FAIRFAX, VA -- Time once again for one of the showcase events on the indoor track and field calendar with the Virginia AAA state championships to be held March 3-4 at the George Mason University Fieldhouse in Fairfax, Va.
Defending girls team champion Bethel will be looking for their third consecutive title, led by one of the nation\'s truly outstanding performers in senior Francena McCorory while defending boys indoor champion Deep Creek should also be in the mix once again as they try to fend off a group of challengers led by Great Bridge and E.C. Glass.
Friday\'s action includes field event finals beginning at 5:00 p.m. with the boys long jump, shot put and pole vault scheduled, along with the girls long jump, shot put and high jump.
On the track, running event trials are scheduled for the 55 meter hurdles and 55 meter dash for both girls and boys beginning at 7:00 p.m. with the lone running event final, the girls and boys 4x800 meter relay, to begin at 8:00 p.m.
Friday\'s field events for the girls could possibly provide a boost to a couple of the squads thinking of unseating Eastern Regional team champion Bethel from the top spot.
Great Bridge finished ten points behind Bethel as the Eastern runnerup and have senior Janet Brown as the number two seed in the long jump with her leap of 18 feet, 11 inches at her regional meet being the top mark recently. Brown will have plenty to contend with in the long jump with eight girls entered with marks of 18-1 or better, led by Northern Region champ and top seed Brittni Finch of Centreville, Queen Harrison of Hermitage and Eastern runnerup Shamika Kentish of Salem.
On what should be a busy Friday for Brown, she is also one of five entrants in the shot put with seasonal marks over 40 feet. Including Eastern champ Brown, the very good shot put field also has 40 footers Jennifer Marinacci of Manchester, who was the Central Region runnerup; the top two finishers from the Northern Region with winner Teressa McCoy of Lake Braddock and Westfield\'s Aimee Kodat and senior Kathy Howard of Lee-Davis, the favorite in the event and the defending state champion from both indoors and outdoors for 2005 who comes in with a best this season at 42-0.25.
The other field event to be contested on the girls side on Friday will be the high jump with the top seed in that event also the national leader in junior Ashley Gatling of Deep Creek at 5-9. Gatling, who finished second at state both indoors last year and this past outdoor season, should get strong challenges from Northwest Region champ April Sinkler of Brooke Point, Central winner Rachel Bulter from Lee-Davis, Kathleen Wade of Colonial Forge, Huguenot\'s Wanetta Kirby and also from her Deep Creek teammate Jonee Artis, the 2005 outdoor winner.
The boys field events has the long jump points very tough to figure with nine competitors within less than a foot of each other. Indian River senior Toriano Moody heads the field with his Eastern Region win at 23-4 the top mark coming in. Moody should be pressed by Eastern Region second place finisher Corey Vinston of Phoebus and possibly Landstown\'s Percy Harvin, last year\'s indoor runnerup and outdoor champ who did not compete at the regional meet, but put up impressive marks at his district meet three weeks ago.
Another point scorer in the long jump could be all around performer Michael Morrison of Great Bridge, but his main concentration will probably be on the pole vault. Morrison is the defending champ both indoors and outdoors in the vault and comes in with a best this season of 16-0 as he looks to not only claim the individual title, but also go after the state meet record of 16-1 set in 1992 by another in the long line of excellent Great Bridge vaulters, U.S. Olympian Lawrence Johnson.
The boys shot put has a chance to be one of the closest battles for top medals with the seasonal bests of the top six seeds all within three feet of each other. Northwest champ Michael Zajac of E.C. Glass has been the most consistent during the indoor campaign with a best of 57-10 this season and winning last week at 56-4. Other contenders in the field include outdoor champ Jaymes Brooks of Denbigh; Central winner Blake DeChristopher from Clover Hill; Woodside\'s Ryan Gordon; Oscar Smith sophomore Frede Spellman and Edison\'s Devan Clark.
The heats in the 55 hurdles and 55 semis will leave no room for error as they are just one round for advancement to the finals. Heat winners and fastest non winners of heats, based on the number of heats, will advance to a two section final with the six fastest times in the second section and times 7-12 in the first section.
A two section final is necessary for the 55 hurdles and 55 dash because of the awarding of points through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis and the fact that the indoor facility at GMU contains six lanes.
The girls 55 hurdles has three of the regional champions among the six fastest seeds with Deep Creek\'s Chantill Harvery, Queen Harrison of Hermitage and West Springfield\'s Trish Friederich. Others to watch include juniors Wanetta Kirby of Huguenot and the two fastest seeds in Peninsula District rivals Tierra Brown of Hampton and Menchville\'s Kali Watkins.
