Photo by Ted Plunkett
There were already plenty of surprises and upsets in Friday's events at the VHSL Group AAA State Championships in Newport News. Tynita Butts of T.C. Williams, who was heavily favored to win the long jump with her several marks over 20 feet this season, did not get a single mark in and failed to make the finals after fouling all three of her attempts. It left the door open for Churchland's Tiffany Harris as she came through with a clutch final jump of 18'11.25" to put her just ahead of two-time indoor champ Brittni Finch of Centreville in second at 18'10.75". The first day did not go without a state meet record performance though as Atlee vaulters Emma Dejarnette now shares the outdoor state meet record with a fellow Atlee past vaulter in Kira Barcus as well as 2007 state champion Anne Marie Gordon of Mills GOdwin after clearing 12 feet today. The only points that the Atlee girls will get all meet came today in the pole vault, but both Dejarnette and Rachael Hawks can say they were leading the state meet by themselves after day one with Hawks clearing a season best height of 11'6" to finish sixth in the point.
Atlee has 16 points to lead the team scoring after Friday, but the Landstown girls are looking to be a runaway winner of this year's title after ready with a shocking victory in the 4x800 meter relay and positioned very well out of the prelims with the top qualifiers in the 100 and 200 meter dash in Marlena Wesh, 300 meter hurdles in Taylor Wheaton, and 400 meter dash in Cierra McGee. Wesh in particular looked to be in a class of her own in her qualifying rounds as her prelim times of 11.94 and 24.36 put her well ahead of the next heat winners. Wesh's performances were no surprise, but the 4x800 was a different story as the Landstown girls now have an opportunity to become the first team ever in the meet's history to win all three relays (4x800, 4x100, 4x400) after coming away as 9:19.42 winners on Friday. Bringing up their quarter miler Kelneisha Hinnant to run the 800 meter leg played a huge difference as she later ran the second fastest 400 time in the prelims behind teammate Wesh.
No boys' team was able to break away from the pack on Friday and come out looking as the better positioned team with several schools in position to make top three runs on Saturday. The Western Branch boys sit back in 17th place with four points, but did have a handful of athletes earn their way into Saturday's finals of all of the laned races. Tory Womack was a qualifier in two events in the 100 and 200 meter dash with the fastest 100 prelim time at 10.68, while Jeffrey Artis scored four points in a fifth place finish in the long jump and advanced onto the finals in both hurdles races.
Chris Copeland won his fourth state title in the high jump and it was definitely his toughest and most challenging state championship of all four in coming back from a mid-season hip injury as well as Ocean Lakes sophomore Justin Hunter hanging him till the end as both cleared 6'10" and made good tries, but failed to clear 7'0". Earlier misses by Hunter gave the Lakeland senior Copeland his fourth win in state competition. While the marks in the girls' long jump had far and few season best performances, it was a different story in the pit for the boys' long jump with four over 24 feet and nine over 23 feet as Oscar Smith's Wesley Smith improved upon his state leading mark from Dogwood with a leap of 24'7".
Photo by Ted Plunkett
It is tough to relinquish the lead in the 4x800 meter relay when all four of your legs are good as was the case with the top seeded Albemarle boys pushing the pace up front through all four legs with Anthony Kostelac cementing the victory and not allowing Mountain View and Thomas Porter to close the gap on him with a 1:54 anchor split. The Patriots finished with a final time of 7:49.55, which was a two second improvement from their performance at the Penn Relays.
An outstanding mark was missed by many from T.C. Williams senior Frank Afriyie with the discus throw competition area moving outside of the track and beyond the back parking lot area at Todd Stadium. Afriyie topped out with a mark of 168'4 to finish eight feet ahead of the nearest competition. The Northern Region nearly had two state champions in Friday's throwing events as Annandale's Kayla Lewis put the rest of the girls shot put field on their toes with a pre-finals mark of 39'4.25". However, Kayla Lewis of William Fleming decided to add an outdoor state title to her indoor state title from this past March with a throw over 40 feet in the finals at 40'3.75".