Support MileStat.com's coverage of Virginia high school track & field meets by subscribing today!
.png)
Photos by Jacqueline Justice
Friday Highlights:
- Speedy sophomore sprint star Marcus Taylor of Highland Springs was able to runaway from a finals field in the 55 meter dash at Friday's Southeastern Invitational which included many of the state's fastest so far this season in Kecoughtan freshmen Jacion Fugate (6.54) and Grassfield junior Isaiah Harper with the nation's fastest time in a 6.43 clocking. Taylor is emerging as a potentially serious threat to defending Group AAA state 55 meter dash champion Mustaqeem Williams of Forest Park after a strong first month of races this indoor track season.
- There was a great underclassmen battle in the boys' high jump between Oscar Smith sophomore Bradley Jones and Grassfield freshmen Grant Holloway. Holloway has already established himself as one of the state's top hurdlers as a mere 9th grader, which he enjoyed another win on Friday with a 7.70 clocking in the 55 meter hurdles finals at Boo Williams, but also showed with a 6'6" clearance on Friday that his athletic abilities extend beyond the hurdles. His clearance was not good enough for first place though as earlier misses gave Jones first on the tiebreaker with both clearing the same height of 6'6".
- Returning Group AAA state pole vault champion indoors and outdoors, Felecia Majors of South County, easily won at Boo Williams on day one with a clearance of 11 feet in the pole vault, but was kept busy on the track to go much higher with the prelims and finals of the 55 meter dash happening simultaneously. Majors, who will also be featured in the open 300 meter tomorrow and is one of the state's top returnees in the 500, finished as a runner-up in the 55 meter dash finals with a 7.30 clocking behind Western Branch sophomore Milan Parks. Parks motored her way powerfully down the straightaway for a winning time of 7.22.
- After running 8.70 just last weekend at the F.I.T. Invitational in Maryland, Morgan Knight of South County apparently likes the running surface found at Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton as she chopped significant time off in a week's time with 8.45 clocking in the finals of the 55 meter hurdles and defending Central Region favorite De'Nisha Smith (2nd, 8.48) of Cosby. Smith's Cosby teammate Alexandria Moseley won her second triple jump competition of the young season at Boo Williams with a field best leap of 36'9.50".
- The Cosby girls were able to dip just under 10 minutes in the 4x800 meter relay with a finish time of 9:58.70 as their team looks to try to put together a formidable lineup this winter after losing a big leg in 2:07 800 meter runner Megan Moye to graduation. Meanwhile, the Cosby boys were able to make it a sweep of the 4x800 relays in a time of 8:34.69.
- Oscar Smith junior Isaac Arriola just missed the state automatic qualifying standard in the boys' triple jump with a winning mark of 44'6" on day one, which is only a few inches off his 44'9.50" personal best. South County's Khalil Jackson raised the bar and cleared one foot higher than he ever had before in the pole vault with a successful attempt at 13 feet to take first in the boys' competition on Friday.
Saturday Highlights:
-
Felecia Majors of South County blew away the field in the girls' 300 meter dash with a state leading time of 40.10, which also ranks her #6 in the United States. Earlier in the day, Majors won the high jump with a personal best clearance of 5'6". She finished the meet anchoring South County to first place in the 4x400 meter relay (4:02.83) after battling with Cosby's Alexandria Moseley on the final leg.
-
US # 9 time of 1:17.57 produced by Indian River's Andrea Wright in the girls 500 with South Lakes sophomore Delaney Wickman in second place with a time of 1:18.80. It was nearly a two second improvement for the Indian River senior Wright,
-
A potential state meet preview in the 4x200 meter relay, the Cosby and Western Branch girls clashed this weekend. Other teams are certainly in the mix for the state title, but Cosby might be the team to take over from Western Branch, who has dominated the event and been one of the state's best ever including setting the state record in recent years. Cosby won this round at least in a time of 1:44.97, while Western Branch settled for second in 1:45.47.
-
There were no state leading or national ranked times produced in the boys' 4x200 meter relay, but the race and finish were thrilling enough to make the event worthy of mention. Only 11 hundredths of a second separated the top 3 relays in the fast section with Western Branch (1:33.52), Salem (1:33.57), and Grassfield (1:33.63). Western Branch was not as fortunate to squeak out a win for second time in the relays in the 4x400 at meet's end as they found themselves on the short end of the stick against Grassfield winning the event in 3:29.57 and Western Branch only a mere 2 hundredths of a second back as runners-up at 3:29.59.
-
More youthful talent found at Highland Springs beyond 55 meter dash national leader Marcus Taylor as sophomore teammate Dallas Carter posted time of 36.00 as the boys 300 meter dash winner. Carter took a nice chunk of time off his seed time and previous best of 37.72.
-
The Robinson brothers of Western Branch went 1-3 in boys 500 at Boo Williams with the older brother Byron Robinson as the 1:06.42 winner and kid brother Tyson Robinson in third place at 1:09.30.
-
Cosby's Thomas Negron and Churchland's Deandre James had a spirited race with one another to push each other to times well below 2:40. Negron claimed the victory in a time of 2:36.67, while James was right behind him in second at 2:36.90.
-
Sub 11 minute 3200 meter runner Mary Cate Scully was a runaway winner in the girls 1000 by 8 seconds with her teammate Tierra Allen (2nd, 3:18.23) as the closest finisher to Scully and her winning time of 3:10.34.
-
Grassfield swept the 1600 meter races at the Southeastern Invite with Carolyn Cunniffe (5:30.98) for the girls and Alex Midkiff (4:33.81) for the boys as race winners.
2013 Southeastern Invitational Coverage:
- Live Results
- Complete Results
- Day 1 Results
- Photo Gallery by Jacqueline Justice - To be added after meet
- Photo Gallery by Scott Reid - 353 photos total
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
61 National Elites.