Yesterday at Sports Backers Stadium, things changed.
Moffatt cleared a state-meet record 7 feet, 3 inches in the high jump, and Meekins won two events on a breezy and very warm opening day of the Group AAA championships.
The 6-7 Moffatt, a senior at Menchville (Newport News) bound for Arkansas, ended the indoor season ranked No. 1 in the United States at 7-2¼ but had failed to clear 7-0 since March. Given the windy conditions yesterday, Moffatt didn\'t expect things to change.
\"I didn\'t think I\'d go higher than 6-10,\" he said. \"I wasn\'t hyped.\" Then a few rivals started talking him down, and \"stuff like that makes me jump higher.\"
Moffatt cleared 7-0, then 7-1¼ to take out a 15-year-old state record. With spectators urging him on, Moffatt kept climbing, clearing 7-2 and then a personal-best 7-3, good for No. 3 in the country this spring.
\"I wasn\'t satisfied with my year,\" Moffatt said. \"But I feel good about this.\"
Meekins, who will join her sister at William and Mary this fall, won the 2000 high jump title and the indoor title this year but has struggled this spring, finishing third in the high jump and failing to place in the long jump at last week\'s Northern Region meet.
\"I just want to redeem my season,\" Meekins said.
Winning both events yesterday - at 5-8 and a personal-best 18-7¼, respectively - was a good start, and it put Oakton (Vienna) in position to take a run at the team title.
Amy Seward, expected to lead the once-favored girls of Salem (Virginia Beach), cut her right (jump) foot last weekend and is not in top form. Still, the defending state champ in the long jump and triple jump did not let 19 stitches prevent her from going 18-6½, good for second place. \"I have to try to defend my titles,\" she said, limping off the track.