Desmonae Gray

Here are the all-time best field event performances by VA athletes at Penn Relays.

With adidas Nationals in a week we look at the best performances at NC A&T's venue's history.

  Several facility record performances at Cannonball Cooper Age Group Championships from high school athletes including Desmonae Gray of Western Branch in the 100 meter hurdles (14.97) and triple jump (37'8"), Trey Holloway of Grassfield in the 110 meter hurdles (14.30), and April Wilson of Thomas Dale in the 400 meter dash (57.13). Complete results and race videos are posted.  

The Western Branch girls under the tutelage of their head coach Claude Toukene, competed in their second straight Nike Track Nationals championship meet at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday. The Lady Bruins, who successfully repeated as indoor and outdoor state champions this past year, finished sixth with a total of 7,439.30 points in the overall team standings against the best 12 track & field programs in the United States. Keilah Tyson, who competed earlier in the weekend in the USATF Junior National Championships at Hayward Field in the 100 meter dash, won the 100 meter dash individually for the second year in a row as she broke her own meet record (11.72) with her 2011 time off 11.67. Next top performer for the Western Branch girls was Florida State signee Desmonae Gray, who picked up a pair of third place finishes in the 100 meter hurdles (14.16) and long jump (18'7.75").

Keilah Tyson in disbelief celebrating her 100 meter dash victory last year at the Nike Track Nationals.   After finishing third in last year's inaugural Nike Track Nationals at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field, the Western Branch girls have been selected once again to return to the national high school track team championship meet through being the top ranked team in the Southeast Region this spring based on season best performances. This year's Western Branch girls are certainly in the discussion as one of the greatest track teams in the history of the state featuring incredible depth of talent in the relays, hurdles, sprints, and jumps. Keilah Tyson, who recently set Virginia high school state and AAA state meet records in the 100 and 200 meter dash, is the leading individual for the Lady Bruins and last year helped her squad to a third place showing at Hayward Field by winning the 100 meter dash individually. Their roster headed to Eugene, Oregon will also include outdoor 100 and long jump state champion Desmonae Gray and their top quarter miler Javette Lee (55.91 400 season best) who was a state runner-up in the 300 meter hurdles. The Western Branch girls are currently ranked #7 in the US according to the Nike Track Nationals virtual scoring, which scores events similar to a decathlon except using the best marks of any individual on a team in each event and dropping the lowest scoring event of the ten events offered (100 dash, 110/100 hurdles, 400, 800, mile, long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus throw). The date of the meet is Saturday, June 25th.   

A list of Virginia teams and relays competing at this week's Penn Relays. This year's Penn Relays certainly expects to produce some of the fastest times this spring from Virginia's best relays while big names will star in the individual events including Isaiah Simmons, Keilah Tyson, Cameron Overstreet, Cody Snyder, Desmonae Gray, Jeremy Greenwald, Kyle King, Chris Pillow, Krista DeCeault, Anthony Williams, Silas Frantz,  Anaquan Peterson, and Hannah Lowery. Relays to pay particular attention to are the Western Branch girls 4x100 and 4x400, Hidden Valley girls DMR, and potential for several boys relays to stake their mid-season claims as Virginia's best relays in the 4x100, 4x400, and 4x800.

The Bethel girls ran one of the fastest flat track 4x400 meter relay times in the nation with their 3:51.96 victory at the state meet. The New Balance Nationals this upcoming weekend will be their first opportunity to run faster on a banked track (at the New York Armory), which has the Bethel quartet thinking of breaking their own school record (3:48.91 at 2009 Virginia Tech Invite) and potentially the Virginia high school indoor state record of 3:46.91 by the 2006 Landstown squad at the indoor nationals. (Photo by Ryan Kelly).    A list of all Virginian girls (links to athlete profiles) entered currently in this upcoming weekend's New Balance Indoor Nationals at the New York Armory. MileStat.com will be on-site with coverage from the Armory.

