Heading into New Balance Nationals it was very clear that the team to beat in the entire nation was Western Branch. Those girls shattered the state record and ran the fastest time in the nation since 2012 at the VA Showcase. Ever since then it was obvious they were a team of destiny.
That was all until they had to matchup against their rivals, Team War.
Nansemond River definitely did not show us all their firepower early in the season but it was unclear whether they would be as good as they were last year. Meet after meet their performances led us to believe they would not be. They entered the meet seeded at 1:40 in the 4x2 while Branch was at 1:37.09.
Then something happened, they put on those Team War jerseys and it was new team.
The quartet of Richardson, Carter, Scott-Mckoy, and Donaldson advanced to the finals with a time of 1:37.85. They still though were seeded behind Branch's 1:37.08 which once again broke the state record. Looking at it closely now though you can see that Team War may have be keeping a secret the entire time.
That quartet was fast but it was not their full "A" squad and we are guessing that Coach JB knows that. If you look at the F.A.T. splits it is clear that for the first three legs of the relay, War is faster. It was just the anchor split being .5 seconds behind that caused them to not run as fast. Once they made that switch though and added in Anaya Monroe who split a 24.2, they dropped a full second off of their time.
Now you had a team of Richardson, Carter, Monroe, and Donaldson that was scary fast. They ultimately ran a 1:36.65 to take their own state record back and become the first VA team to ever break the 1:37 barrier. Branch was second in 1:37.04 breaking their previous state record again.
Both teams can make adjustments and have slightly better handoffs but there is no denying that not only is Western Branch good, they and Team War are great and both are on another level compared to the entire nation.
This just shows you that sometimes having five runners is better than having four.