Region IV Championships: Blacksburg boys break 8 in 4x800

The Blacksburg boys joined the Albemarle boys as the only other 4x800 meter relay in Virginia to break 8 minutes this season and possibly are the first Group AA school to ever dip under the time indoors ever. The team of Brian Hencke, Matt Howard, George Carter, and Quinn Hill ran a US #12 time of 7:58.95 at the Region IV Championships held Saturday at Virginia Tech. It was a solo effort for the relay with 50 seconds to spare on the runner-up team.

Three of the four relay members came back to win individual regional titles with Hencke in the 1000, Carter in the 1600, and Howard in the 3200 while Hull was a runner-up in the 500. Blacksburg decisively won both team titles with the boys' team tallying 142.50 points and the girls' team scoring 137 points.

Joanna Stevens led the Blacksburg girls with a sub 5 PR effort in the 1600 at a US #18 4:58.94, while running under 3 minutes for the third tme this season in the 1000 for a fine double in 2:59.18.

Marion junior Shawnee Cartnett made a huge drop from her previous best in the 500 with her 1:16.93 regional meet record performance. Carnett had a previous best of 1:20.44 in the event.

Salem had a very successful meet out of its jumpers with two regional champions in Scott Campbell in the long jump and Joseph Villanueva setting a new meet record with his mark of 46'1" in the triple jump. Campbell and Villanueva teamed up to run on their 4x200 meter relay, which smoked a meet record time of 1:32.05 as they took the relay event by a six seconds. Campbell won the 300 meter dash later in 36.64, while teammate Antonio Medley took the regional title in the 55 meter dash in a 6.77 clocking.

Christiansburg held off the Salem boys for second in the team standings though as Travis Hudson was the Blue Demons' key performer with first place finishes in the 55 meter hurdles and high jump.  Hudson could be contending for a Group AA state title in the hurdles in two weeks, but teammate Jonathan Taylor is an even stronger favorite in the shot put as the Group AA leader went over 50 feet once again with a mark of 51'10.50" at the regional meet.

The Cave Spring girls tried their best to keep pace with Blacksburg and finished in second with 102 points. The Lady Knights were strong in the field events including a regional title by Edy Ndem in the triple jump (36'11"). Rachel Crum was a runner-up in the high jump at 5 feet, but her best event was the 55 meter hurdles in which she claimed first with a 8.60 clocking, which ranks her #2 in Group AA, but she had to beat the current Group AA leader Amber Church (2nd, 8.72) of Pulaski County in order to win the Region IV title.

Tatum Tyler of Cave Spring ran a great race in the 1000 meter run to break up the Stevens twins of Blacksburg and nearly break 3 minutes for the first time as runner-up to Joanna Stevens in 3:00.71. Tyler also ran a leg on the victorious 4x400 meter relay (4:10.27).

Region IV Championships Results

Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.

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