River City Represents Well at 5A/6A Track States
Along with the L.C. Byrd boys team, and Atlee's Cason Gardner, already featured in articles on MileStat.com, there were a slew of outstanding performances from athletes in the Richmond region at last weekend's 5A/6A state track meet.
Most of the damage for the boys' and girls' was done in the 5A classification. Among the boys' teams, Byrd won the title, but was trailed by both Atlee (53) and Highland Springs (45), who took the second and third team slots to complete the River City sweep.
5A/6A Race Videos
Along with Gardner, Will Chapman also won for Atlee, sailing 15-6 over the pole vault standard to win by a foot and a half. Ben Clay III was the sole Springer gold medalist, with a 57-1.5 winning toss in the shot-put. Clay also placed second in the discus (153-1), four feet behind Peter Fulton of Mountain View.
Matthias Cannon of Deep Run captured the 3200 crown with a time of 9:24.86, and teammate Zachary Levet claimed third (9:28.24).
Prince George sprinter Javonte Harding nipped Potomac's Rawle Brebnor Jr. to win the 200 in 21.71, while placing second to Bird's Jaden Payoute in the 100 as Payoute narrowly won (10.67 - 10.70).
And Glen Allen's Mason Henry bounded almost 50 feet in the triple jump, with his winning performance of 49-7.25 measuring over two feet ahead of Chauncey Chambers from Robert E. Lee (Springfield).
On the girls' side, the top two teams came from J.R. Tucker (fourth with 35 points) and Glen Allen (T5 - 30). Tucker was fueled by two state champions - Kendra Smither, who won the 800 in 2:15.36, and Gabrielle Holliday, who was victorious in the discus with a throw of 139-6, 11 feet more than runner-up Megan Mann of Lee-Davis.
Mills Godwin did not finish in the top six among teams, but Britton Wilson delivered the most outstanding double individual performance of the day from someone not named Kori Carter (double hurdle winner) or Ryann Helmers (Albemarle's 1600 and 3200 champion).
Wilson torched the competition in the 400 with a time of 53.82, and then returned to win the 200 in 24.17. Both times approached the state meet records set by Syaira Richardson (53.36) and Brandee' Johnson (23.94) of Nansemond River.
The Glen Allen quartet of Ashley Henneberger, Riley Rudd, Rachael Potter and Rachel Hager won the girls' 4x800 in 9:34.41, 6.5 seconds ahead of second place Albemarle.
Life was tougher for Richmond athletes in 6A as no girls' teams placed in the top 20. Thomas Dale was tops on the boys' side, finishing ninth with 27 points. Chris Tyree was second in the 100 (10.84), and ran the second leg of their winning 4x100 relay (41.92) along with leadoff man Kamron Bonner, Deangelo Gray and anchor Sebastian Evans.