Now that we have some championships in the books it is time to take a look at what these Virginia Champions look like and how they did what they did. Check all that out here.
Western Branch Girls Shuttle Hurdle Relay
National Record 31.22!
Milan Parks, Funlayo Oluwole, Jewel Smith, and Faith Ross
These girls entered nationals with one thing on their mind, a national record. They entered the competition as the heavy favorites and the only team with the depth to have multiple teams (they had three). Thanks to very strong opening legs by Milan Parks and Funlayo Oluwole to hold off Union Catholic and Sydney Mclaughlin for the win. This team was then anchored by Jewel Smith and Faith Ross.
Western Branch Girls 4x800
VA State Record 9:02.27
Jewel Smith, Ceshay Joyner, Faith Ross (2:10), Amanda Thomas (2:09)
Just hours, and we mean just a few hours, after they took the track in the shuttle hurdle and 4x200 relays the Bruins of Western Branch wanted to put on a show. From the gun that was the case with Jewel Smith and Ceshay Joyner putting their veteran 800 teammates into great position. Faith Ross may have run the most impressive leg moving the Bruins up from 8th place to first in the matter of 350 meters. She split a 2:10 and ran on three relays over the course of the day including anchoring the national record shuttle hurdle relay. Anchoring them though and arguably just as good at the 800 was Amanda Thomas who split one of the fastest splits of the day going 2:09 to open a 40 meter gap and hold onto a nice 10m lead until the end.