Real Deal High School Track Classic Coverage

First Colonial's Jaqueline Meeks clears 11'3" personal best in pole vault!

On-site coverage and results from the 2012 Real Deal Track Classic held on December 7th & 8th at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton, Virginia. Day one included several state leading performances including a 11'3" clearance from returning Eastern Region indoor pole vault champion Jackie Meeks of First Colonial.

9 VA Indoor #1's at Real Deal High School Classic:

• Girls 55m Hurdles - Milan Parks (Western Branch) 8.50
• Girls 55m Dash - Carolyn Brown (Phoebus) 7.11
• Girls 300m Dash - Carolyn Brown (Phoebus) 40.89
• Girls Pole Vault - Jaqueline Meeks (First Colonial) 11'3"
• Boys 55m Dash - Marcus Taylor (Highland Springs) 6.49
• Boys 300m Dash - Marcus Taylor (Highland Springs) 35.96
• Boys 1000m Run - Griffin Carmichael (Atlee) 2:34.64
• Boys High Jump - Darrius Polk (Clover Hill) & Richie Williams (Indian River) 6'4"
• Boys Pole Vault - Kyimon Hockaday (Highland Springs) 12'6" 

Day 2 Highlights:

• Atlee's Griffin Carmichael led out a swift 1000 meter race at Boo Williams with the top three times from the race ranking the top 3 in the nation currently (granted it is early). Carmichael improved three seconds from his season opening race last weekend at the Peninsula District Ice Breaker with a 2:34.64 performance at the Real Deal Classic. Trailing Carmichael in second and third place with personal bests were Churchland's Deandre James (2:36.54) and Clover Hill's Josh Willard (2:36.91). A five second PR for James and six second PR of Willard, while the returning All-State 1000 meter runner Carmichael is just two seconds off his 2:32 best in early December with his state auto performance.
• Carolyn Brown followed up her VA #1 clocking of 7.11 in the 55 meter dash on Friday with another state best on Saturday in the 300 meter dash with a 40.89 clocking. She will be pressing for a sub 40 second performance in the 300 meter dash this winter after posting a freshmen year best of 40.04 last winter. The Phoebus sophomore Brown finished the meet anchoring her 4x400 meter relay to a 4:11.17 victory. 
• Western Branch swept the 4x200 meter relays as the boys won the event from a slower heat in a time of 1:34.48, while the girls led several other schools under 1:50 with a state best time of 1:46.45. Their relay may have graduated all of their fastest legs from their 1:38 relays from the past two years, but still have talent and tradition to carry them to be one of the state's best again this winter.
• Indian RIver's Andrea Wright led wire to wire in the fast section of the 500 meter dash to take the win in a personal best time of 1:19.47. Wright focused more on the 300 meter dash last indoor track season with a 40.67 best and a 11th place finish at the AAA State Meet, but may race the 500 meters more this season after dropping 3 seconds from his fastest time as a junior. Defending Group AAA state 300 meter hurdles state champion Heather Smith nearly stole first from a slower section with a 1:20.58 performance.  
• Highland Springs sophomore Marcus Taylor had a big weekend down at Boo Williams with two individual wins and state indoor bests. After breaking 6.50 for the first time to take the 55 meter dash finaals on Friday, Taylor then dipped under 36 seconds for the first time in the 300 meter dash as the returning Central Region 100 meter dash champion with a US #6 time of 35.96.
• Atlee's Nathaniel Hill just missed a state auto qualifying time in the 1600 meter run last week by a fraction of a second, but was able to secure his spot in the 2013 VHSL Group AAA State Championships in the 1600 with a state indoor best performance of 4:24.88. Hall is trying to put down a few state qualifiers before the winter break to rest after a long cross country season.
• His older brother Byron Robinson ran a state leading time of 1:06.02 two days ago at a Southeastern District regular season meet at Boo Williams Sportsplex and Western Branch sophomore Tyson Robinson is on pace to be a state leader someday himself with a strong first place effort for a 10th grader of 1:08.93 at the Real Deal Classic.  More of a distance geared runner (16:28 5K and 4:28 1600) than his sprinter brother, the speedwork should pay off for the younger Robinson when he goes back up to distance in races.

Day 1 Highlights:

