FAIRFAX, VA -- The AAA state championships begin today and continue through tomorrow at the GMU Fieldhouse with wide open battles expected on both the boys and girls sides for the team titles. Forty points looks to be an attainable number on the boys side for Lake Braddock, South Lakes, Deep Creek, Petersburg and possibly Atlee while the girls teams from Lake Braddock, Brooke Point and Bethel can also produce forty points. With that many schools capable of forty points, the push will be towards the fifty point plateau which may be necessary for victory.
The field events will begin the action today with four of the five girls field event finals. The girls long jump gets everything going with a 5:30 p.m. start; the girls shot put begins at 5:45 p.m. while both the girls high jump and girls pole vault are scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. start. The boys will have two field event finals on Friday with the boys long jump to immediately follow the girls long jump with an approximate start of 7:00 p.m. and the boys shot put will follow the girls shot at around 7:15 p.m. There will also be action on the track beginning at 7:00 p.m. with running trials in the 55 meter hurdles, 55 dash and 300 dash for both boys and girls. The top twelve performers in those trial heats will advance to Saturday's finals where they will run in a two section final. That is necessitated because the state meet scoring system is through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for all events and the GMU track is a six lane track. The two section final will pit the 7-12 times in the first section and the top six times in the second section with the ability to win the event out of either section.
On Saturday the field events, which will go a long way in determining the team winners this year, begin at 8:30 a.m. with the boys high jump, girls triple jump and boys pole vault with the boys triple jump to start at 10:30 a.m. Running event finals for all events will begin at 11:30 a.m. with 4:45 p.m. the expected conclusion time of the final event, the 1,600 meter relay.
Northern Region champion Lake Braddock, Central Region titleist Petersburg, Eastern Region winner Deep Creek, Central runnerup Atlee and South Lakes from the Northern Region all come into the meet with a shot at the team state title.
Lake Braddock put on a superlative performance at the regional meet last week in producing 112 points, which outscored the second, third and fourth place teams combined. The Bruins will look for field event points from Kellen Meckelson, who comes in as the top ranked shot putter at 53 feet, 10.75 inches and also from Garrett Brickner in the high jump and triple jump. On the track Lake Braddock appears capable of scoring in seven of the ten running events. The Bruins are led by senior Frank Francois, the top ranked runner in the nation in the 500 dash at 1 minute, 3.74 seconds who is also expected to score well in the 300 dash and is the anchor of the top seeded 4x400 relay (3:26.00) for Lake Braddock. The Bruins will also be looking for solid points in the 4x800 and 4x200 relays and from Jimmy Judge in the 1,600 and 1,000 meter runs.
Petersburg has one of the state's standouts in Jerome Mathis. The senior was nothing less than impressive in winning five individual events at the Central Region meet last weekend with victories in the long jump, triple jump, high jump, 55 dash,and 300 dash in addition to running on the winning 4x200 relay team as he played a part in 60 of his team's winning total of 88 points . Mathis, the defending state champion in the 55 dash at 6.45, comes into the state meet with the top entry marks in the 55 dash (6.38) and 300 dash (35.03) as well as the second best mark in the long jump (23-6.25) and third best in the triple jump (46-9) while also running a leg on Petersburg's top seeded 4x200 relay (1:30.74). How well Mathis will be able to fare with 55 dash and 300 dash trials in addition to the long jump on Friday evening and then coming back Saturday morning for the high jump and triple jump before three Saturday afternoon running events will largely determine Petersburg's fate.
Eastern champ Deep Creek looks to have balanced scoring from both field and running events. Deep Creek high jumper Quentin Matthews was last year's state outdoor champ at 7-0.25 and comes in with the top mark indoors at 6-10.25. They are also after points in the long jump from Chris Clifton, who was the quarterback for their state football runnerup squad and from Jimmy Terry in the triple jump. Deep Creek is also looking for a batch of points in the sprint events. They dominated the Eastern Region 55 dash with five of the six finalists led by Deangelo Hall and Antwain Carey and could also pick up points in the 300 dash with DeAndre Hyman and the 500 dash with Nathan Heely in addition to the 4x200 relay with their core of sprinters.
