An exciting two days of competition as several out-of-state teams and indivdiuals certainly enhanced the fields at the Boo Williams Winter Break Invitational in Hampton. The Elizabeth Seton girls from Maryland and Wakefield boys from North Carolina won the team titles. More to come from the meet including photo gallery and meet summary. Complete results and all race videos posted.
The Elizabeth Seton girls were led by Adenike Pedro, who finished second in the long jump (18'7.50") and 55 meter dash (7.19), while taking first place in the 200 (US #5 26.07) and 60 meter dash (7.62). Her time in the 60 meter dash ranks her #2 nationally.
Wakefield boys tallied many points from their strong group of quarters milers as shown with their 4x400 win and 1-2 finish in the 500 meter dash with Trip Foreman (1:07.03) and Tye Smith (1:08.39) along with David Riddleberger's first place run in the invitational boys 400 (52.33). Mitch Mallory also scored 10 points for the team champions in a runaway 9:44 victory in the 3200 meter run.
Wakefield had a strong close to the meet with victories in both the boys and girls 4x400 meter relay with a US #1 time posted by their girls relay with a time of 3:57.69 in a come from behind win over Bethel (3:58.23). Wakefield girls were anchored by Ariah Graham, who won the 300 meter dash earlier in a time of 40.73 and placed fourth in the 55 meter dash finals, which was won by teammate Olicia Sharp in a 7.17 clocking. Sharp ironically ran at Bethel High School last year before moving to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Justin Lord from Glens Hill High School in Augusta, Georgia made the long trip from the South to Hampton and came away with the nation's fastest time at 60 meters with 6.92 clocking after taking first in the 55 meter dash earlier in the meet and third place in the 200 meter dash on Friday, which produced three of the top four times in the country. Walter Mitchell won the hot 200 meter dash race in a time of 22.45 with Great Bridge's Taylor Sykes (2nd, 22.67) and Lord (3rd, 22.74) trailing him intot he finish line.
Manchester's Devron Harris had breakthrough meet clocking a personal bests in the prelims (7.69) and finals (7.68) of the 55 meter hurdles and also reaching a new all-time best in the high jump with his clearance of 6'4" as a runner-up to Southeast Raleigh star jumper Steven Bell. Bell made a clean sweep of the jumping events with the top marks in the long jump (21'9") and triple jump (47'8"), clearing 6'6" in the high jump. His top performance of the meet being the US #2 mark of 47'8" in the triple jump on Friday.
The girls' jumps also produced some national caliber marks including a US leading triple jump by Teira Denmark of First Colonial with her leap of 37'9.50" to accompany her 5'4" win in the high jump on the first day of competition. The long jump on day two featured two of the state's top returning long jumpers in Jazmen Townsend of Grassfield and Nikki Nunn of Manchester as well as Elizabeth Seton's Pedro. Townsend was able to get the big jump off early at 19'1", which neither Pedro nor Nunn were able to beat.
Anna Spiers of Maggie Walker dominated the competition in the middle distance races with resounding wins in the 1000 meter run on Friday (3:07) and 1600 meter run (5:18) on Saturday. Another Central Region runner in Lee-Davis freshmen Bonny Turnage turned in a solid solo run of 11:36 in the 3200 meter run.
Danielle Davis, younger sister of high school hurdles record holder Wayne Davis, showed her hurdling superiority over the field in the finals of the 55 meter hurdles with the Southeast Raleigh junior posted a US #5 clocking of 8.24.
Several top distance runners from the Eastern Region were working on a some turnover and speed work in their race selections at the Boo Williams Winter Break meet including Drew Paisley of Ocean Lakes and Jordan White of Great Bridge, who both won middle distances on Monday with Paisley taking the 800 meter run (1:59.57) and White winning the 1000 meter run (2:40.87). Western Branch's top distance runner Blake Theroux ran on several relays including their 4x800 meter relay, which clocked the state's fastest time in the event at 8:15.
The Deep Creek girls were a surprise winner in the 4x200 meter relay out of the slow section as they were pressed to the line by district rival Western Branch in their section with a time of 1:45.79. The Bethel boys were able to gain some separation between themselves in the competition to stay clear of relay hand off trouble and win the 4x200 in a time of 1:32.98.
First Colonial's Justin Burke rolled out a swift time of 35.68 in the boys 300 meter dash, while Hampton's Ashley Sessoms dipped under 1:20 in the 500 meter dash with her 1:19.25 win.
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
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An exciting two days of competition as several out-of-state teams and indivdiuals certainly enhanced the fields at the Boo Williams Winter Break Invitational in Hampton. The Elizabeth Seton girls from Maryland and Wakefield boys from North Carolina won the team titles. More to come from the meet including photo gallery and meet summary. Complete results and all race videos posted.