The Western Albemarle girls picked up points with a fourth place finish from their 4x800 meter relay (9:51.66) and fourth and sixth place finishes from Samantha (11:12.79) and Kelsey Stafford (11:27.69) in the 3200 meter run. However, the bulk of their scoring came not from their distance by a one-two finish in the pole vault by junior Ashley Early and sophomore Ashley Atwood in the pole vault. Early recorded what should be the performance of the meet as she soared to a new state record and state meet record of 12-06.25 as she bested her previous state meet record by nearly 1 1/2 feet (previous record held by Early at 11-1). Atwood tuned in a fine performance as well to take state runner-up honors to her teammate with a successful clearance of 10-3.
The Lady Warriors with 31 points, lead second place Brentsville (17 pts) by 14 points. The Brentsville girls won the 4x800 meter relay in a time of 9:45.10 as they rallied back to win after dropping the baton earlier in the race.
Meanwhile, the Brentsville boys picked up all of their 20 points to put them in first place by 9 points in the 3200 meter run. Senior Pat Eggleston led the way as he won the race with ease in a time of 9:37.51. Teammates Nick Gehlsen (3rd, 9:46.57) and Henry Melius (5th, 9:49.73) also had strong races to pick up key points for the Tigers.
Defending indoor state champions Lafayette sit in second place with 11 points as senior Dakari Taylor-Watson won the triple jump as expected with a leap of 47-04.75. Taylor-Watson also qualified for the 110 meter hurdle finals in Friday\'s preliminaries by winning his heat in a time of 15.04.
Heritage (Leesburg) senior Les Bradley had the top time out of those hurdle prelims with a personal best time of 14.46. Saturday\'s finals should be a blazing one with three other athletes going under 15 seconds on Friday with Powhatan senior Hakem Abdul-Saboor (14.61), William Fleming senior Brandt Hicks (14.66), and Brookville freshmen Ethan Nixon (14.79) qualifying for the finals with Bradley and Taylor-Watson.
Bassett should be picking up plenty of points on Saturday thanks to star sprinter Brandon Dillard as the senior posted the top times in the 100 and 200 meter dash prelims with times of 10.64 and 21.64 respectively Friday evening. Dillard may shoot for the state meet records of 11.58 and 21.34 in those events in tomorrow\'s finals.
The boys\' 4x800 meter relay was a great race as four teams went under 8:10 with Jefferson Forest taking the victory in a time of 8:03.67 with Fort Defiance (2nd, 8:05.79), New Kent (3rd, 8:08.66), and Salem (4th, 8:09.80) trailing behind the first place Cavaliers.
Waynesboro senior Jordan Purvis got revenge on Region II rival Erik Lindamood as Lindamood came in as the favorite after beating Purvis for the regional crown last weekend in the shot put. Purvis threw a personal best toss of 56-2 to win the event over Lindamood (52-10.25) on Friday.
The Group AA girls\' sprints and hurdles is loaded with talent as shown with the times put up in the preliminary heats on Friday evening.
Brunswick senior Patriece Potts looks to win two state titles on Saturday after posting some scorching top times in the preliminaries for both the 100 (11.83) and 200 (24.47) meter dashes. Her 100 meter time shattered the old state meet record of 11.89. She\'ll have a opportunity in tomorrow\'s 200 meter finals to take down the meet record of 24.36 in that event.
Qualifying for both of those finals by winning her heats was Courtland junior Sha\'Tia Hart as she went 12.39 in the 100 meter dash and 25.32 in the 200 meter dash. Any unexpected points she can pick up in those events will be extra cushion for the defending state champs Courtland as they try to deal with the first day burst of points from Western Albemarle\'s Early and distance girls and the expected slew of points coming from Bowman and company for Fauquier.
Hart did her job on day one by qualifying in the two running events as well as taking state runner-up honors in the girls\' triple jump with a mark of 36-11 to Staunton River senior Candice Nelms. Favored coming into the meet, Nelms won the event with a mark of 37-03.25. Nelms and Hart will do battle again tomorrow in the long jump as the two top seeds.
It will take a freak hurdle fall to crash the hopes of the Jamestown sister duo of Kierra and Tierra Gregory from taking the top two spots in tomorrow\'s 100 meter hurdle finals. Kierra posted the fastest time in Friday\'s prelims with a 14.74 clocking, while Tierra had the second fastest at 14.97.
Park View freshmen Natalie Baird came into this weekend\'s state meet as the state\'s leading discus thrower and walked away from the meet as the state\'s best as she won the event with an improved state leading throw of 139-11. With her toss, Baird broke a 25 year old state meet record in the event set in 1981 (138-11). Taking a respectable second place finish to Baird was senior Dominique Hull of Liberty (Bealton) with a toss of 134-9.
No surprise in the girls\' 3200 meter run as Fauquier senior Sarah Bowman blew out the field by over 30 seconds to win in a time of 10:21.15. Not a weak field either to blow out as Northside sophomore Catherine White, who held the state\'s fastest time in the event prior to Bowman\'s US #1 10:16 performance at her district meet, took state runner-up honors in a solid time of 10:53.11. Bowman\'s time broke the old state meet record by nearly 25 seconds (10:46.03 by Jennifer Beury in 2003). Brentsville sophomore Becky Stewart had her best of the spring as she took third place honors in a time of 11:09.14 to help the Lady Tigers move into second place in the team standings after day one.