Central Region runnerup Atlee could also be a factor with a big day from Brian Ford. The standout senior is the number two seed in the 300 dash at 35.10 and is the main cog for Atlee's 800 and 1,600 relays and Atlee also has one of the top pole vaulters in Val Osipenko (14-9).
South Lakes can also not be counted out led by their duo of Alan Webb and Richard Smith. Webb, the national indoor record holder in the mile at 3:59.86 is scheduled to run three events.
Webb is the top seed and more than obvious favorite in the 1,600 run scheduled to go off at 1:45 p.m. The meet record in that event is 4:13.52 by Sharif Karie of West Springfield from 1997 but if Webb is not pushed in the event to have to dip under that mark he may save his tremendous combination of speed and strength for the 1,000 meter run.
The 1,000 is set for a 2:45 p.m. start with Karie's 1996 record of 2:28.36 in jeopardy and if the 1,600 run does not take too much of a toll on Webb, the national mark of 2:23.85 by George Kersh (Pearl, MS) set in 1987 could also get a scare.
Webb is also set to take part in the 4x400 relay along with his junior teammate Richard Smith as their top two legs and South Lakes is one of four teams coming in with entry times between 3:26 and 3:27. That last race of the meet could possibly be the best race of the meet with the potential team championship on the line.
Smith is also expected to anchor the South Lakes 4x800 relay team which ran 8:19.05 without Smith and Kanda Karmo last week and should be able to vastly improve on their time on Saturday. Smith is also the number two seed in the 500 dash at 1:05.32 and if he and Webb can put it all together, the Seahawks could be in the 45 point range.
Some of the top individuals entered in the field events include Alonzo Moore of Phoebus, who is the top seed in the triple jump by almost three feet at 49-11.5 and also the top seed in the long jump (23-9). The high jump has a solid field with John Hubbard of G.W.-Danville, Menchville's Keith Moffatt and Teddy Presley of Oakton looking to put some pressure on Matthews of Deep Creek and the pole vault, always one of the top spectator events, has five vaulters entered who have gone over fourteen feet this season in Centreville's David Sullivan (15-1) and Mark Kupets (14-10), Osipenko of Atlee (14-9), Daniel Garrett of Great Bridge (14-6) and Madison's Jason Langley (14-4).
In running events, the 55 hurdles looms as a battle among B.J. Hancock of E.C. Glass, Henrico's Kevin Watson and Gemayel Hazard of Bethel. Oakton's Matt Maline is the favorite in the 3,200 run (9:16.04) and Maline along with teammate Phil Gaeta should give the Cougars one of the top teams in the 4x800 relay. Tallwood's Alex Clayton is one of the top entrants in the 1,600 run and also the 1,000 run where Clayton, Curtis Parker of Tallwood, Gaeta of Oakton and McLean's James Small could help to push the early pace in one of the meet's feature events.
Lake Braddock, Bethel and Brooke Point will be trying to be all they can be in the quest for the girls team title with Denbigh, Jefferson, Bayside and Robinson in the hunt for a top five spot.
Lake Braddock rolled up 115 points to take the Northern Region title at GMU and coach Bob Digby said, "our biggest advantage is that we will be competing at the same site two weeks in a row." The Bruins top hope in the field events will be Alexandra VanHeuven, who comes in as the fourth seed in the triple jump. Region long jump champ VanHeuven is just seeded twelfth in the long jump at 17-8.75 but that event could prove to be one of the most interesting with fifteen girls separated by less than a foot from 18-7.25 as the top mark to 17-8 at 15th best.
