The most talented district in the state of Virginia, Southeastern District, took the track at the Boo Williams Sportsplex on a rescheduled date Monday in Hampton. Many of the same teams, individuals, and relays will be competing for state titles two weekends from now at the VHSL Group AAA State Championships.
Photo by Ryan Kelly
Taylor Sykes of Great Bridge regained his spot at the top of the national leaderboard in the 500 meter dash with a 1:05.02 performance at the district meet. Sykes will look to continue to lower that time in the coming weeks and approach his 1:03.69 facility record. Times are important, but Sykes will have a main goal of getting the monkey off his back and win his first state title in two weeks.
Western Branch junior Keilah Tyson continues to move up the Virginia high school indoor all-time list in the 55 meter dash as she nearly joined a handful of past greats under 7 seconds in the 55 meter dash with her US #2 clocking of 7.00. Tyson is now ranked #6 all-time in state history and will have the opportunity to lower her time as well as win a second straight Group AAA state title later this month.
Indian River boys became the first 4x200 meter relay team to legitimately run under 1:32 in the relay event on an indoor track with fully automatic timing in their 1:31.74 clocking as the two previous teams under 1:32 in Virginia posted their times on hand timed outdoor meets.
The 1600 meter run had a spirited race and surprise winner in Jeremy Greenwald of Grassfield defeating Blake Theroux of Western Branch by a second with his personal best time of 4:19.98. A significant drop in one year for Greenwald who had never broken 4:30 prior to the 2009-2010 season. The Grassfield junior nearly pulled off a second win later in the 1000 meter run (2nd, 2:35.05) against Theroux's teammate George Matais (2:34.98).
The Western Branch boys won by a margin of 38 points in the final team standings with Grassfield as the runners-up. Kendrick Smith was the top individual performer for the defending outdoor state champion Bruins with PR marks and district titles in both the long jump (22'11") and triple jump (46'9.50").
242 is the number and points total which symbolizes the complete dominance of the Southeastern District by the Western Branch girls. There is no lack of quality competition with the district. Just the Western Branch girls are just that much better than the rest.
The finals of the 55 meter dash put the Western Branch dominance on clear display taking the top 5 places and top 6 of seven behind state leader and champion Keilah Tyson. The girls 55 meter hurdles was no exception with another six of the top seven. Western Branch also exceled in the field events with champions in the high jump (Tyson 5'2"), triple jump (Tiffany Ellick 36'11"), and shot put (Sydni Cobb 36'10.50").
Grassfield did not nearly have the depth to keep pace with Western Branch, but certainly had some individual stars which will be some of the top competitors at the state level including Jazmen Townsend in the long jump and Amanda Smith in the 1000 meter run. Townsend improved upon her US #4 mark and only two inches off her VA #14 all-time performance in a leap of 19'4" on Monday. Amanda Smith, the 2008 outdoor state champion in the 800, is emerging as a state title contender once again in the the 1000 meter run with a PR and first time under 3 minutes in 2:59.91.
Southeastern District Chamionships Complete Results
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
105
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