LYNCHBURG, VA -- Four individual state champions return among the AA boys making certain there will be at least eight new individual state titlists for this Saturday's Group AA State Indoor Track and Field Championships to be held at Liberty University's Tolsma Track Center. Last year, only half of a point separated Heritage of Lynchburg from Appomattox Country for a state team championship and this year's fight for the team trophy should be even closer with roughly half a dozen squads in the running.
One of those returning state champions is Brookville junior Ethan Nixon in the 55 meter hurdles. Nixon, the top seed in the hurdle event coming in with a 7.58 best from his Region III Meet victory, will also look to carry his team to a state championship competing in multiple events as he did in leading them to the Region III title. Not only will Nixon be competing in the hurdles, but also keeping himself busy at the state meet in Lynchburg in all three jumping events with the high jump, long jump, and triple jump.
Defending his state championship in the hurdles will not be a cake walk as Region II champion Jeff Carey will be a tough challenge after the Orange County junior ran the second fastest hurdle time in AA at 7.60 without spikes at the Jefferson District Meet on February 15th.
Nixon can potentially win two individual state titles on Saturday in the hurdles and the high jump as he has one of the state's best marks in the event at 6'6". However, another Orange County athlete will be testing him with top seed Carl Johnson of Orange County. Johnson cleared 6'8" early in the season in December at an invitational meet at Liberty, but has been missing in action for a large portion of the season including the district and regional meets due to injury.
Both Nixon and Johnson will have to dethrone defending state champion Jeremy Snyder of Riverbend, who won the event in 2006 as a sophomore with a clearance of 6'4". The slight edge has to be given to Nixon in the event coming in as he has cleared 6'6" on two occassions this season at the same facility in which this Saturday's AA State Championships will be held at the Tolsma Track Center.
Nixon will have to show some stamina though to take first in the high jump as during the competition he will have ran his preliminary heat of the 55 meter hurdles and also be competing in his flight and hopefully finals of the triple jump.
Nixon has been limiting his jumps at the district and regional level, but will need to take more jumps at the state meet in the long jump and triple jump with the competition he'll be facing as the fourth seed in the long and fifth in the triple. Nixon has bests of 21'10" in the long jump and 43'7.50" in the triple jump. He does not necessarily need to win either of the events in order for Brookville to stay in the team hunt, but higher finishes from his current seedings can only help the Bees.
Two Region I jumpers are the favorites in both events with Caroline senior Robert Coleman at a 22'3" best mark in the long jump and Region I champion Garrick Piggott of Lafayette close to two feet better than the next best seed at 46'5".
Brookville looks not to rely only on Nixon for their entire team points as Region III runner-up in the pole vault, Andrew Epperson, finds himself in a group of AA vaulters at 13'6" behind top seed and state leader Tim Beierle of Harrisonburg at 15'6". Beierle struggled in last year's state meet as a pre-meet favorite to finish fourth at a height of 13 feet and allowed Charlottesville's John Intolubbe-Chmil to win at a height of 13'6". Intolubbe-Chmil returns to defend his state title after picking up a Region II win over Beierle, who no heighted after seeing Intolubbe-Chmil's pole break in half at an attempt at 14 feet. If Beierle can shake last week's disappointing regional showing, he should be an easy winner as the Harrisonburg senior is two feet better than the competition. The winning height should definitely be higher than the 2006 state meet with a total of six competitors at 13'6" or better this year.
Both Beierle and Intolubbe-Chmil are part of strong teams out of Region II. Harrisonburg and Charlottesville both fell short of a regional championship against the distance loaded Western Albemarle squads, but both are capable of walking out with the state team championship on Saturday. Harrisonburg was especially not at their best at the regional meet with no points from Beierle or their AA top ranked 4x400 meter relay, which lost their baton in the regional race.
Harrisonburg is a team capable of scoring over 35 points at the state meet, which this year could be good enough to win with the parity found among half a dozen contending teams.
Individually, the Blue Streaks will look to Beierle in the pole vault and Adam Shroades in the 500 meter dash. Shroades has the second fastest time coming in at 1:07.45, but there appears to be no clear favorite in the event. Shroades finished second at the Region II Meet to Fluvanna senior Matt Winkler as both runners clocked strong times on the 160 meter track at Fork Union in 1:08.37 and 1:08.51, which could be considered as the top performances in AA this season in the event based off the track those times were run on.
However, Region I champion Dean Gonsalves of Grafton has the fastest time at 1:07.33 after running his time in a regional win on a 400 meter outdoor track on a unseasonably mild day last Wednesday at the Region I Championships. Region III's best in Brian Hencke of Blacksburg has also ran under 1:08 this year with a 1:07.52 win at the his district meet on the Virginia Tech indoor track.
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With added points from Hencke, the Blacksburg boys could take care of one half of a potential state team championship sweep by the Blacksburg squads as their defending state champion girls return a formidable squad. The Bruins will rely heavily on distance ace Peter Dorrell (pictured right, by John Herzog) to come through with victories in the 1600 and 1000 meter races as the top seed in the each. Dorrell earlier in the season at Virginia Tech ran a US #1 time of 9:10 for 3200 meters, but will be skipping the event at the state meet to free himself up to run a third running event in the 4x400 meter relay for the team's cause.