Lake Braddock will also look for a couple of field event points from among Shawnette Adams and Sarah Beale in the triple jump, Catherine Muehleib in the shot put and in the pole vault from Stephanie Hollar, Abbey McGrath and Sarah Monaco. The bulk of the Bruins points will have to come from the running events with the Bruins one of the favorites in both the 4x200 and the 4x400 relay where they have the top time of 3:55.70. Individually, Lake Braddock will look for solid performances from Sarah Beale in the 300 dash, Kelly Swain in the 3,200 run, Heather McCarthy in the 1,600 run and VanHeuven in the 55 hurdles. Sophomore Meredith Brill, one of the top jumpers and sprinters for Lake Braddock, twisted her ankle at the region meet on run throughs in the long jump and appears extremely doubtful for the state meet.
Bethel, almost always one of the top teams in the state, looks to be a factor once again after they scored 83 points to win the Eastern Region title last week. Senior Ara Towns was the state runnerup in the 55 dash last year and won the region meet last week in that event at 7.05. Towns will also probably anchor the top seeded 4x200 relay team for Bethel in addition to their region champion 4x400 and could also score points in the long jump. Bethel should also pick up points in the shot put with Amanda Walker and could also sprinkle some points in with Patricia Beckham in the 500 dash, Britni Spruill in the 300 dash, high jumper Jessica Cassell and with their 4x800 relay.
Brooke Point has one of the state's top all around performers in Keosha Sanders, who won four events at the Northwest Region meet to lead her team to the title with a whopping 128 points. Sanders is the top entry in the 300 dash at 40.53; the second seed in the 55 hurdles (8.16); the third seed in the 55 dash (7.14) and could also grab some points in the long jump. Brooke Point should also get scoring from Rachel McIntosh in the 55 hurdles, Colleen Connell in the distance events and from their 4x400 relay in their quest for the team title.
Denbigh scored 67 points to secure second place at the Eastern Region meet and have junior Yvette Simmons as one of the top entrants in both the long and triple jumps and sophomore Yvette Lewis for points in both the 55 and 300 dashes. Denbigh will also look to place in the triple jump with Brandi Drake, the 55 hurdles with Tyna Phelps and the 4x200 relay.
Jefferson could also be a factor led by Kelley Otstott and Krystle Moss. Otstott comes in with the top seeded times in both the 1,600 run (5:06.94) and 1,000 run (2:52.41) and could anchor the defending state champion 4x800 relay team for Jefferson once again. Moss is the defending indoor state champion in the high jump (5-8) and could also pick up valuable points for the Colonials in the triple jump.
Bayside is capable of jumping into the mix courtesy of the top two seeds in the long jump in Zanishia Usher (18-7.25) and Lakesha Dudley (18-6) with Usher also coming in with the fastest time in the 55 dash at 7.04. Bayside also comes in with the number two time in the 4x400 relay at 4:02.37 and could score in the 4x200 relay.
Robinson will count on senior sprinter Shehara Chitty in the 55 dash and as their top performer in both the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. The Rams also have Michelle Gregory as one of the top seeds in the 1,000 run and as the anchor for their top seeded 4x800 relay as well as possible points in the 1,600 run with Sam Ference and Joanna Rodgers.
Top field event peformers include Salem sophomore Amy Seward in the horizontal jumps, Oakton's Bonnie Meekins in the high jump, a good pole vault field which includes Atlee's Kira Barcus, Alicia LaRoche of Centreville, Hayfield's Carrie Bennett and sophomore Kathryn Pettine of Westfield and four forty foot plus shot putters in Ayanna Jones of T.J.-Richmond, Latoya Porter from Manchester, Bethel's Amanda Walker and F.W. Cox junior Lindsay Neuberger, who comes in with a best of 46-9.25 and is a threat to the meet record set last year by Hayfield's India Odum of 45-6.25.
Top tracksters include Nicole Cook of Petersburg, the top seeded entrant in the 500 dash by over three seconds at 1:14.52 and who is also seeded second in the 300 dash at 40.72. Kellie Wells of James River is the top entrant in the 5 hurdles at 8.14, Jeannie Addison of T.J.-Richmond comes in as the favorite in the 3,200 run and West Springfield junior Mo Hagan is among the top three seeds in both the 1,600 and 1,000 runs.