In-depth event by event previews of all the field events for the 2011 VHSL Group AAA State Indoor Championships. Several state meet records are in jeopardy including Dan Krueger's 1978 shot put record by Woodbridge senior Isaiah Simmons as well as Western Branch's Keilah Tyson having already exceeded the long jump meet record at Boo Willliams earlier this season. Atlee's Cameron Overstreet already owns the Virginia high school indoor record in the pole vault at 12'10" and now can eclipse Lizzie Powell's year old state indoor meet record this weekend. Running events preview to be posted late Thursday night.

The virtual meet preview for the Southeastern District Meet predicts the Western Branch squads sweeping the team titles by a considerable margin. Desmonae Gray along with teammate Keilah Tyson could win a lot of track meets by themselves with their versatility to win and place high in several events. Gray (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) is nationally ranked in the long jump, triple jump, and 55 meter hurdles which she most recently clocked a season best time of 8.10 in the event at the Atlantic Coast Invitational.

Photos by John Herzog   Top 8 Virginia high school girls performers in each event this indoor season as of February 4th. The Virginia Tech Invitational last weekend had four VA #1 performances for girls including Monica Williams of Green Run in the 300 dash (39.15), Annie Lehardy of Hidden Valley in the 1000 (2:56.79), Megan Moye of Cosby in the 1600 (4:58.57 converted), and Mattie Webb in the 3200 (10:44.58). Western Branch teammates Keilah Tyson and Desmonae Gray had a jump off with each other for national leader board bragging rights on Wednesday at the Boo Williams Sportsplex with Tyson leaping a US #1 40'9" in the triple jump and Gray only an inch behind at US #2 40'8". More impressively, Tyson and Gray's marks rank them #7 and #8 all-time in Virginia high school indoor history. The combined Tyson-Gray performance on Wednesday evening has to rank as one of the greatest duo performances of athletes from the same high school in a single event at the same meet in not only Virginia high school history, but in United States high school history for the indoor season.

Isaiah Simmons of Woodbridge earlier this winter competed in an All-Comers meet at the Prince George County Sports & Learning Complex and recorded a huge VA #2 all-time mark of 66'3.25" in the shot put. However, the performance was not verified with results until last week when results were posted on the Potomac Valley Track club website. Simmons further verified that performance with another big throw and this time in a sanctioned high school meet on Saturday at the St. Christopher's Invitational. The defending Group AAA state indoor and outdoor champion rocked the fieldhouse at St. Christopher's with a US #3 mark of 65'0.50".  His two big marks this indoor season put him in contention to become the greatest shot put thrower ever in Virginia High School history. Video of Simmons' 65'0.50" Shot   

  Do not have to wait until the weekends for national caliber performances at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. At Tuesday evening's Southeastern District Regular Season Meet at the 200 meter indoor track facility, two US #2 performances were recorded by Grassfield senior Amanda Smith (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) in the 500 meter dash and Keilah Tyson in the triple jump. Read more...   Southeastern Regular Season Meet #2 Results

  Western Branch senior Keilah Tyson just missed breaking the Virginia high school state indoor 55 meter dash record held by Francena McCorory on Friday night at Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. Facing off in the finals of the Southeastern Invitational against her top rival in defending Nike Indoor Nationals 60 dash champion Christal Peterson of Phoebus, Tyson won convincingly with a VA #2 all-time performance of 6.87, which easily ranks her as the fastest in the country currently.   The Western Branch girls might have the greatest depth of hurdlers in state history as shown with their 1-2-3 sweep in the finals of 55 meter hurdles on Friday with all three athletes in Desmonae Gray (8.26), Shamia Lassiter (8.29), and Taranisha Taylor (8.30) impressively posting the top three times this season from the state of Virginia. Gray was not done with edging out a win over her teammates in the hurdles, a national leader in the triple jump for much of last year's indoor season, the returning All-American is back ontop of the national leaderboard after a US #1 leap of 39'9.75" at Boo Williams on Friday evening. Western Branch swept the triple jump with Marcus Dean winning the boys' event with a US #3 mark of 47'4.50".   Southeastern Invitational - Day 1 Results   More to come from the Southeastern Invitational including race videos from both days of events.

