Event by event preview of all Saturday's running events at the 2010 VHSL Group AA State Outdoor Track & Field Championships with three exception of 800 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and 4x400. Previews for those events to come late Friday after day one events.
Girls 100 Meter Hurdles - The only thing that could slow Pulaski County senior Amber Church from winning the Group AA state title is the hurdles, which she has been pretty efficient at getting over this season. Church is almost a full second faster than the next fastest competitor in Region II champion Nicole Fauteux (15.44) with a season best time of 14.55. A full second is a mile in a short event such as the 100 meter hurdles. The Radford University recruit won the state title last year in a 14.95 performance, while taking the indoor title as well this past winter in the 55 meter hurdles.
Fauteux and Warhill's Glori King join Church as the three returnees from last year's finals. Fauteux finished fifth in the 2009 state meet and has lowered her time down to 15.44. She most recently swept the hurdle titles at the Region II Championships as she took first in the 300 meter hurdles as well. Top jumpers Javanique Burruss of Louisa County and Karissa Jenkins of Robert E. Lee have the athleticism which extends to be solid hurdlers as well as both are ranked among the top 6 with times under 15.70. Region III champion Erika Jackson is one of the meet's most versatile athletes as she pole vaults, jumps, hurdles, and sprints. Jackson won the 100 meter hurdles in Region III with identical times of 15.47 in both the prelims and finals.
Boys 110 Meter Hurdles - Chris Dobbins of Christiansburg and Dante Davis of Louisa County get to renew their rivalry and close finish from the state indoor meet with their first encounter since then in the 110 meter hurdles. Davis is the defending state champion and also defeated Dobbins for the state indoor 55 meter hurdles title. Dobbins is the top seed though coming into the meet as he split time during indoors with basketball and the narrowed focus has produced faster times including his most recently 14.38 clocking at the Region IV Championships.
Davis and Dobbins will not be alone though in battling for the state title as Region I's best in Saquon Moody of Smithfield and Terry Santos of King George dropped their times in their regional finals with Moody as the winner at 14.62 and Santos as the runner-up at 14.65. Defending champ Davis currently has a season best of 14.69.
Girls 100 Meter Dash - Region I apparently is where the speed is at in Group A with decisively having the fastest three entrants in the girls 100 meter dash in Group AA leader Meyhonia Layne of Eastern View at 11.95, Ronnie Powell of Southampton at 12.08, and Maya Wright of Chancellor at 12.09. Layne was slowed earlier in the season and indoor by a hamstring injury, but has caught on fire with the start of championship season with back to back sub 12 second 100 dash performances in her district and regional finals. Layne could be the fastest state champion since Patrice Potts of Brunswick set the meet record of 11.83 back in 2005.
Southampton junior Ronnie Powell was a runner-up to Layne at the Region I meet and is the top returnee from last year's state finals where she placed third. Region III champion Dominique Terry of E.C. Glass might be the top candidate to break up a Region I top 3 sweep as she clocked a season best time of 12.29 in her preliminary round at the regional meet. While Blacksburg girls can win the team title probably by their distance team alone, the emergence of freshmen sprinter Alyn Carr and her points in the sprints will not hurt their team's cause. Carr is seeded fifth in the 100 meter dash with a season best time of 12.42 as the freshmen won Region IV titles in both the 100 and 200 last weekend.
Boys 100 Meter Dash - James Monroe senior Jaquan Dickson has been a great comeback story for a troubled youth who has turned his life around and doing positive things in his life and on the track as he comes into the state meet with the leading times in the 100 and 200 meter dash including his 10.74 100 best. Dickson has been pushed at the district and regional level by a sophomore from King George in Joe Walton, who has taken second Dickson in both meets but is right on his heels at a 10.78 best.
