Boys Summary
The Fork Union boys tried to keep pace, but St. Christopher's School showed itself as the superior team in the private school ranks by winning the VISAA State Indoor Championships with 145 points. Fork Union still has its streak of Prep League titles and VISAA State Outdoor titles alive, but those streaks will be in danger with a formidable squad found at St. Christopher's.
In the field events, St. Christopher's got off to a great start with a personal best and VA #2 mark from Alex James in the shot put at 54'11.75". Ben Katz tallied the most points for Coach Marshall Ware's team early in the meet with first place marks in the long jump (21'7.25") and triple jump (43'6.25") as well as a runner-up in the high jump (6'2").
St. Christopher's also had several winners on the track including Kurt Fleming in the 300 meter dash with a 35.73 clocking. Fleming, a transfer to St. Christopher's from Louisa County High School, where he was an All-State performer as a freshmen, has bolstered their relays and been the team's top sprinter. Fleming took a rare defeat on his home track in the 55 meter dash to Liberty Christian's Cody Underwood, but also ran on the victorious 4x200 meter relay in 1:32.29.
A state champion in the sprints, relays, jumps, and throws, the well-balanced St. Christopher's squad also had a champion in the distance races with Harrison Tucker dipping under 4:30 to take the 1600 meter run, while teammate Jacob Huesman was the only hurdler under 8 seconds in the 55 meter hurdles to take the finals in 7.97.
Fork Union kept pace with two first place finishes in the distance races as Patrick Hayes doubled back from a third place finish in the 1600 to win the 3200 by six seconds in a final time of 9:46. Caleb Haney posted a personal best time in the 1000 meter run to pick up 10 points for FUMA in 2:35.89. A strong showing for Haney after running the 500 earlier with a swift runner-up time of 1:07.17.
Winning the 500 meter dash with a time which ranks him in the top 10 in Virginia was Episcopal's Allante Keels in 1:06.05. Keels and the Episcopal 4x400 meter relay denied a victory for St. Christopher's to close out the meet or Fork Union with Keels anchoring home at 3:31.11. Episcopal finished third in the team standings with the late push with 61 points.
The 4x800 was also a close finish for first with Paul VI taking the win by less than a second over St. Christopher's (2nd, 8:21.50) in 8:20.68.
Jeronimo Smith, younger brother of multi-event star Nefertiti Smith, joined her sister as a VISAA state champion with a 6'4" clearance in the high jump.
Girls Summary
Nefertiti Smith was not as dominant as one year ago when she won two running events and all three jumping events at the VISAA State Championsips as the Norfolk Collegiate sophomore had to settle for a second place finish in the 55 meter dash to Episcopal's Shantel Bingham (7.33) and in the long jump to Liberty Christian's Dana Mercer (17'6.50'). Still, Smith was easily the most dominant athlete of the meet with three individual state titles in the high jump (5'2"), triple jump (37'2.50"), and 55 meter hurdles (8.63).
Norfolk Academy girls did not have a lot of first place finishes with only Rebecca Karp in the pole vault and their 4x400 meter relay closing out the meet with a season best 4:10.19 win, but several strong individual performers contributed considerable points to help Norfolk Academy to the state title with 113 points including Michelle Sutherland as a runner-up twice to Nefertiti Smith in the 55 meter hurdles and high jump.
The distance events saw some outstanding races and fast times produced. The 1600 meter run had a faceoff between two of the state's best in Barbara Strehler of Trinity and Anneka Wilson of The Potomac School. It was the first matchup between the two since the cross country season. Wilson had been the dominant of the two in cross country, but track appears to be a different story. Both runners dipped under 5:10 on Saturday with personal best times with Strehler as the winner in 5:03.29 and Wilson in second at 5:08.34. Strehler actually got a much tougher race later in the 1000 from Norfolk Academy's Anna Blackwood as less than 2 tenths of a second separated the two both at 3:01. Meanwhile, Wilson later won a fairly uncontested 3200 meter run in 11:19.63.
Mehgan Burggraf of Liberty Christian, a past VISAA state champion at 400 and 800 meters outdoors, added an indoor state title in the 500 meter dash, as the senior ran a personal best time of 1:17.88 to dominate the even with nearly 4 full seconds to spare on the runner-up performer.
Virginia Episcopal put on a dominant showing in the shot put with a 1-2 finish from its throwers Jessica Watkins (38'9") and Kori Pennick (38'6") as only three inches separated the two teammates from each other.
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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