Concorde District boys champion Westfield appears to be a slight favorite over the Lake Braddock boys in what essentially looks like a two team race for the title, while the girls side has Lake Braddock as a very solid choice for the regional team title.
4:30 p.m. is the scheduled start for the Thursday field events with both the girls and boys long jumps, the girls shot put and high jump and the boys discus throw and pole vault. Because of the weather forecast for Thursday, the girls high jump and boys pole vault have been moved indoors to Lake Braddock's Robert Carson Fieldhouse.
Trials in the running events for the boys and girls will start at 6:00 p.m on Thursday with the girls 100 meter hurdles and boys 110 meter high hurdles and continue with trials in the 100 dash, 400 dash, 300 hurdles and 200 dash for both boys and girls. In a change from previous years, one running event final will be contested on Thursday with the girls (8:30 p.m.) and boys (8:50 p.m.) 4x800 meter relays scheduled.
Friday's schedule will have the remainder of the field events starting once again at 4:30 p.m. with finals for the running events slated for a 6:15 p.m. start. The preliminary weather report has meet director Mike Dobson visualizing Thursday's activities getting completed. If any or all of Friday's events are postponed, the first option will be Saturday at Lake Braddock and the second option is to complete them Monday at Lake Braddock, although the intent is to start on Thursday and be completed on Friday.
No matter the date of completion, the top six finishers in all individual events and the top three teams in relay events will automatically qualify for the state AAA championship meet to be held at SportsBackers Stadium in Richmond on May 30-31.
The Lake Braddock girls easily captured the Patriot District team title last week and are solid favorites at the regional meet as well. If they hit on all cylinders, the Bruins could approach or possibly exceed 100 points. Lake Braddock will be looking for a good start in the field events to get the ball rolling and if they perform to their capabilities based on the seedings, the Bruins could almost exceed every other team's total scores with their field event points alone.
Lake Braddock has the favorite in the high jump with Ashley Haislip and the top two seeded discus throwers in Jessica Sawers and Catherine Muehleib with Muehleib also one of the favorites in the shot put. The Bruins also have Cristina Zuniga as one of the top seeds in the pole vault and should also pick up points in the long jump and triple jump led by Jenny Eakin.
On the track, the Bruins are also solid in all three relay events; have one of the favorites in both the 100 meter and 300 meter hurdles with Christine Francois and are strong in the 3,200 run with Kelly Swain and Erin Klein in case there are any challenges to repel.
Other top teams on the girls side include Robinson, Hayfield, Oakton and Jefferson. Robinson will be one of the favorites in both the 4x800 and 4x400 meter relays and should get points in individual running events from Lauren Hovland (300 hurdles), Meredith Brooks (400 dash), Sam Ference (1,600 run) and Joanna Rodgers (3,200 run) as well as field event points from Sanna Barrineau in the high jump, Mary Mohay in the pole vault and Tricia Nelson in the discus.
Hayfield has one of the favorites in the shot and discus with Ashley Crocker and have Liz Wrona in the high jump for additional field event points and the Hawks should also score well in the sprint events led by Candace Childs and Nakeisha Wineglass and will look for distance points from Jessica Weber.
Concorde District champ Oakton is once again led by Kathleen Woody, who comes in with the top time in the 100 meter dash as well as the best mark in the long jump and by Kathleen's sister, Sarah Woody, in the high jump, triple jump and 100 hurdles while the majority of Jefferson's points should come from Aparna Hirve in the jumps and in the distance events with Shauneen Garrahan and Kat Schleckser leading the way.
Other top performers to watch include Herndon's Heather Fisher and Huma Husain of West Springfield in the 1,600 run with Husain also the top seed in the 800 run; Tara Markey of South Lakes in the 400 dash; Wakefield's Fatimah Shuler, Carmen Meade of Westfield and Chantilly's Jenny Geldermann in the 100 and 200 dashes; Karen Wooley of Westfield in the 300 hurdles and Adrienne Mayo of South Lakes along with Mount Vernon's Shea Spann in the long jump and triple jump.
The boys portion of the meet looks like a matchup between Concorde champ Westfield and Patriot runnerup Lake Braddock providing Lake Braddock's Craig Gallimore, who was rested last week at districts due to a hamstring injury, is able to compete at his usual high level.
Westfield can come at teams from all angles and could possibly score in 14 of the 17 scheduled events. In the field events, the Bulldogs have the top seed in the pole vault with junior David Lewis, who set a new personal best by a foot in clearing 15 feet even at the Concorde meet last week and Westfield also has one of the top seeds in the high jump with Louis Corum and in the long and triple jumps with Brandon Dobbs.
On the track, Westfield should score very well in all three relays and also in both hurdles with their trio of Alvin Tondereau, Philippe Tondereau and Brad Oakley. The Bulldogs also have one of the top sprinters in senior John Schenck and are looking to pick up important points in the 400 dash with Chris Courson and Chris Black as well as the 800 run with David Groff.
Lake Braddock's team title chances hinge on the status of Gallimore and since he has been entered and currently has not been scratched from the meet, the Cal-Berkely signee has to be considered the consensus favorite in both the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles as well as the fastest member of the 4x400 relay for the Bruins.
An equally healthy Carl Hunter would give Lake Braddock an additional boost in the long jump and triple jump and the Bruins will also be looking for vault points to help them in coming close to matching Wesfield in field event points. In running events on the flat, the Bruins best hopes for points lie individually with Gilbert Elston in the 800 run, Steve Hoogland in the 3,200 run and Dan Wilson in the 400 dash and Lake Braddock should also score well in all three relays.
Patriot District champ West Potomac will be looking for a second successive successful week in a row with most of the Wolverines strength in the field events with horizontal jumpers Jeremy Beal and Darren Baker; Trevor Crites in the pole vault and high jump and in the throws with Cody Nicholas and Hunter Kreger.
Top performers to watch in the field events start with Robinson senior Steve Huntzinger, in his final local high school appearance. Huntzinger comes into the shot put with the top throw by over 13 feet at 64-1 and in the discus by almost 32 feet at 188-3. Huntzinger would certainly like to get the regional meet record in the shot of 63-7.25 set by Rodney Johnson of T.C. Williams in 1997 and especially the oldest record on the books of 183-0 in the discus by Edison's Phil Vincenzes set in 1976 but the weather may dampen those chances.
Others to watch in the field events include the Mount Vernon duo of Justin Bell and Mike Carlock in the shot put and discus throw and Langley's Nick Crumpton in the long jump and triple jump while the sprint field has a crowd trying to make the six person finals including Centreville's Daniel Bailey; Adam Bush and Marcus Tyus of Hayfield; Washington-Lee's Sean Somlar and Juron Williams, Falls Church's Tony Hayduk and Timothy Nunn of T.C. Williams.
Other runners to watch include Edison's Roy Coles, Herndon's Steve Gillard and Kennedy Kyei-Mensah of T.C. Williams in the 400 dash, Hayfield's Corey Gillard in the hurdles, Annandale's Mike Flint and John Cook of West Springfield in the 800 run, the Jefferson distance duo of Christo Landry and Keith Bechtol in the 3,200 run and seniors Jeff Day of West Springfield and Wakefield's Peter Quinzio in the 1,600 run with Hayfield sophomore Brian Fussell and Chantilly freshman Brad Siragusa giving a glimpse of the area's distance future in that 1,600 race.