The Atlee boys won the Central Region title thanks to a selfless effort by Ben Dejarnette in the 3200 meter run to help pull along his teammates Andrew Catanese and Andy Hesse to top 6 finishes to advance onto the state meet as well as make a late surge of points to allow the Raiders to hold off Douglas Freeman for the team title. Dejarnette also anchored home a 4x800 meter relay on Friday.
The Dominion District did not have a team in serious contention for the team title, but did produce the athletes of the meet in the running events and field events. Cosby junior Mitchell Shifflett had a big meet by crossing the line first in the 55 meter dash finals with a 6.55 clocking, running a leg on the runner-up 4x200 meter relay, and beating out district rival Quenton Haynes of James River for the 300 regional title in 37.57. Clover Hill senior Anthony Davis, a first year track athlete headed to Towson State next year to play football, won the Central Region title in the shot put with a 52'6.50" and will be a darkhorse at the state meet with a 55'6" foul attempt.
While the 3200 meter run did not have much drama in determining first as Dejarnette simply toyed with the field, the 1600 and 1000 meter races saw some great finishes. Midlothian's Brayden Burleigh led wire to wire, but another sophomore in Cody Snyder of Lee-Davis had caught up to Burleigh with a lap to go, but Burleigh was able to respond and hold off Snyder (4:29.98) for a 4:28.58 win.
After splitting a 1:56 on the 4x800 meter relay for Varina the night before playing catchup after his teammate on the first leg had the baton knocked out, Devin Lacks came back on Saturday in the 1000 meter run to face off against Colonial District champion Alec Ward of Douglas Freeman. Similar to Burleigh, Ward went out aggressively to take the lead early until Lacks attempted to make a pass in the final lap. Ward was able to hold Lacks off for a close win with Ward at 2:36.47 and Lacks at 2:36.52.
The 500 meter dash was a frenzy of falls and disqualifications in the final turn of the fast section to allow a 1-2 finish for Mills Godwin's Dominic Costanzo (1:11.63) and Eric Prince (1:12.59).
The John Marshall program has really improved under the direction of Coach Aiken and the results show with two relays qualifying for state competition with their 4x200 winning the regional title in 1:37.91 and 4x400 as close runners-up to Freeman (3:39.00) in 3:39.25.
With Erica Dobbs in the distance events and Briana Hudson in the jumps, the Deep Run girls were able to successfully defend their Central Region title with a 15 point margin between themselves and Capital District champions Lee-Davis (80 pts) with a final score of 95 points.
Dobbs, a sophomore, ran on Friday's first place 4x800 meter relay and then came back on Saturday to add another 16 points in her two individual races as she ran an automatic state qualifying time of 5:13.84 to win the 1600 meter run in 5:13.84 and then came back in the 1000 meter run to pick up a third place finish.
Hudson bounced back from her district meet in which she was ill to win the high jump title at 5'3", while also placing high in the long jump (3rd) and triple jump (4th).
The top performer in the field events though was Henrico's Elaine Derricott as she finished among the top three in four field events with runner-up finishes in the long jump and triple jump and third place finishes in the high jump and shot put. Derricott intends on competing in the multi events in college and might want to consider entering in the pentathlon at one of the indoor national meets.
Emma Dejarnette of Atlee won a deep pole vault competition with five girls over 10 feet with a clearance of 12 feet. Some of the pole vault winners from other regional meets were under 10 feet.
The Lee-Davis girls had several runner-up finishes from their distance runners to try to keep pace with Deep Run with their 4x800 meter relay, Amanda Lineberry in the 1600 meter run, and Stephanie Cario in the 3200 meter run. However, Montasia Golden was the individual athlete for Coach Mathews who really carried the load for her team with a win in the 300 meter dash, runner-up finish in the 55 meter hurdles, bringing the 4x400 meter relay from behind to win on anchor leg, as well as placing in the high jump and triple jump.
Both Paige Johnston and Amy Witt of Midlothian had dominant victories in the distance events with 1000 meter state leader Johnston just missing her meet record from a year ago with a 3:02.96 peformance. Meanwhile, Witt joined her two older brothers Ryan and Jason as a Central Region indoor champion in the 3200 meter run as Witt ran a season best time in the event with her time of 11:20.27 in the Ashe Center.
Prince George junior Desi Scott, an out-of-state transfer, faired well in her first Central Region Meet by taking the 500 meter dash with an impressive sub 1:20 performance in the Ashe Center to win the event by 3 seconds in 1:19.55.
Patrick Henry girls claimed the 4x200 regional title with a relay featuring 55 meter dash champion Shyra Molton and pole vault runner-up Lizzie Powell in a time of 1:53.13.
Central Region Championships Complete Results
Central Region Championships Photo Gallery by John Herzog
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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