The Blacksburg junior will be the heavy favorite in both events and especially in the 1600 meter run as his 4:16 best puts him 10 seconds ahead of second seed and Region I champion Andrew Mearns of Jamestown (4:26.88). Footlocker finalist and defending Group AA 1600 meter state champion Griff Graves of Abingdon will also be in the race to possibly make things interesting, but Graves is at a bit of a disadvantage taking this winter to train specifically for the US Cross Country Nationals where he finished ninth in the junior men's 8K race in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month. Gearing for a significantly longer race than any distance he'd race on the track may or may not have affected Graves ability to drop down to run a fast 1600 meter time as he should be capable of later in the spring.
Dorrell may have to sweat out a win in the 1000 meter run a bit more in the shorter race as his 2:34.50 season best is a mere second better than Jamestown's Mearns, who will be coming back with Dorrell from the 1600 meter run. Dorrell will finish out his day on the 4x400 meter relay for Blacksburg, who are seeded third at 3:33.24 and will certainly be a pivotal last event for many teams in the final outcome.
Mearns and the Region I team champion Jamestown will very much so in the team hunt as the 2006 AA state runner-up cross country team will count on points from Mearns in the two events and hope for their 4x800 meter relay to pick up extra points and exceed their expectations as the ninth seed at 8:32.34. Several teams will try to stop Jefferson Forest from winning their second 4x800 meter indoor state title after winning in 2005 and finishing second in 2006.
The Cavaliers have the fastest time coming in at 8:14.60, which is 11 seconds faster than second seed Harrisonburg at 8:25, but expect the race to be a lot closer with some of the top distance programs in AA putting in their top lineups for the race. The biggest threat to Jefferson Forest appears to be Western Albemarle even as the sixth seed at 8:26.84 as they had a full "B" team win the Region II title last week under 8:40.
Jamestown is another squad that can score close to 40 points as they can pick up points in all three events with the 4x800, 4x200 (4th seed, 1:33.81), and 4x400 (8th seed, 3:35.78). Besides Mearns, their distance crew will be looking to the 3200 meter run to pick up considerable points to put them in good position heading into the final event of the meet.
The Eagles have three of the top eight seeds in the 16 lap event with Region I cross country champion Andrew Colley (4th, 9:48.23), Region I 3200 meter indoor champion and freshmen Colin Mearns (7th, 9:56.46), and sophomore John Holt (8th, 9:56.94). Quite impressive feat for Coach Howard Townsend to have three underclassmen under ten minutes indoors for 3200 meters and all projected as potential all-state finishers with Colley as a sophomore.
Griff Graves will favored in the event with his 9:24.38 season best and having run 9:14 last spring as a sophomore, but nothing is guaranteed as Graves has still yet to win a 3200 meter state title after being upset in indoors and outdoors last year at the state meets. Last year's race had a huge upset winner in Skeeter Morris of Nottoway. There will be plenty of great young talent in this race as six of the top nine entries are underclassmen. Brentsville's Adam Henken is one of the few seniors that will be up front in the race as the second seed at 9:42.87. Henken finished second to Graves in cross country in the AA state race.
The race should have important team implications for Region I champions Western Albemarle as Saturday should be the first time for some of their distance athletes have raced on a quality 200 meter indoor track this season. Both Western Albemarle sophomores in Region II 3200 meter champion Kyle Satterwhite (6th seed, 9:50.16) and Tyler Stutzman (9th seed, 9:58.24) clocked their season bests times at the Estes Athletic Center in their regional meet.
If Carl Johnson can come back into top form in the high jump after a long layoff in the event, Orange County can potentially go from third in their region to first in the state with the rest of the talent found on their squad. Kevin Pearson should be Orange County's top point scorer as they is expected to score in the three running events in the 55 meter dash (5th seed, 6.58), 300 meter dash (5th seed, 36.74), and 55 meter hurdles (6th seed, 7.88). Teammate Jeff Carey will be challenging in the hurdles as the second seed at 7.60.
Region II champion for 1000 meters in Logan Collins can also pick up considerably points in his specialty as he had an impressive regional win at the Estes Center in 2:36.45, which should translate to a faster time by a couple seconds at Liberty this weekend and make him a strong threat to upset top seed Dorrell doubling back from the 1600 meter run.
The finals of the 55 meter dash should be a photo finish with three regional champions facing off with season bests only mere hundredths off of each other. Region II champion Allen Dooms leads all competitors with a 6.55 F.A.T. time, which also should be noted as ran without spikes in a Region II win. Both Region III champion Jeremy Lewis of Amherst County (6.56) and Region I winner Ashante Hayes of Brunswick Senior (6.57) ran their fastest clockings in the preliminary rounds of their regional championships.
The Region I sprinters had the track gods on their side as their regional meet last Wednesday was hosted outdoors on one of the most pleasant days in recent weeks and as a result, some of Group AA's fastest 300 meter times were produced at the Region I Meet with the top four times all being produced in the race. Courtland sophomore De'onte Jones won the Region I title in 35.95, while finishing not far behind were fellow Battlefield District sprinters Roderick Spruel of Chancellor (36.07) and Dan Ellia (36.09). The meet's lone freshmen state champion could come out of this event though and out of a slower section as Region II champion Kurt Fleming will be seeded 13th in the event with his 37.24 winning time at the regional meet, but is capable of knocking off two seconds from the Estes Center to the Tolsma Track Center.
The shot put should be one of the more competitive events of the meet with three throwers over 50 feet that are very familar with each other in earlier season performances in Eric Kuster of Liberty, John Pavia of Jefferson Forest, and Justin Smith of Turner Ashby. Kuster has the momentum coming in after defeating Pavia by over six feet in a Region II title mark of 54'4.50", while Smith will be looking to bounce back from a poor showing at the Region II Meet in which he fouled on all of his throws.