Field Events Preview
Pole Vault
These past few seasons have seen almost every pole vault record fall in the state of Virginia and though some of those athletes have graduated the competition in the vault seems to only keep getting better each year.
The top seeds are Hannah Richardson (Langley) in Class 6, Tyler Lynch (Battlefield) in Class 6, Jamie Macecevic (North Stafford) in Class 5, and Colton Ocetnik (Mountain View) in Class 5.
Shot Put
The shot put competition should be quite competitive this year and if you're there on Friday you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you did not make it over to the shot put ring to watch these athletes launch the shot as they chase a state title.
The athlete with the best chance of doing that this weekend is Hermitage's Carlos Alexander who leads his competition in Class 5 by nearly 10 feet. The next biggest leader is Anthony Lewis of Grassfield in Class 6. Here he leads the competition by close to two feet over Nour Chirchi of Thomas Edison. Grassfield is very familiar with this ring and has dominated it these past few years. They will have three guys throwing this weekend.
Then comes the girls competition where things are seeded very close. In Class 6 there is just a eight inch difference between top seed Wisdom Williams (T.C. Williams) and Joellen Driscoll (Western Branch). Branch will be fighting from behind but needs huge points here as they have Eryn Byrd ranked fourth as well. Between these two is Osbourn Park's Barbara Antwi seeded third.
In the Class 5 girls competition it is another close one with Like Matalatula (J.R. Tucker) seeded first at 40-7.25, Alexis Estep (Manchester) seeded second at 40-1.5, and Nia Brown (Bethel) seeded third at 39-0. This will be a tough competition where all six throws will be important.
Triple Jump
L'Nya Carpenter (L.C. Bird) leads the way in the Class 5 girls triple joined by Aria Goode (Norview) over 39 feet this season. In the boys Class 5 competition it is Devin Daye-Schafer (Manchester) leading with his 48-3.75 season best. Keyandre Midgett (Highland Springs) is just behind him at 46-11.5 and he is then followed by Camren Wynder-Hill (Norview) who has tripled 46-5 this season as well.
Teresa Myrthil (James Robinson) returns in Class 6 as the defending champion and is joined by Lugman Haskett (Landstown) on the boys side as the Class 6 favorite.
High Jump
Colonial Forge leads the way here, at least for Class 6. In the boys competition Trevor Thomas has cleared 6-8 this season and stands alone as the top seed while his teammates Makala Purifoy and Nayome Shipp lead the way tied in the girls competition.
In Class 5 Jahnelle Saunders (Bethel) leads in the high jump seeded at 5-8 with her teammate Joseph Jackson tied for the lead on the boys side at 6-4. He is joined by Duncan Evans (Rock Ridge) and Lamont Victoria (Prince George) both also at 6-4.
Long Jump
The final field event of the weekend and the only one contested on Saturday will be the long jump. The boys will compete on the back stretch side while the girls will compete behind the 55m start line.
Here we see a few names that are familiar and favored in other events throughout the meet. Devin Daye-Schafer (Manchester) is one who also leads the triple jump, he is followed by Norview's Camren Wynder-Hill. Another athlete who is favored here and elsewhere is Hannah Waller (South Lakes) who has leapt 18-3.25 this season to lead the Class 6 girls competition. She has the toughest competition ahead though with Ltamara Weeks (Western Branch), Teresa Myrthil (James Robinson), Emma Seetoo (Westfield), and Rebecca Stewart (Washington-Liberty) all seeded between 18-3 and 18-1.
The other favorites are Garrett Garman (Frankling County) in the Class 6 boys long jump and Mekhia McCounts in the Class 5 girls competition. Both of these favorites join six and five athletes respectively within striking distance.
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