All photos by Ted Plunkett
Despite having an invitational being held nearby at the Boo Williams Sportsplex, the CNU Showcase still ended up being one of the best if not the best meet of the weekend drawing local and out-of-state school as the meet has annually done.
The meet featured a US #1 performance by Tiffany Harris of Churchland in the long jump as the event turned out to be a exciting duel between two returning state champions in indoor champion Tynita Butts of T.C. Williams and Harris. Butts was the national leader for a short time with her 19'7.50" mark earlier in the competition and thought the mark would be good enough to win the competition as she had packed it in to conserve energy for the 55 meter dash finals coming up, but Harris had other plans. On her final jump, Harris leaped to a personal best mark of 19'10.75" to move ahead of Butts to win the event and ontop of the national leaderboard. She got all of the board as the pop sound was quite loud and noticeable
Harris did not stop with the triple jump as she finished off her big Friday night with a victory as well in the 500 meter dash as she went 1-2 in the event with teammate Cydney Robinson (2nd, 1:18.62) in a time of 1:18.62.
After being upset in the long jump on Friday, Butts came back to win the high jump on Saturday with a 5'8" clearance, which was only a inch off her current US #1 season best of 5'9".
J.R. Tucker's Jasia Richardson, the defending AAA state indoor champion, competed in her second track meet of the season and won for the second meet in the triple jump with a mark of 38'3.75". With the recent 40+ foot marks by Grassfield's Karimah Shepherd, Richardson will now find herself in the underdog role this season despite being a returning state champion.
In the shot put, Jaleesa Williams of First Colonial put up a state leading mark of 41'5" to improve upon her previous best by a foot and half. Williams, a fifth place finisher last spring at the AAA State Meet, has asserted herself as a state title contender with her performance at CNU. Jacob Brent and Wes Tuck made it a 1-2 sweep for Lee-Davis in the boys shot put this weekend with Brent at 48'6" and Tuck at 47'1.75". The two throwers from Lee-Davis could produce a similar finish at the Central Region Meet later in the season.
The boys 55 meter hurdles featured two of the big three in the hurdles this season with Vincent Brown of South Lakes and Reynaldo Radlin of North Stafford facing off at CNU. Brown got the better of Radlin with both posting season bests times in a state leading time of 7.52 (US #8). Radlin settled for second in a US #11 7.57.
Two of the Eastern Region's top hurdlers also battled it out in the 55 meter hurdles and the result was state best and US #4 performance from Taylor Wheaton. Wheaton, one of the state's top 300 meter hurdlers last spring, showed she is just as competitive in the short hurdles with 8.14 clocking to defeat Bethel's Courtni Pannell (8.22).
Landstown's Marlena Wesh had a solid opener to her 2009 track season scoring two victories in the sprints with a 7.20 clocking in the 55 meter dash and her best race of the meet came on Saturday in the 300 meter dash. Wesh clocked the nation's fastest time on a flat track with a US #2 39.73. She certainly should be blowing past her personal best of 39.41 fairly soon with a strong start already.
Lee-Davis senior Stephanie Cario, one of the state's most improved runners in the cross country season, showed her improvements on the track as well with a 35 second PR in the 3200 meter run to win the event and automatically qualify for the state meet in a time of 11:23.05 as she beat the standard by a second. The boys' race saw a school record performance by race winner Colin Mearns as the Jamestown junior clocked in at 9:27.90 to win by a margin of 12 seconds over Western Branch's Blake Theroux.
The Woodside boys had a strong meet in the relays as they defeated Colley's Jamestown squad in a close finish in 8:14.54 to Jamestown's 8:14.59. Woodside's talented mid-distance runner Brandon Burton played a key role in the race with a strong third leg to pull them even with Jamestown into the anchor leg. Woodside finished out the meet by dipping under 3:30 in the 4x400 to win two of the three relay races in the meet.
The Bethel girls were head and shoulders better than the rest in the sprint relays with a six second win in the 4x200 (1:44.71) and 13 second win in the 4x400 (3:59.52). Their 4x200 meter relay time is the fastest time so far in Virginia, while the 4x400 performance ranks them #4 in the nation.
Both fast sections of the 4x800 meter relays had winners determined in the final strides as Maggie Walker ran down Central Region rival Midlothian after Midlothian front loaded with Paige Johnston and Amy Witt as their first two legs. However, it was not enough distance to keep Clarissa Schick from running down their anchor for a 10:01.51 victory with Midlothian in second at 10:02.44.
While Johnston's sub 2:20 opening leg split on Friday night in the 4x800 meter relay was not enough to get her team a first place finish, the Midlothian senior and state champion in the 1000 meter run two years ago blew away the field on Saturday in the 1000 with a state best time of 2:58.68. Johnston, who will be headed to the University of Arkansas next year, is now currently ranked #3 in the US with performance and appears to be in great shape to go after another state title.
Johnston had her shares of ups and downs last year as a junior and appears to have bounced back as has teammate Brayden Burleigh with his 1600 meter victory at CNU. Burleigh, a 4:20 miler as a freshmen last year, had a disappointing cross country season marred by an IT band injury, but appears to be healthy and have his confidence back after a resounding 7 second win at CNU in a time of 4:24.94.
The boys 1000 meter run had a little bit more drama as it went down the wire between Grafton's David Gunnerson and Lee-Davis' Cody Snyder. The junior Gunnerson held off the sophomore Snyder (2:34.79) in narrow victory at 2:34.67.
Jordan Rodgers of Landstown was beat out by Bethel's Austin Cuffee (1:07.64) in the 500 meter dash, but got redemption in the 300 meter dash against Cuffee's teammate Earl House in a 35.64 performance. House (36.01) was vying for his second first place finish of the meet after winning a tightly contested 55 meter dash finals on Friday in6.49.
There might not be many state champions this year out of the Central Region, but the boys' long jump should be an event which the region is competitive in at the state level thanks to Central District athletes Anthony Carlie of Prince George and Wesley Benitez of Matoaca. Carlie won the long jump at CNU with a mark of 22'5", while Benitez leaped just over 22 feet for second place.
All photos by Ted Plunkett
Despite having an invitational being held nearby at the Boo Williams Sportsplex, the CNU Showcase still ended up being one of the best if not the best meet of the weekend drawing local and out-of-state school as the meet has annually done.