The Midlothian girls made a comeback to the 4x800 meter relay scene as they denied Deep Run girls from winning a third straight regional 4x800 meter title with a season best time of 9:27.39. In previous regional meets, the Midlothian girls have been state qualified already and often do not put their "A" team on the track, but had to at this year's meet in order to advance a relay onto the state meet. Amy Witt and Paige Johnston as the final two legs were able to seize the lead for Midlothian and open up a lead.
The Deep Run girls still appear to be the team to beat in the region though as they head into day two competition with their Dobbs sisters led distance squad and the jumping tandem of Marlena Daly and Briana Hudson. Daly and Hudson both placed and scored and scored in the long jump, but will be compete in their stronger jumping events of the high jump and triple jump on Saturday.
It was a big first day for Lizzie Powell as the Patrick Henry junior set a new meet record height of 12'1" in the pole vault and also ran one of the faster times in the 300 meter hurdles prelims at 46.32, which was second fastest to Montasia Golden (45.37) of Lee-Davis. The irony for the meet record clearance by Powell is that she now removes her older sister Annie from the record books as the previous record holder at 12 feet. Patrick Henry will look to challenge Deep Run on Saturday for the overall team title with Powell coming back in the 300 meter hurdles finals as well as running on the 4x100 meter relay, which will also feature the fastest qualifier from Friday's prelims in the 100 and 200 meter dash in freshmen Shyra Moulton.
Moulton was clocked at 12.40 and 25.28 to be the top seed in both finals, which will be heavy with Meadowbrook girls as Ciarra Morris, Torie Cunningham, and Angela Harris. Meadowbrook has the fastest 4x100 meter relay in the region and maybe the only squad in the state which could hold its own against the Eastern Region's best next week at the state championships in Newport News.
James River senior Quenton Haynes had a busy Friday and will have an equally as busy Saturday as he qualified for the finals in all three sprint races he contested in the day one prelims. Haynes just barely made the finals of the 100 meter dash as the 8th and final qualifier, but dominated his next two events of the evening with limited rest in his 49.81 performance in the 400 prelims and 22.38 clocking in the 200 prelims.
South of the James River appears to be where a lot of speed is found in the Central Region as not only were the Meadowbrook girls and Quenton Haynes impressive in the sprints on Friday, but Petersburg had the fastest two qualifiers in the boys 200 meter dash with senior Marquis Bagby (11.20) and sophomore Keith Johnson (11.39).
The Mills Godwin boys made it interesting and made a valiant effort mixing it up with three automatic state qualifiers in the 4x800 meter relay from Douglas Freeman, Deep Run, and Varina, but unfortunately ended up as the odd team out in fourth place and less than second off the automatic state qualifier at 8:05.42 after leading for much of the race. Alec Ward, indoor state 1000 runner-up, anchored Douglas Freeman to their first sub 8 time of the year and the regional title in 7:59.25. While Greg Kaczka was able to outpeform Devin Lacks on anchor leg for Deep Run, who were one of the best 4x800 relays not to make the state meet indoors to finally get in outdoors in second at 8:03.62.
The Manchester girls got off to a great start in the field events to lead after day one with 28 points thanks to huge 1-2 finish in the shot put by junior Jasmine Eddy (1st, 36'5.75") and senior Elise King (2nd, 35'5"). Long jump top seed Nikki Nunn of Manchester followed up her 19'7" leap at Sports Backers Stadium for the Southern Track Classic with another mark over 19 feet on the same runway in a 19'1" victory.
Southern Track Classic champion Austin Hersh from James River was expecting a challenge from the Prince George pair of Laroyce Lewis and Tyler Johnson in the discus, but the consistent Hersh maintained his steady level of marks over 160 feet with a 161'0" best to win as Lewis and Johnson rounded out the top three. Prince George boys sit in second place in the team scoring after Friday with 16 points thanks to their throwers, while another Central District school Meadowbrook is out to a surprising lead with 20 points behind 10 points from high jump champion Garrett Tyler (6'4").
Best Hurdle Crew in State of Virginia?
It is hard to dispute the claim that the Dinwiddie High School track team is the best hurdle crew in the state of Virginia as their effort and efficiency was noted and appreciated at both the Southern Track Classic earlier this month and the Central Region Championships.
The meet resumes on Saturday at Sports Backers Stadium with the 3200 meter run at 8:30 AM and field events starting at 9:30 AM.
Central Region Championships - Day 1 Results
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
20
National Elites
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