* Lynchburg Heritage's Alaysia Oakes won the triple jump and long jump at The VA Showcase
Photo Credit: Tavon Smih/MileStat
By Jim McGrath - MileStat
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Day 2 of the VA Showcase on Saturday brought a wealth of attention to the prep track world and many Virginia athletes took advantage of the stellar competition to propel themselves higher on the state, and in some cases, national leaderboards.
There were seven wins for Virginia athletes in the invitational competitions.
Alaysia Oakes of Heritage-Lynchburg earned two of them, sweeping both girls jumps events, winning the triple jump in 40 feet, 7.75 inches (U.S. No. 5), as well as the long jump with a leap of 18-11.25.
Aniya Mosley of Ocean Lakes devastated a strong field by six seconds, while taking first in the 1,000m with a US No. 3 time of 2:49.09 time. Teammate Maggie Reed won the 1,600m in 5:13.02.
Related Links:
Day 1 Recap Of Virginia Performances
Norview's Emmani Shaw captured the girls high jump in 5-4.
On the boys side, Montrell Covil of I. C. Norcom won the triple jump with a US No. 13 leap of 46-2.
And in the mixed 4x400 relay, Nansemond River's quartet hit the line first in 3:36.60.
However, the success of the Showcase can also be measured by the hundreds, possibly thousands of personal bests set by track athletes from all over the Commonwealth and beyond.
For Virginia, the best example may have come in the 3,200-meter run.
In the girls race, two Virginians obliterated their previous best times and set themselves up as top seeds for the upcoming state meets. Gillian Bushee of Herndon and Caroline Bauer from Jamestown placed 3-4 in the race and nationwide with Bushee's time of 10:33.06 and Bauer's 10:34.14 vaulting them to the top of their Class 6 and 4 performance lists.
For the boys, Justice's Ryan Watson used a strong final 800 to place fourth with a US No. 4 clocking of 9:09.89, setting himself up to become one of the few state runners in Virginia track history to break nine minutes.
The girls 4x200 relay also featured a surprise as the Heritage (Newport News) team of Kara Ashley, Myzhane Solomon, Sanaa Wooden and Madison Whyte almost ran down the Bullis team while finishing second in 1:39.50.
Whyte, who finished second in the girls 300 on Friday, halved the gap on her lap, and was just 0.33 seconds short of the win. Their effort earned a US No. 2 and VA No. 1 ranking.
"If it had only been a little bit longer, another 10 meters," Whyte said.
All the VA Showcase meet results can be found at here.