4/5 Weekend Coverage

Athlete profile and ranking pages are now updated with all performances now entered in the database from CNU, Lake Braddock, Manchester, VA Runner, and Vince Bradford. Photo galleries are now up from CNU,Manchester, Lake Braddock, Potomac, VA Runner (Friday only), Vince Bradford. Video being added from VA Runner (Friday only) and Manchester. Meet summaries to be posted from all meets on Monday.

Meet Coverage Pages (includes results, links to photos, and articles):

• CNU Captain's Classic (Christopher Newport University - Newport News, VA)
• Lake Braddock Invitational (Lake Braddock High School - Burke, VA)
• Manchester Relays (Manchester High School - Midlothian, VA)
• The Potomac Relays (The Potomac School - McLean, VA)
• VA Runner Invitational (Colonial Forge High School - Stafford, VA)
• Vince Bradford Relays (E.C. Glass High School - Lynchburg, VA)

Boys Highlights:

• Daniel Inge cleared over 16 feet at Vince Bradford in the pole vault and then successfully cleared another all-time best at 16-3.
• Nansemond River's James Taylor was the top performer at CNU with state bests in the long jump (23-3) and 100 (10.61) as well as a win in the 200. Teammate Kelvin Griffin was second to Taylor in both the long jump (23-0) and 100 (10.76).
• Thomas Porter split a 4:15 1600 on 10:26 DMR for Mountain View. Also won 3200 at the VA Runner Invite on Friday with huge negative split  (5:00-4:33).
• Throwing nearly a 20 foot PR, Morgan Brown of C.D. Hylton has taken over the state leaderboard in the discus with a mark of 165'10" at Colonial Forge.
• Peter Dorrell broke a long standing 35 year old meet record in the 1600 at Vince Bradford with a 4:15.64 performance and also ran on Blacksburg's 8:02 state leading 4x800 meter relay.
• Potomac Senior boys nearly dipped under 3:20 in the 4x400 at VA Runner.
• Nike Indoor 400 champ Ja-Vell Bullard opened with a 48.19 400 at CNU.
• Ben Katz of St. Christopher's cleared 6-7 in the high jump at Manchester

Girls Highlights:

• VA Runner Invite had five state best performances by girls' individuals including Kaylan Comer winning the 3200 in front of the home crowd at Colonial Forge in 11:10.72. Northwest Region athletes Bethany Hyter of Osbourn Park in the 300 meter hurdles (44.70), Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park in the 800 (2:18.09), and Yvonne Amegashie of Potomac in the 400 (57.54) also ran state bests.
• Melanie Akwule almost achieved two state leading times in the hurdles at the Lake Braddock Invite with wins in the 100 meter hurdles (14.74) and 300 meter hurdles (44.74).
• Blacksburg now has the #1 4x800 time in VA for both boys and girls with the Lady Bruins put forth a solid 9:38.16 performance at the Bradford Relays.

Girls State Leader Board

Boys State Leader Board

CNU Captain's Classic

Photo by Greg Farrell

Nansemond River's James Taylor and Kelvin Griffin teammed up for a dominant weekend at Pomoco Stadium with 1-2 finishes from the two in both the long jump and 100 meter dash. Taylor, the AAA state indoor champion in the long jump, leaped to a 23'3" mark in the long jump and rounded out his stellar meet with two more wins with clockings of 10.61 and 22.24 in the 100 and 200 meter dash. Taylor's performance in the 100 meter dash is a state leading performance and personal best. Teammate Griffin also leaped over 23 feet in the long jump for second place and clocked a swift time of 10.76 as the 100 meter dash runner-up

Despite having a potent tandem in Taylor and Griffin, Nansemond River finished third overall in the AAA division team scoring with 71 points as they finished just behind meet winners from Deep Run (75.50 pts) and runners-up.from Hampton (74 pts). A half point separated the two going into the final event and Deep Run gained a whole point advantage with a seven place finish in the 4x400 to place just ahead of an eighth place Hampton relay. Deep Run won the team title despite only having a lone event winner in the meet coming with a 14'6" clearance by Matthew Armentrout in the pole vault.

Hampton's Lavell Handy had an equally impressive meet as Nansemond River's Taylor with top performances in the 110 meter hurdles (14.70), 300 meter hurdles (40.74), and triple jump (46'11") as well as a third place mark of 22'3" in the long jump.

Nike Indoor Nationals 400 meter champion Ja-Vell Bullard of Bethel made his outdoor debut at CNU in the 400 meter dash. Bullard had a solid performance with a 48.12 clocking. Cosby sophomore Andre Redd has quickly started to make a name for himself since joining the track team this spring and a second place finish to Bullard at 49.32 makes Cosby appear to be an even more legitimate contender for the Central Region outdoor title.

Meanwhile, Bullard and the Bethel relays were rolling as well with wins in the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays including a 42.66 state best. The Bethel girls made it a sweep of the AAA 4x400 relay races as an eight second winner at 4:06.41, while also winning the team title in the division with 82.16 points. Bethel squads of the past have typically been very reliant on their raw speed in the sprints, but it was the technical events which served them well with Kayla Campbell as a runner-up in both throwing events and Courtni Pannell winning the 100 meter hurdles and Taylore Williams placing high in both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles.