While Dickson is attempting to win his first state title, Northside senior Phillip Scott and Amherst County senior Terrance Morse have already been there and done that as Scott won the 55 meter dash and Morse won the 300 meter dash titles indoors. Scott and Morse had a very thrilling photo finish race at the Region III Championships with Scott taking the title by only one hundredth of a second at 10.79. Long jump and triple jump to seed Wesley Gates only adds to the depth and expected close finish for the top five spots as the fifth sprinter under 11 seconds this season in the 100 meter dash in Group AA.
Girls 1600 Meter Run - Despite being two of the best distance runners on the track since Sarah Bowman, it looks like Sarah Bowman's 4:41.81 state meet record from 2005 will be safe from the Stevens twins of Blacksburg. Joanna and Kathleen Stevens can still cement their legacies as two of the greatest distance runners ever in Group AA and Virginia high school history with another sub 4:50 1-2 finish from the twins. Joanna and Kathleen's times rank among the fastest in the country this year with their converted mile performances from the Southern Track Classic at 4:46 for Joanna and 4:48 for Kathleen. Joanna has narrowly finished ahead of her sister Kathleen in the last two state 1600 meter races this past indoor season and last outdoor season for the state title.
Being pulled along to her first sub 5 performance in a regional race with the Stevens twins running 4:49 each was Hidden Valley junior Annie LeHardy with a big 4:57.26 performance in her third place finish. LeHardy enters the state meet as the third seed with the performance from the Region IV Meet and might be the only runner capable of hanging or challenging the Stevens twins as she handed Kathleen Stevens a rare loss to someone other than her twin in LeHardy's 800 meter victory at regionals.
Other runners in the field expected to finish high include Region II champion Mattie Webb (5:07) of Western Albemarle, Region II runner-up Tammy Cheung (5:08) of Millbrook, Blacksburg's Leah Fitchett, and Region I champion Heidi Peterson of Lafayette. Cheung finished third in the state indoor 1600 meter behind the Stevens twins, while Peterson is a returning All-State performer who has had little competition this season to pull her along to fast times but been winning almost all of her races.
Boys 1600 Meter Run - Indoor state champion Colin Mearns of Jamestown hopes to be entering the 1600 meter run on Saturday attempting to win his second state title of the meet after Friday night's 3200 meter run as the top seed. Mearns has been one of the state's top and most consistent performers in the distances this spring with only one loss to an in-state runner in Nike Indoor Nationals 800 meter champion Anthony Kostelac at Fork Union in the 800 meter run. The 4:10 seed time from Mearns comes from a strong Penn Relays mile converted performance back in April. Mearns might attempt to run a strategic race and not blowout a fast time in order to conserve energy
Mearns won the 1600 meter title indoors in a decisive fashion by 8 seconds with a winning time of 4:18, but likely will not be able to pull away or coast so easily with an improved field for outdoors with a clutter of guys packed in just above 4:20. Blacksburg junior George Carter has been the only one among that group to dip under 4:20 and will have slightly fresher legs than Mearns with only a 4x800 leg from Friday's events.
Carter and teammate Matt Howard who is seeded fifth will be looking to pick up key points for Blacksburg in the 1600 meter run, which appears to be a battleground for several state title contending teams including Christiansburg with fourth seed Andy Eddleton (4:21.84) while Grafton has pair of runners trying to score significantly in third seed Brian Gorwitz (4:20.84) and sixth seed David Gunnerson (4:22.70) who is a returning All-State 1600 performer and state indoor 1000 meter champion.
Girls 4x100 Meter Relay - Fast times were produced at the regional meets with virtually all of the top seeds running their best times last week in the final race before the state meet. The top two seeds looking to square off for the state title will be Region II champions John Handley at 49.01 and Region III champions Heritage at 49.11. Louisa County was not far behind Handley in second place at the Region II Meet in 49.29.
Boys 4x100 Meter Relay - Park View sent a message to rest of the relays in Group AA that the state title will run through them after an impressive 42.52 clocking, which seeds them almost a half second ahead of Region I champions New Kent at 43.04. Region I is loaded though with the fastest relays including four of the top six in New Kent, Caroline (43.07), Brunswick (43.31), and Warhill (43.36). Park View's time must be attributed to good handoffs and teamwork without an individual athlete seeded very high in any individual sprint event.
