 5:09.26) as Hadiji won rather unchallenged. Hadiji and DiValentin will turn their attention the 3200 meter run next weekend at the AAA State Meet as Hadiji is the defending state champion, while DiValentin has one of the faster times in the state coming in at 10:49.
Hayfield junior Jasmine Jones stole the 55 meter hurdles regional title from the far outside lane in the finals of the event as while the inside lane hurdlers tried to battle it out with each other, it was Jones that glided over the hurdles almost unnoticed in the fastest clocking at 8.50.
The Westfield boys had one lone event champion in Brandon Dillard in the triple jump with a winning mark of 45'9", but there was no dispute the most dominant team in the region as they were well out in front with 71 1/2 points to finish over 20 points ahead of runners-up from the Liberty District in Langley (51 pts). High finishes from Dillard and teammate Matthew Anderson helped fuel their regional team championship drive.
Dillard nearly won his two jumping events in the meet as earlier in the meet, he took second in the long jump with a mark of 21'10" as Centreville's Brandon Davis popped a jump of 22'2.50" to take the regional title in the event.
Westfield received 25 points from Dillard and Anderson in the 500 and 300 meter dashes as while Sean Holston generated all the excitement, Dillard and Anderson were quietly racking up points for the Bulldogs in the next places. Anderson's 1:05.17 clocking to finish second in the the 500 meter dash is the second fastest time run by a sophomore in the country in the event this season. The Westfield sophomore's time also ranks second in the state only behind Holston. Dillard took third in the race in 1:06.68.
Lake Braddock junior Chris Letson kept Westfield from having another 2-3 finish in the 300 meter dash with a 35.89 clocking for second, but Westfield still gained 11 points out of the event with Anderson in third (36.30) and Dillard in fourth (36.33).
Letson and Lake Braddock got the better of Westfield at the end of the meet as well as Letson anchored their 4x400 meter relay to a close win over Westfield in 3:27.83 with the eventual team champs right behind at 3:28.54.
The Liberty District champion Langley squad was led by Jordan Calderwood, who picked up regional titles in two events with the high jump and 55 meter hurdles. Calderwood cleared 6'3" to win the high jump, while clocked a 7.77 to cross the line first in the hurdle finals.
South County tied for second with Centreville with 42 points. After missing last year's championship due to injury, South County senior Jeff Miller is healthy and rolling into next weekend's AAA State Meet as one of the favorites in the 1000 meter run. Miller was given a surprising challenge from West Springfield senior Leo Walker as Walker seized the lead entering the bell lap as Miller had led through the majority of the first 800 meters of the race. However, Miller summed up a final kick in the last 100 meters and was able to run down Walker for a 2:33.48 win. Walker ran a personal best by two seconds with his final time of 2:34.06 for second.
With the exception of a rare talent in an individual like Sean Holston, it is the distance races at a Northern Region Championship that typically produce some of the best performances of the meet. Every single distance race for the Northern Region boys had a dramatic finish.
In the 1600 meter run, Bradshaw Kenimer of T.C. Williams made an aggressive move after 800 meters to push the pace and try to distance himself from Ermin Mujezinovic of Herndon and Josef Tessema of Robert E. Lee. However, the brave attempt proved to be futile against Mujezinovic as he regained back the lead and seemed to on his way to runaway win in the final lap. Tessema made it interesting though after finding himself three seconds behind the leaders heading into the final lap, he started to really reel Mujezinvoic in rolling off the final turn. However, the move proved to come too late as the Herndon senior held on for a 4:20.62 win with Tessema at a close second at 4:20.84.
The 3200 meter run saw an even more blazing finish from West Springfield senior Mike Spooner. Spooner set an honest pace through the first 1600 meters in 4:37, but Washington-Lee senior Chris Tyson noticed Spooner slowing down in the next 800 meters and made a move to take the lead from the Footlocker finalist. Spooner then sat on Tyson until 400 meters to go as he kicked it into high gear for the final 400 meters under 62 seconds for a meet record and personal best time of 9:13.21. With the many great distance runners that have come through the Northern Region, breaking any regional meet record in the Northern Region Meet is a very special achievement as the previous record holder was another past Footlocker finalist in Eric Kweeder with 1997 time of 9:15.60. Spooner still was not completely satisfied with the run as he finished a second off the West Springfield school record of 9:12 by former Footlocker Nationals runner-up Sharif Karie. Tyson held on for second in 9:25.83 after a gutsy run to challenge Spooner.
The boys 4x800 meter relay had too many lead changes to count and saw a couple on the final leg as Lake Braddock found themselves in first after the final exchanges into the anchors. W.T. Woodson's Stephen Honan then made up two seconds from when he received the baton to have his team into first on the final lap. Dan McHale of James Robinson made up even more ground as he was four seconds down upon starting his anchor leg for James Robinson. McHale was sitting off of Honan along Oakton's Alex Nissen at the bell. Both swung to the outside to pass Honan on the backstretch with Nissen leading the charge. Nissen did not have to spend as much energy to catch up as McHale on his leg and was able to power his way to the line for a 8:07.85 win for Oakton with Robinson in a close second at 8:08.30. Honan helped punch Woodson's ticket to the state meet in third at 8:10.92 in one of the deepest 4x800 meter races in the state this season.
Andrew Pittman's throw of 49'6.75" was helpful for the Westfield team cause gaining them eight points with his second place showing in the shot put, but it was not enough to top T.C. Williams senior Ricardo Simmons, who was the only thrower in the region over 50 feet at 51'8".
With returning regional champion in Lake Braddock senior Ian Prohaska academically ineligible for the rest of the year, the door was open for others to go after the regional title in the pole vault. Annandale senior Alvin Siv came out on top of a handful of vaulters over 12'6" as the only one able to successfully clear 13 feet for the win.