Girls:
Defending indoor team state champion Bethel certainly comes in as one of the favorites. Bethel scored a decisive victory in winning the Eastern Region championships and should face their strongest challenges from Northern Region titlest Lake Braddock and Central Region winner Hermitage.
Bethel has one of the nation\'s outstanding performers in Francena McCorory. The Bethel junior is the defending state champion in both the 55 dash and 300 dash and comes in with two of the nation\'s top times in both the 55 dash at 6.97 seconds and the 300 dash (37.97).
McCorory is also the state meet record holder in the 300 dash where she ran 38.23 last year and should be exciting to watch in either the 4x200 relay or 4x400 relay since she cannot run both becaused of the VHSL rule which limits an athlete to participating in three running events.
Bethel also comes in with the top seeded times in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays along with McCorory\'s 55 dash and 300 dash marks as well as the top mark thus far this season in the 500 dash with senior Shakirra Pinnock (1:16.30).
Central winner Hermitage is led by junior Queen Harrison, who is one of the state\'s top performers as well. Harrison assumes the favorite\'s role in both the long jump and also the triple jump, where she has one of the nation\'s top marks at 39 feet, 11.25 inches.
Hermitage will also be looking for big points from Harrison in the 300 dash and from senior Jasmine Major in the 55 hurdles as well as their 4x200 relay which should also contain Harrison and Major.
Northern Region champion Lake Braddock has the other returning meet record holder from last year with senior Ashley Haislip in the high jump. Haislip, who holds the state meet record of 5-8.5; improved on her personal best last week with a new region meet record of 5-9.
Haislip could have plenty of competition in the high jump, which should be one of the most hotly contested field events with sophomore Ashley Gatling of Deep Creek, Armstrong senior Brittanie Williams and Tallwood junior Jasmine Gates also legitimate contenders.
Haislip is also one of the top contenders in the pole vault where Lake Braddock will look for additional points from junior Anna Noguchi. Lake Braddock will also be pushing for points in the shot put with junior Teressa McCoy, the 1,000 run with Kelsey Snowden, the 3,200 run from Erin Klein and in the 1,600 run and 4x800 relay with both Snowden and Klein as possible participants.
Other teams in the mix include Northern Region runnerup Hayfield, with senior Melissa Dewey as one of the favorites in the 1,600 run along with seniors Amanda Patterson of Midlothian and Oakton\'s Danielle Light and the 3,200 run where Dewey and Patterson have had some good matchups in the past, and Hayfield will also be looking for points in the sprints led by senior Murielle Ahoure and sophomore Marika Gray.
Central Region runnerup Manchester looks to have points in the 300 dash with senior Carmenta Mitchell and in the 500 dash with senior Kelly Keener with Mitchell and Keener also pivotal parts of their 4x200 and 4x400 relays.
Individuals to watch in the field events include senior Shemelia Brandon of Halifax County, senior Rachel Lewis of Meadowbrook and freshman Brittini Finch of Centreville in the long jump and triple jumps; sophomore Anne Marie Gordon of Mills Godwin, last year\'s state runnerup in the pole vault along with Jefferson senior Mari Yamaguchi in the vault and the shot put has a quartet of throwers over 40 feet this year with junior Kathy Howard of Lee-Davis and junior Jessica Wade of Deep Creek joining McCoy of Lake Braddock and defending champion Antoinette Smith of E.C. Glass in that event.
On the track, Shameka Kentish of Salem was last year\'s runnerup in the 55 dash and comes into the meet with the second seeded time behind McCorory of Bethel; Western Branch junior Kenya Jones has posted the only sub 3:00 clocking among AAA performers thus far this season in the 1,000 run and the 4x800 relay looks to be a very close and competitive race among Northern Region rivals Westfield, Lake Braddock, Robinson and Oakton with Midlothian from the Central Region also looking to get into the fray.
Boys:
Last year\'s quest for the boys team state title, both indoors and outdoors, was pretty much a two team battle going in and coming out between Deep Creek and Westfield with Deep Creek claiming indoors but Westfield rebounding to win outdoors.
