Despite suffering from the graduations of two key contributors to their dominance over the last few years in jumper April Sinkler and distance runner Brittany Copeland, the Brooke Point girls continued on with business as usual in the Commonwealth District Meet as they won their fifth straight indoor team title on Wednesday at Brooke Point High School. It was not as dominant as their past wins, but they were able to overcome a strong challenge by the Colonial Forge girls (2nd, 121 pts) with a team score of 127 points. The Mountain View boys were indoor district champions for a second year in a row as their depth in the distance events and a double win by Olu Olamigoke in the jumps helped key a decisive win for the Wildcats.
Photo by John Herzog
Brooke Point had three individual champions with Becky Sampson as a first place finisher in the 55 meter hurdles (8.72) and long jump (14'10"), Colleen McGlade clearing a height of nine feet in the pole vault, and Brittany Wilhelm as the lone athlete to break 1:20 in the 500 meter dash with a 1:19.24 clocking. Kellie Hall also had a solid double for the Lady Blackhawks in the distance events as a runner-up in the 1600 (5:26.2) and 1000 (3:15.17).
The Colonial Forge girls finished eight points shy of ending Brooke Point's streak of indoor district titles as senior Kaylan Comer led the charge by winning the 1600 (5:20.71) and 3200 (11:47.98). Colonial Forge led going into the final event of the 4x400 as Comer's first place finish and third place finish by teammate Hannah Somers in the 3200 pushed them ahead of Brooke Point in the event prior. However, the Brooke Point girls came through in the clutch with a 4:09.02 win in the 4x400, while Colonial Forge finished four places and more importantly eight points back in the event with a fifth place time of 4:22.32.
Colonial Forge also got major contributions out of Kim Mervine in the jumps as she won district titles in the high jump (5'0") and triple jump (32'7"), while their 4x800 meter relay broke the line first in 10:07.34.
The sprinters served Riverbend girls well in helping them finish third in the district meet as they had wins in the 55 meter dash (Jazmine Gordon, 7.55), 300 meter dash (Melonie Wright, 42.73), and 4x400 meter relay (1:48.31).
There was little drama for the boys' team title as the favorites to win the Northwest Region title later this month in the Mountain View boys, continued their new rise in dominance in the district and region in cross country and track. Their distance crew cleaned up plenty of points with Foot Locker finalist Thomas Porter cruising to wins in the 1600 (4:27.09) and 3200 (9:48.60) meter races.
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Only Luke Noble of Albemarle with a second place finish in the 1600 meter run was able to stop an complete dominance by the Mountain View boys in the two distance races with three Mountain View finishers right behind him in Chris Brown (4:31.34), Alex Brown (4:35.68), and Daniel Porter (4:37.83) rounding out the top five. Mountain View could certainly put together a formidable 4xmile relay for indoor nationals. The Brown twins came back later in the 3200 meter run to take care of the next two places after teammate Thomas Porter with Alex Brown in second at 9:58.64 and Chris Brown in third at 10:04.20.
It was not all Mountain View in the distance races though as Stafford senior Joey Murray (pictured left by Tom Hoerner) picked up his very first individual district title with a 2:35.92 win in the 1000 meter run. Murray has one of the top times in the state in the event after breaking 2:33 two weeks ago in a win at the St. Christopher's Invite.
Mountain View's success past the regional meet is not entirely reliant on their distance runners though as they have one of the state's best jumpers in Olu Olamigoke. The nationally ranked triple jumper had the top mark in both the long jump (21'4") and triple jump (44'5").
North Stafford junior Reynaldo Radlin had a 7.69 swift clocking in the 55 meter hurdles, while teammate Jerald Fayorsey had a 35.97 victory in the 300 meter dash to haul in two individual titles on their team.