The 1600 meter races saw some great times posted in both the AAA and AA/A division. Andrew Colley of Jamestown ran his time of 4:22.81 virtually solo in the A/AA division, while Brian Welch of Mills Godwin (4:20.35) and Bobby Peavey of Kellam (4:21.09) pressed each other nearly to sub 4:20 times in the AA division. Colley also ran on Jamestown's 4x800 meter relay on Friday, which posted a Group AA state qualifying time of 8:18.24. The Eagles finished second as a team in the overall point standings in the A/AA division as Archbishop Curley of Pennsylvania finished well ahead of Jamestown with 178 1/2 points.

The Norfolk Academy girls were dominant in the A/AA division with a total of eight event winners for a grand team score of 140 points. Three individuals won multiple events this weekend with Anna Blackwood in the 1600 (5:22.20) and 3200 (11:33.19), Heather Claggett in the 400 (1:03.11) and 800 (2:28.57), and Michelle Sutherland in the 100 (17.50) and 300 (48.84) meter hurdles.

Ruth Hunt of Heritage was one of the few double winners in the running events as she clocked in at times of 12.34 in the 100 meter dash and 25.33 in the 200 meter dash. Cosby's Jenna Moye nearly pulled it off in the distance events as she held off a swarm of Maggie Walker runners in the 1600 meter run in 5:24.75, but Westfield's Jessie Hartman pulled ahead of her in the 800 meter run at 2:28.11.

Churchland saw a 1-2 finish out of the girls' 400 meter dash from their sprinters Tiffany Harris (58.64) and Cydney Robinson (59.16) as they both crossed the line well under 60 seconds. Harris was also a runner-up in the long jump and 200 meter dash.

Lake Braddock Invitational

A small meet was put together this weekend at Lake Braddock High School with several Northern Region schools in attendance. Melanie Akwule and Michael Santano, both of Lake Braddock, won three events each including both hurdle races. Akwule posted great times in the hurdles without much competition in the 100 meter hurdles (14.84) and 300 meter hurdles (44.74). Akwule also ran on the first place 4x100 meter relay.

James Robinson's Jessie Echard was one of the top performers in the field events with the best marks in the shot put (35'7") and discus throw (103'11"). Robinson had another athlete win two events in the field events with Kwarteng Asare as leaped to marks of 20'0" in the long jump and 44'0" in the triple jump.

South County's Kevin Johnson held off a strong challenge from Ryan Tarpey of Robinson (22.94) in the 200 meter dash with a 22.74 clocking. Tarpey had a successful meet though as the 100 meter dash (11.54) and also ran on one of the two winning sprint relays for the Rams, who swept all three relay races.

Manchester Relays

At the Manchester Relays, many of the schools in attendance were shaking off the race rust from breaks since the indoor season. One of the top performances of the meet came not in a relay race, but in the field events when Ben Katz of St. Christopher's successfully cleared a new personal best height of 6'7".

The host school Manchester was well represented with first place finishes in the sprints and hurdles. The Manchester girls were the lone team to dip under 50 seconds in the 4x100 meter at 49.69. 4x100 relay members Nikki Nunn and Desiree Russell came back shortly thereafter to compete in the co-ed 4x200 meter relay with another first place finish in a time of 1:38.87.

The Lancers also made it a clean sweep in the hurdles as the meet format combined the times of each team's two hurdles competing. North Stafford's Reynaldo Radlin was the top individual performer in the 110 meter hurdles (15.14) and 300 meter hurdles (41.00), but Akeem Fayson of Manchestere celebrated first place finishes in both races with combined efforts from teammate Devron Harris in the 110 meter hurdles and Jairus Burrell in the 300 meter hurdles. The Manchester girls were even more impressive in the hurdles with a 1-2 finish individually in the 100 meter hurdles with Erica Perkins (15.64) and Erica Caldwell (16.55), while the team had two of the four fastest 300 meter hurdles individual times with Stephanie Brown (2nd, 48.64) and Erica Caldwell (4th, 49.77).

Lee-Davis swept the 1600 meter sprint medley relays with strong 800 meter anchor legs from Amanda Lineberry in the girls' race for a 4:17.64 win and Robert Reynolds in the boys' race for a 3:39.25 win. Lineberry and Reynolds later joined up to help put together a formidable co-ed 4x800 meter relay to finish second in 9:03.56 to a Midlothian squad (8:58.83) with Jason Witt and Michael Hammond as their boys' legs and Amy Witt and Sammy Dow as their girls' legs.

The Mills Godwin girls were well back through the first two legs of the 4x1600 meter relay with other teams front loading their relays, but were able to finish strong on the final two in Lindsay Martin and Katie Hunold to win by 11 seconds in 23:41.45.

The 4x400 meter relays was one of the few varsity events that was not spared from a steady rain shower, but that did not deter nine teams from running 3:36 or faster with North Stafford on top with the meet's fastest at 3:32.18. On the other hand, the girls' 4x400 meter relay ended up being a two team race with two schools far superior to the rest of the field with Louisa County squeaking out a sub 4:10 time at 4:09.44 and win over W.T. Woodson (4:10.89).