This year\'s indoor meet does not seem to have the decided front runners as last year. That could mean a race between a number of teams down to the wire, or just as easily, a team having a breakthrough weekend and surprising everyone with their margin of victory.
Field events, not always, but certainly as more the rule rather than the exception, usually are a huge help to the ultimate winner. Although they only have a few spots in which they can score, Granby looks to get on the board early in the horizontal jumps. Granby senior Dionne McClain was the state runnerup indoors last year in the triple jump and has one of the nation\'s top marks this season at 49-2.75.
Granby also has one of the top long jumpers in junior Chris Bell with Bell also one of the top seeds in the 55 hurdles as well. However, the favorite in the long jump is Thomas Dale senior Dennis Boone, who has one of the top marks in the U.S. at 24-8.5 and is the only returning state champ from individual events on the boys side this year.
Landstown junior William Harvin is a threat in both the long jump and triple jump while Boone is also one of the favorites in the 55 dash and Forest Park\'s Cameron Perry always seems to perform well in the big meet atmosphere and is one to watch in the long jump and 300 dash.
The boys shot put pits Eastern Region rivals Thomas McCutcheon of Deep Creek, sophomore Jaymes Brooks of Denbigh and junior Joe Jones of Oscar Smith against each other once again and the pole vault is of special interest because of multi-talented junior Michael Morrison of Great Bridge.
Morrison has a best this season of 16-2 in the vault and could be a threat to former Great Bridge star Lawrence Johnson\'s 1992 meet record of 16-1. Morrison has also posted one of the top times in the 55 hurdles and is entered in the long jump as well.
In the straightaway events, Boone of Thomas Dale should have his hands full with juniors Charles Clark of Bayside and Ervin Riddick from Oscar Smith in the 55 dash while Bell of Granby and senior B.J. Revis come into the 55 hurdles with marks well ahead of the rest of the competition.
The longer sprints have Clark of Bayside coming in with consistently fast times all season in the 300 dash with a best of 34.24 and Hayfield\'s Christopher Richardson has moved to the head of the field in the 500 dash after his Northern Region winning time of 1:05.29 with Deep Creek junior Quentin Moore also one of the top seeds in both the 300 dash and 500 dash.
The distance races may be the only spots where J.R. Tucker can score points, but they have the capabilities from the 1,000; 1,600 and 3,200 runs along with the 4x800 relay to maybe get over the 40 point range and put a scare into a lot of teams, if all goes well for them.
Tucker has the decided favorite in the 1,600 with AAA Cross Country champion Michael Chapa and Chapa is also the top seed in the 3,200 run. Chapa\'s teammate Mason McElroy is seeded narrowly behind Chapa in the 3,200 run at the second slot and McElroy also has one of the top times in the 1,600.
Add to that Thuom Mathiang of Tucker as one of the co-favorites in the 1,000 run and that the trio of Chapa, McElroy and Mathiang will have a good deal of rest after competing in the 4x800 relay the night before due to the new schedule change instituted last year, and Tucker cannot be counted out of the mix.
Others to watch in the distance races as they try to break up the Tucker trio include juniors Kris Benton of West Springfield and Robinson\'s Mark Hussa in the 1,600 run; Chantilly junior Brad Siragusa and Hayfield sophomore Jeff Miller in the 1,000 run; seniors Dawit Legesse of Lee along with Kyle Smith of Jefferson in the 3,200 run and junior Patterson Wilhelm of E.C. Glass in both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.
In relay action, it would be very surprising if the 4x800 lacked for excitiment with Langley, Herndon, J.R. Tucker, West Springfield and Robinson probably all feeling that they have a legitimate shot of winning the race and with Jefferson, Lee-Davis and Hayfield also feeling like they can make their presence felt.
In the 4x400 relay, Deep Creek has once again posted the top time entering the meet and are still the benchmark of the race while the 4x200 relay may once again rely on the combination of getting a good position from the leadoff runner; holding on to the baton, staying within the relay zone during the exchanges and not getting disqualified for cutting a fellow sprinter off. That will be a tall order with the dozen or so teams all within a couple of seconds of each other entering this year\'s meet.
For complete results of this year\'s state AAA indoor meet, past meets this season and future meets this year; go to www.milestat.com and also www.dyestat.com