Two periods of hail falling from the sky could not stop this year's Carolyn Legard Relays from being competed. A total of 23 schools and over 600 athletes competed at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County this past Saturday.
Battling an tough headwind, Annandale's John Jenkins was still able to break 15 seconds in the 110 hurdles as the indoor All-American expects to run much faster this spring than his 14.76 victory at the Carolyn Legard Relays. Teammate Joel Hoisington also knotched a first place finish in the shot put with a throw of 47'10.50".
Group AAA state indoor long jump runner-up Sean Price (pictured right by John Herzog) of South Lakes was a double winner in the other two jumping events with a 6'2" clearance in the high jump and a leap of 45 feet in the triple jump. Hayfield's Elbert Maxwell returned to competition after missing much of the last half of the indoor season due to injury, which earlier in the season had figured to be an All-State finisher in the high jump and long jump. The Villanova recruit Maxwell won the long jump in his outdoor debut with a mark of 21'5.75".
Thomas Edison's Louis Colson, a runner-up in the freshmen mile last month at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, started his outdoor season off on the right foot winning the freshmen/sophomore mile at W.T. Woodson in a time of 4:33.10 despite blustery conditions.
South Lakes swept the 1600 meter sprint medley relays as the boys won comfortably by three seconds at 3:41, while the girls edged out James Robinson with their final time of 4:26.67. The Robinson girls were the only team under 50 seconds in the 4x100 meter relay and barely under at 49.99 to claim that event at Carolyn Legard.
West Sprinfield girls went 1-2 in the freshmen/sophomore 1600 led by sophomore Maddie Wittich (5:22.76) and followed by freshmen Caroline Alcorta (5:23.70). Both have previously competed at a national meet in the freshmen mile.
The Bishop O'Connell girls almost won two distance relays on the day as they broke 10 minutes in the 4x800 with a first place showing of 9:58.51, but were denied another win the distance medley relay in a competitive race with West Potomac who pulled out a two second victory at 12:58.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
Meanwhile, West Potomac senior Lisa Kinston had a surprising indoor regional meet to take second place against some higher seeded throwers and had another surprise again to make her a legit threat to contend for the Northern Region outdoor title after defeating two of her region's best in Kerchina Johnson of W.T. Woodson and Renee Reives of Hayfield on Saturday with a mark of 37'7.50" in less than ideal conditions. Reives came back to win the discus with a top performance of 108'3".
