It looks like that only Mother Nature getting upset could possibly stand in the away of the Albemarle boys taking the Group AAA state meet record of 7:42 after the impressive showing by the quartet in the 800 meter run at the Northwest Region Championships. All four legs of the relay which set a US high school national record in the 4x800 meter relay last month at the Penn Relays, competed in the 800 meter run on Friday at UVA's Lannigan Field and simply ran through the entire Northwest Region taking the first four places with junior Anthony Kostelac as the winner in a 1:52.40 state best followed by teammates Zachary Vrohvac (2nd, 1:54.63), Garrett Bradley (3rd, 1:55.25), and Luke Noble (4th, 1:55.82). Kostelac and Vrhovac also teamed up to take the top two spots in the 1600 meter earlier in a more strategic sit and kick race.
While Albemarle has a 4x800 of stars, Potomac Senior has one individual in Yvonne Amegashie who simply took over the regional championship in a successful competition of difficult triple with wins in the 100 meter dash (12.34), 300 meter hurdles (43.54), and 200 meter dash (24.84).
David Verburg of E.C. Glass nearly pulled off a challenging triple of regional titles, but was denied in the 200 meter dash by 300 meter hurdles winner Damien Thigpen of Stonewall Jackson (21.31) as Verburg was runner-up at 21.59. A solid time for a tired Verburg after breaking the regional meet record in the 400 meter dash in 47.82 and beginning the meet with a regional title in the 100 meter dash (10.80). Thipgen took the 300 meter hurdles title once again in a time of 37.03.
After his winning 4x800 meter relay was disqualified earlier in the day for running a leg not listed in the meet roster, Mountain View senior Thomas Porter made sure to leave his name in the Northwest Region record books by winning the 3200 meter run in a time of 9:14.49 to break his own meet record and win the outdoor 3200 regional title for a third consecutive year. Porter was a runner-up in the event as a freshmen.
Despite being a one day meet, there were a lot of great relay times posted with legs having busy days in their individual events as well. The Gar-Field boys were a huge surprise in winning the 4x800 meter relay as they improved 16 seconds from their previous season best in a 7:59.96 victory. The Stafford boys dropped four seconds off their 4x400 meter relay as runaway winners in the state's second fastest time of 3:17.76.
Two of the state's heavyweights in the shot put faced off with indoor state champion Isaiah Simmons of Woodbridge and Philip Mesadeui of Patrick Henry. Simmons remained undefeated against state competion in the shot put with a mark of 57'2", while Mesadeui finished second at 55'3". Simmons also won the discus (162'1").
The indoor state team champions from Albemarle were able to hold off a close challenge by Commonwealth District foe Riverbend for the outdoor regional titlewith 70.50 points compared to Riverbend's 63 points. Riverbend's best scoring event came in the high jump with juniors Jesse McNeil (6'4") and Kirkland Nelms (6'2") taking the first two places.
Loudoun Valley junior Lauren Privette was clearly the class of the long jump and triple jump athletes at the Northwest Region Champinships as her top marks put her well ahead of the field with a season best mark of 39'0.50" in the triple jump and 18'1" win in the long jump.
The Potomac senior girls placed second as a team with 66 points despite not having one of the larger squads in the region, but Amegashie's triple and high jump state leader Pearl Bickersteth winning her speciality as expected with a 5'8" clearance, their team was able to finish high in the team standings.
The Osbourn Park girls refused to let go over their dominance in recent years and mantained their streak of regional titles by amassing a team score of 82 points. The team title was even more significant because it completed the Northwest Region triple crown for Osbourn Park as they won the regional titles in cross country and indoor track this school year. Two of the top members of the cross country team in the fall were some of their top performers at the regional outdoor championships with Kayla Tyrrell knocking two seconds off her 800 meter time in a 2:15.12, while Ariel Karabinus won the 1600 in 5:06.57 then came back to place second to indoor 3200 state champ Kaitlyn Davis (11:09.47) of Mountain View in the 3200 meter run.
The Riverbend girls were able to spoil the Osbourn Park girls from celebrating another regional title with a win in the final event of the day in the 4x400 meter relay. Both teams dipped well under 4 minutes for the first time this spring with Riverbend in first at 3:55.73 and Osbourn Park as the runner-up in 3:56.28. Two relay legs of Riverbend also ran strong in the open 400 earlier with a 1-2 finish fromErin Edmond (56.61) and Melone Wright (56.88).
Loudoun Valley (65 pts) almost eclipsed Potomac Senior for a regional runner-up team finish as their relays were strong across the board including victories in the 4x100 (49.14) and 4x800 (9:27.57) as well as a fourth place 4x400 meter relay.
Northwest Region Championships - Complete Results
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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