Girls 400 Meter Dash - Defending state champion Ashontae Jackson of Orange County with her season best time of 56.59 is not competing and has not raced since the Southern Track Classic to open up the door for a new champion. Tabb junior Kiara Porter was the state runner-up in the 2009 and returns as the fourth seed with a season best time of 58.39 after taking second place in the Region I Championships to Chancellor's Maya Wright (58.30).
Destiny Simmons of Robert E. Lee is the next top returnee from last year's state championships as the third place finisher in 2009 holds the top seed time from her 57.34 runner-up performance at the Dogwood Track Classic against Orange County's Jackson. Simmons coasted through a 400 meter victory at the Region III Championships.
John Handley sophomore Britani Myers is one of Group AA's top cross country runners in the fall, but this spring has exhibited great range and speed in the 400 meter dash as she won the Region II 400 title last week in a PR time of 58.14. Another swift underclassmen is found at Pulaski County in Sydney Anderson as the freshmen won the Region IV title in a stellar 58.78 run.
Boys 400 Meter Dash - Robert E. Lee senior Chris Williams is the defending state champion at 400 meters, but will not be the favorite to win after losing the Region III title to Amherst County's Terrance Morse as both posted season best times of 49.00 for Morse and 49.25 for Williams respectively. Morse has singificantly closed the gap on Williams from a year ago when he finished 7th at the state oudoor meet in a time of 50.77 compared to Williams who won in a time of 48.95. They will renew their rivalry at the state meet with Morse competing in multiple events while Williams will have a more narrow focus, but they will both be seeded behind Grafton's Dwayne Stover who clocked a big PR of 48.59 at his district meet. Stover struggled in his region meet though and finished fifth, but his district meet performance was not a complete outlier as he also won the 400 meter dash at the Suffolk Invite last month with a time of 49.03.
A total of seven athletes in Group AA have broekn 50 seconds this season including a pair from Bassett High School as Cody Lawson (49.54) and Quentin Parker (49.85) took the top two places at the Region IV Championships. Parker just missed All-State honors at the 2009 outdoor state meet with a ninth place finish in the 400.
Girls 300 Meter Hurdles - E.C. Glass sophomore Erica Jackson is favored as the top seed and Region III champion with a best time of 45.02. Jackson certainly has benefited from E.C. Glass dropping down to Group AA to become one of the top all-around athletes in the classifications. Potomac Falls senior and Region II champ Nicole Fauteux at 45.48 looks to have a better shot at a state title in the 300 hurdles versus the 100 hurdles with Pulaski County's Amber Church stronger in the shorter hurdles race.
Church has not put together that great 300 meter hurdles race this year, but a state meet would be the perfect time to do so as her form and technique is certainly superior to her competition. Church was a runner-up in last year's state meet with a personal best time of 45.64 to Dominion junior Kiya Day who returns to defend her title as the fifth seed at 46.96. Day has had to settle for second place though at her district and regional meets behind Nicole Fauteux of Potomac Falls.
Boys 300 Meter Hurdles - Last year Scott Campbell was a state runner-up just behind his Salem teammate Joseph Villanueva in a time of 39.56. Villanueva has graduated by Campbell is back as the top seed and looking to keep the 300 meter hurdles state title at Salem High School. The Virginia Tech bound Campbell won the Region IV title with his second fastest time of the season at 38.84.
ampbell's top challenge to accomplish that feat might by Region I champion Terry Santos who ran his personal best time of 39.62 in his regional race against Saquon Moody of Smithfield (40.01) as the two traded regional titles in the hurdles. Santos finished seventh at the 2009 state championships.
Louisa County's Dante Davis has always excelled and competed more regularly in the 110 meter hurdles, but the few occassions that he has ran in the 300 meter hurdles have went well for him including a sub 40 second performance at Dogwood Track Classic to make him a serious threat. Davis finished fourth at last year's state meet.