• First Colonial junior Jackie Meeks had only cleared over 11 feet once last year, which happened to be her last time competing at the Boo Williams Sportsplex when she garned a strong third place finish at the VHSL Group AAA State Indoor Track & Field Championships. Last spring, Meeks was unable to match the height and only able to muster a 10'6" outdoor season best. She began her junior year not only having returned to her state indoor form from last February, but even better as in higher as she successfully cleared a state best and personal best height of 11'3". 
• Western Branch sophomore Milan Parks competed just yesterday at Boo Williams in a Southeastern District regular season meet with a state leading performance of 8.51 in the 55 meter hurdles. One day later and back racing in the hurdles, Parks was able to shave a hundredth of a second off her VA #1 time with a 8.50 clocking after a strong challenge in the finals from defending Central Region 55 and 100 meter hurdles champion Jessica Shelton (2nd, 8.56) of Patrick Henry (Ashland).  
• Shelton was trying to make it a hurdles sweep on Friday with teammate Travis Phillips. Phillips was the leading qualifier from the prelims at 7.67 and then was able to drop his time further in the finals with a personal best effort of 7.58 to put him only one hundredth of a second off the state's fastest time this season, which was posted the night before at Boo Williams Sportsplex by Grassfield freshmen Grant Holloway (7.57). Philips was fourth in last year's state meet finals in the 55 meter hurdles with a season best time of 7.59 and ended up earning All-State honors with PR's in both hurdles races (110 & 300 meters) at the outdoor state meet including a 14.03 state runner-up showing in the 110 meter hurdles.
• No freshmen in Virginia high school history ran as a fast as Carolyn Brown did last year in the 55 meter dash with her 6.96 state title race last February. Brown is looking to continue her progression to become of Virginia's all-time greats as the sophomore clocked the fastest 55 meter dash time in Virginia for this early point of the indoor season in a 7.11 finals race.
• It was a sophomore sweep of the 55 meter dash finals as Highland Springs sophomore Marcus Taylor blazed down the straightaway to dip under 6.50 for the first time and beat his impressive 6.52 freshmen best in a 6.49 victory. Taylor was pressed all the way to the line by Salem (VA Beach) senior Kwamane Bowens, who opened his season with a personal best as well as the narrow runner-up at 6.50. It was Bowens' first race on the track since the indoor state meet last winter as he missed the outdoor season for Salem.
• Gloucester's Evan Wagner has jump started her season with two invitational wins at Boo Williams Sportsplex as she followed up her 5'4" clearance last week at the Peninsula District Ice Breaker with a successful first try at the height of 5'2" allowing her to hold off Central Region competitors Carly Feyerabend of Atlee and Julia Logan of Clover Hill, who also cleared the AAA state auto standard of 5'2" but took more attempts to clear than Wagner to settle for second and third in a very competitive early-season high jump competition.
• One of the last events to finish after the 4x800 meter relays and the top jumpers had to time their jumps in accordance with the 4x800 meter relay racers also circling the track was the boys' high jump. The final two jumpers left were Darrius Polk of Clover Hill and Richie Williams of Indian River who jumped well despite the distractions of having to share their approach  space with 4x800 meter relay runners and unaware athletes and spectators leaving the facility.  Polk was two inches better than his best clearance all of last year with a winning height of 6'4", while Williams also cleared 6'4" but earlier misses gave the tie to Polk.
• It is not taking pole vault coaching guru Kyle Bishop to turn the Springers of Highland Springs into Vaulters as well. In his second year coaching at Highland Springs after coming over from nearby Atlee High School where he built a vaulting powerhourse there in coaching quite a group of state champions, All-State finishers, and regional champions, Kyimon Hockaday may be his first individual star at Highland Springs. Hockaday won the boys' pole vault on Friday night clearing a personal best height of 12'6". Hockaday qualified for the state outdoor meet last spring in his first year as a vaulter by clearing a season best height of 12'3" for sixth place at the Central Region Championships. 
• The I.C. Norcom boys dominated the triple jump with four of the top six performers in the event with Romero Hines leaping the farthest among the group and living up to his top seed with winning mark of 44'4". Norcom had four others 40 feet in the triple jump with Charles Wiggs (3rd, 42'1.50"), Aaron Parker (4th, 42'1.50"), Deverius Brown (6th, 42'0"), and Quamel Sessoms (10th, 40'6"). Hines was joined as an individual event winner in the triple jump by his female counterpart at I.C. Norcom in teammate Regan Taylor reaching out for a remarkable 13 inch improvement from her previous best mark in the event with a field best leap of 36'1". 
• Atlee sophomore Austin Cannon won the shot put for the second consecutive week at Boo Williams, but had to sweat out a first place finish much more than he did last week as Fork Union's Charlton Larkins (2nd, 48'9.50") threw a mere quarter inch less than Cannon, the winner at 48'9.75".  
• In the girls' shot put, Denise O'Rouke (2nd, 34'1.50") of J.R. Tucker was able to break up a 1-2 sweep by her Colonial District rivals from Patrick Henry in Shania Williams (1st, 36'9.50") and Chiquitta Harris (3rd, 32'0.25"). Williams was over 2 feet off from her personal best of 39'1.50", but her mark on Friday was good enough to be an automatic state qualifier. 

Meet Coverage:

• Meet Page
• COMPLETE RESULTS: Boys - Girls
• Day 1 Results
• Race Videos
• Performance List

Videos

2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x800 Sec 2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x800 Sec 1	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x800 Sec 2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x800 Sec 1
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 55 Dash Finals	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 55 Dash Finals	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 55 Hurdles Finals	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 55 Hurdles Finals
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 55 Dash Prelims	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 55 Dash Prelims	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 55 Hurdles Prelims	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 55 Hurdles Prelims
2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 1600 Sec 3	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1600 Sec 1	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1600 Sec 2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1600 Section 3
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1600 Sec 4	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x200 Sec 1-2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x200 Sec 3	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x200 Sec 1-2
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x200 Sec 3-4	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 500 Sec 1-5	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 500 Sec 6-10	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 500 Sec 1-5
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 500 Sec 6-10	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 500 Sec 11-15	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 1000 Sec 1-3	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 1000 Sec 4-5
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1000 Sec 1-3	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1000 Sec 4-6	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 1000 Sec 7	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 300 Sec 1-7
2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 300 Sec 8-14	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 300 Sec 1-8	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 300 Sec 9-16	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 300 Sec 17-22
2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 3200	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 3200	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x400 Sec 1-2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Girls 4x400 Sec 3
2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x400 Sec 1-2	2012 Real Deal Classic - Boys 4x400 Sec 3-4

MileSplit US National Elites

Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.

29 National Elites.