Oleson pictured left by John Herzog, Holloway pictured right by Ted Plunkett
The Green Dragon Relays, rescheduled for Tuesday at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond featured several of the state's top athletes in the field events including new state leader and US #2 performer Stephanie Oleson of Henrico with her 11'6" clearance in pole vault. Oleson joins four others nationally who have cleared over 11'6" so far this indoor season.
Also competing in the meet were Highland Springs two field event stars in girls high jumper Sherhae Holloway and boys shot put thrower Sulaiman Fareed as both state leaders won their respective events without much competition. Fareed is currently #4 in the US with his season best throw of 56'10.50" earlier this month at CNU, while Holloway's 5'8" clearance in a duel with Keilah Tyson on the first weekend of December at Boo Williams still ranks among the top 3 in the country. Fareed was only able to throw just over 50 feet and Holloway went out at 5'2" at the Green Dragon Relays for first place finishes.
While Oleson and the pair from Highland Springs are ranked among the top 5 in the country, Manchester senior Nikki Nunn had led the nation prior to this most recent weekend with Jen Clayton of New York leaping half of an inch better at the Bishop Loughlin Games in New York at 19'2.75". Nunn is ooking at two out-of-state schools in the University of Tennessee and Penn State as her top two college choices as of now. She won the long jump at the Ashe Center with a modest mark for her of 17'7".
Manchester made a clean sweep of the hurdles with Erica Perkins (9.23) and Devron Harris (7.96) scoring wins in the first running events of the meet.
Varina's Jazmine Brown, a runner-up to Nunn in the long jump with a mark of 17'0.50", had a good day in the sand pits as she posted the top performance in the triple jump with a leap of 35'8".
Two past state meet qualifiers battled it out in the girls 1600 meter run with Amanda Tomlin of Prince George leading Abby Badura for Clover Hill throughout the race and holding her off for a 1 second victory in 5:27. Tomlin is the better miler with a sub 5:10 to her credit, while Badura ran sub 11:20 last spring for 3200 meters.
The Maggie Walker freshmen girls were dominant in the JV 1000 meter run with a top 3 sweep led by race winner Jessica Lull (3:26), who has had a pretty good track record this year in freshmen only races after winning the freshmen cross country races at the Central Region and Colonial District championships this fall. Maggie Walker distance runners also ruled the 4x800 meter relay with a 1-2 finish from their "A" and "B" team in girls race, while the boys held off a late challenge by Clover Hill for the win. Many of those same members of the girls 4x800 ran on Maggie Walker's first place 4x400 meter relay as well including Clarissa Schick and Anna Spiers.
John Marshall had a strong presence in the sprint relays including victories in both boys and girls 4x200 meter relays, JV boys 4x400 meter relay, and varsity boys 4x400 meter relay. Coach Aiken at John Marshall is certainly building a strong program at the Richmond city school.
Meet Results
Meet Videos
Meet Photos - To be added soon.
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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National Elites
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