The boys 55 hurdles features senior Chris Bell of Granby. A multiple winner in the 110 hurdles outdoors at the state meet, Bell has not won an indoor 55 hurdle title and would like to atone for his fall in the finals at last year\'s indoor meet. Bell comes into the meet as the number two performer in the nation thus far this season at 7.31.
Expect some pretty swift times not making the fastest seeded section in the boys 55 dash final as a dozen sprinters come in with a time of faster than 6.50 credited to them this season. A scant .06 seconds separates the top six seeded times with Marlon Woods of Booker T. Washington and Harvin of Landstown having them, although the quickest times posted in the last two weeks were by regional champs Sean Holston of R.E. Lee; Toriano Moody from Indian River and Stonewall Jackson\'s Jared Simmons.
The girls 55 dash trials and finals will have the majority of spectators watching Francena McCorory of Bethel. McCorory will have an eye towards her third straight 55 dash crown and with a best this season of 6.86, which puts her among the top five in the nation, certainly has a legitimate shot at the 1987 meet record of 6.95 set by Monique Everett of Denbigh.
This looks to be one of the deepest girls sprint fields in a while with regional champs Thelma Breezealt of Stonewall Jackson and Matoaca\'s Shanneka Claiborne entered along with Eastern runnerup Shamika Kentish of Salem and Bethel also looking for important, additional team points from juniors Crystal Carrington and Shakia Forbes.
The 4x800 relay finals should have most of the top teams loading up, with all their distance runners having at least 16 hours before their next race the following day. The girls 4x8 has defending champ Midlothian, Westfield and Oakton coming in with the top times, but Jefferson and Lake Braddock ran well at the Northern Regional meet and Central champ Douglas Freeman is also dangerous with Christi Harsha on anchor.
The boys 4x8 has defending champion Herndon hanging around with just the number ten seed and they should be expected to move up from that spot but should expect a number of stiff challenges from among Robinson, Jefferson, Colonial Forge anchored by Dan Leyh and Hermitage with Alex Bowman on anchor, in what is usually one of the top races of the meet.
Saturday\'s remaining field events will start at 8:30 a.m. beginning with the boys high jump and girls triple jump. Hayfield senior Nakeisha Wineglass is the defending champion in the girls triple jump and her best this season of 39-6 places her among the top five in the country, but Wineglass has her work cut out for with regional champs Queen Harrison of Hermitage and Janet Brown in the field along with Deep Run\'s Ashley Orr and Rachel Butler of Lee-Davis.
The boys high jump has regional champs Anthony Bryant of Albemarle, Marlon Woods of Booker T. and Petersburg\'s Douglas Wall among the top five seeds with Corey Vinston of Phoebus and Kevin Nichols from Hickory also very consistent of late.
The girls pole vault begins at 9:00 a.m. with defending state champion Ann Marie Gordon from Mills Godwin, Chantilly\'s Nicole Kazuba and Anna Noguchi of Lake Braddock seeming to always be involved in close contests with each other and certainly not having much room to spare with Jenifer Garrott from Lake Braddock and regional champs Carolyn Lewis of Heritage and Franklin County sophomore Erin Patterson looming close behind.
The boys triple jump will follow the girls triple jump at GMU\'s one runway horizontal jump facility with Landstown\'s Percy Harvin the defending champ but with David Anderson of Halifax County, Manchester sophomore Antonio Miller and Henrico\'s Thomas Hughes all having gone better than 46 feet this season.
Saturday\'s running finals begin at noon with the aforementioned 55 hurdles and 55 dash followed by the 4x200 relay. Bethel is the girls defending champion in the 4x200 relay and even without Francena McCorory on the squad, they will be among the favorites in what could be an all Eastern Region battle at the top among Bethel, Salem, Deep Creek and Menchville.
The boys 4x2 has Western Branch as the defending champ and having another team this year among the top seeds, but Deep Creek is among the nation\'s elite again this year with one of the top time in the nation on a flat track of 1:30.20. With good exchanges a must along with an early lead, the squads from Potomac, Indian River, Landstown and Manchester could also be in the hunt.
The girls 1,600 run has seen senior Stephanie Slekis of Forest Park running very well through the latter part of the indoor season while Great Bridge junior Kristine Tobin seems to be peaking at the right time and Westfield sophomore Kerry Hartman is not afraid to push the pace in a race where at least a handful of runners should go below 5:10.
