15 All-American finishes and one national record highlighted day two for Team Virginia at New Balance Nationals. Stealing the show completely though were the Bruins of Western Branch who went tallied up five All-American finishes and one national record in just one day.
These finishes included a 4th place (1:36.64) in the girls 4x2, a 2nd place (1:26.01) in the boys 4x2, a 5th place finish by Gary Williams in the triple jump (49-1.75), and a 1-2 sweep by the ladies in the shuttle hurdle relay.
Read about Western Branch's national record setting SHR here!
The Branch wasn't the only team showing out, in fact it seemed like the entire 757 was taking care of business yesterday. An additional eight All-American finishes came from them in just one day. That brings the total to 13 All-American finishes from one area code!
Helping that total on a team front was Nansemond River taking third in the girls 4x200 (1:36.03), Tallwood's girls SHR finishing in 6th (60.32), and Oscar Smith's very young SHR taking 3rd in a close 58.29.
Qualifying for Sunday's final in the 4x100 were just three teams from Virginia. Western Branch qualified both teams (45.55 to rank 2nd in the girls, 40.81 to rank 1st in the boys) and Potomac Senior qualified their boys team (41.57 to rank 3rd).
On the individual front Team VA also had a great day with seven All-American finishes and two wins in the Emerging Elite division.
In the shortest, fastest, race of the day it was Blacksburg's Cole Beck running a blistering 10.41 to finish as the national runner-up in the 100 as only a junior. His teammate, Ben Fleming, took a longer approach and raced his was to a nice PR and 7th place 6:04.85 finish in the 2K steeplechase.
Also going the distance was Colgan's Antonio Lopez winning the EE Two Mile in 9:21.38 despite some sweltering humidity and heat.
Finishing out the individual action on the track Saturday was Timothy Payne (Heritage -NN) and Kori Carter (Team War) going 13.93 and 13.56 respectively to take All-American 6th and 4th places in the high hurdle finals.
Though they weren't technically competing as a team, Thomas Dale definitely showed out as a team. They took the Boys EE 4x1 (with three returning athletes) in 42.00, were the runners-up in the Girls EE 4x1 in 47.87 and capped off their day with Titiana Marsh's national runner-up 42-2.75 finish in the triple jump.
Completing the day's top finishes for Team VA in the field events were three All-Americans and a solid 12-10 performance by Jefferson Forest's Autumn White in the championship pole vault.
Like the track events, it was the "All 757" show with some great athletes taking those All-American spots. Brooke Stith of Maury finished 6th in the triple jump (40-11.5), Seth Harrell of Grassfield finished 5th in the shot put (64-6.75), and Hasani Knight of Landstown finished third in the triple jump (50-00.75).