The boys 1,600 pits seniors Alex Bowman of Hermitage along with Dan Leyh from Colonial Forge against each other with AAA cross country champion Brad Siragusa also one to not count out.
The girls 500 dash is expected to be an onslaught at the state meet record by McCorory of Bethel. Two weeks ago at the Eastern Region championships, McCorory ran the nation\'s leading time this year and also moved to number four all time in the 500 dash with her superb time of 1:11.97.
To say the extemely creditable 2000 meet record of 1:13.19 set by 2004 U.S. 400 meter hurdle Olympian Sheena Johnson (Gar-Field) is within reach would be a slight understatement. McCorory will hopefully be helped by the fans in the stands as she will probably just have the clock to compete against as she comes into the race with more than a four second gap on the next highest seed, sophomore Dominique Jordan of Tallwood; who will try to improve her personal best along with Centreville\'s Cate Tisinger and Crystal Roscoe of Oscar Smith while competing against McCorory.
An old rivalry will be renewed in the boys 500 dash as defending indoor 500 champ and outdoor 400 dash champ Quentin Moore of Deep Creek has as his main counterpart top seeded Carlton Phipps of E.C. Glass, who finished second to Moore both indoors and outdoors at states with Robinson\'s Tommy Barrineau also putting up some consistent numbers in the 500 dash as well this season.
The girls 1,000 run this year has to be the deepest it has ever been, with nineteen girls under 3:05 and nine girls under 3:03 entering the meet. Great Bridge junior Kristine Tobin is the top seed with her 2:56.30 capping off an impressive distance triple at the Eastern Region meet two weeks ago. Freshman Andrea Oaxaca of Yorktown is the number two seed after easily putting away a very good field to win the Northern Region race a week ago in 2:57.21 and should have an advantage over some of the other runners again, in this being her only race of the meet.
Kenya Jones of Western Branch, third at states last year, also ducked under 3:00 with her time of 2:58.57 in finishing second to Tobin at regionals and with Westfield sophomore Tasia Potasinski also under 3:00 in winning the Virginia Tech Invite and she, along with Jefferson\'s Stephanie Reaves bypassing the 1,600; this has the makings of a superior race.
Herndon\'s Abe Daganchew comes into the boys 1,000 as the defending champion but has not run as consistently this season as Alex Bowman of Hermitage or Jefferson\'s Taylor Bostick in what could turn out to be a wait and kick race for the last lap.
The girls 300 dash could turn into a little bit of history for McCorory of Bethel, if all goes well. Cathron Birge of Lake Braddock is the only four-time state champion in the same event as she claimed the 500 dash title from 1983-86, but McCorory could join her and make it a quartet of crowns. McCorory already has the state meet record of 38.23 set in 2004 and I guess you could say she is the favorite again, seeing as how she is also the national record holder in the event after sizzling to a time of 36.96 at the Virginia Tech Invitational in late January.
With five individual state titles already to her credit, McCorory could also this weekend move past Sheena Johnson of Gar-Field, Meghan McCarthy of Robinson and LaTasha Colander of Manor/Wilson, who are tied for the most individual titles all time with six apiece since the advent of the girls state meet in 1982.
Bethel will also look to pick up additional points in the event from Essynce Roberts with state 2005 runnerup Queen Harrison of Hermitage the number two seed while Fauquier junior Dania Sanford was impressive in winning the Northwest Region title.
The boys 300 dash will see Moore of Deep Creek and Phipps of E.C. Glass try to double back from their 500 dash duel, which could leave the event wide open among Robert E. Lee junior Sean Holston, Thomas Speller of Indian River, Courtland Marriner from Western Branch and Manchester\'s Anthony Chesson.
Double duty will also be the order of the day for Stephanie Slekis of Forest Park in the girls 3,200 run after running the 1,600 earlier in the meet and she will have to contend with Northern Region champ Erin Klein of Lake Braddock, who will run the 4x800 but skip the 1,600 and W.T. Woodson junior Sarah Hadiji, who will be fresh for the race.
West Springfield\'s Mike Spooner should also be relatively fresh for the boys 3,200 as he is also skipping the 1,600 run but will be in the 4x800 on Friday evening with Midlothian sophomore Jason Witt looking like Spooner\'s stiffest competition.
The girls 4x400 relay could have a Peninsula District- Eastern Region flavor at the top with Kecoughtan the defending champ and Menchville along with Bethel the top two seeds and Osbourn Park looking to break up that pack.
Huguenot will look to get the Central Region on top in the boys 4x400 relay with Deep Creek, Potomac and Robinson also having run very consistently this season.