Led by a 100 meter dash victory of 11.72 and runner-up showing in the high jump by Keilah Tyson (pictured right by Margot Kelly), the Western Branch girls finished third overall at the inaugural Nike Track Nationals held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon in a gathering of the nation's best high school track & field teams. The meet was scored in a decathlon scoring system using each team's top nine events as the Group AAA state indoor and outdoor champions amassed a total team score of 7427.85 points, while Chandler (AZ) girls won the team title with 7721.65 points. Also fairing well individually to score major points for Coach Claude Toukene's squad was hurdler Desmonae Gray with her third place 14.36 clocking in the 100 meter hurdles. Sydni Cobb was a solid top five finisher in both throwing events. Western Branch athletes received an all-expenses paid trip to Oregon, plenty of free gear from Nike, and enjoyed watching the world's top pros compete at the Prefontaine Classic this weekend.   More coverage at MileSplit US

All photos by John Herzog   It took several years for a Virginia school to qualify to compete for the Nike Cross Nationals in the fall, but it did not take long for the state to send a team to Oregon for the first ever Nike Track Nationals to be held on July 2nd at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.The Western Branch girls will be the lone representative for the Southeast region girls as their composite team scoring based on performances during the 2010 outdoor season ascened them to the top of the region rankings to be selected.With the likes of state champion caliber athletes Keilah Tyson, Desmonae Gray, and Sydni Cobb along with formidable relays, the Group AAA state indoor and outdoor champions will represent the state of Virginia in two weeks at the University of Oregon's facility.

Preview for the running events at the 2010 VHSL Group AA State Championships. Several races at this year's state meet will be historically some of the best ever in meet's history in terms of depth such as nine girls under 11 minutes in the 3200 meter run, six girls under 12 seconds in the 100 meter dash, and a large pack of boys relays ready to roll under 8 minutes in the 4x800 and 3:20 in the 4x400.  It has been seven years since the state meet was last held at Sports Backers Stadium and the ability for athletes to wear quarter inch spikes will not be the only factor to help potentially produce for many performances to rank among the fastest all-time in state meet history. Several athletes are capable of winning a pair of individual titles on the track including Darrell Wesh (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) in the boys 100 and 200 meter dash.

Event by event preview of the field events for the 2010 VHSL Group AAA State Outdoor Track & Field Championships. There are several state meet records in the field events which could be broken with a talented assembly of today's stars including Isaiah Simmons (pictured left by John Herzog) of Woodbridge in the throws, Lizzie Powell of Patrick Henry in the pole vault, and Justin Hunter of Ocean Lakes in the jumps. Read more...

An in-depth preview for all field events at the 2010 VHSL Group AAA State Indoor T&F Championships. Preview for the running events to be posted later on Thursday. Meet records are in jeopardy in the girls pole vault and boys high jump. Justin Hunter (pictured left by Ryan Kelly) of Ocean Lakes is capable of winning all three jumping events which he nearly achieved at last May's outdoor state meet. Meanwhile, defending 55 meter dash state champ Keilah Tyson of Western Branch is in position to win three titles individually with her development in the high and long jump.

Both Western Branch boys and girls squads made huge leaps into the second day of competition of the 2010 Eastern Region Indoor Track & Field Championships with the triple jump performances by their athletes on Friday at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. Desmonae Gray (pictured left by Ryan Kelly) uncorked a monster jump in the triple jump with her new US #1 and VA #7 all-time mark of 40'10". A significant improvement for the Western Branch junior who had a previous best of 39'0.50" from last June's Nike Outdoor Nationals.   The Western Branch boys picked up a great deal of points in the triple jump with their top 3 sweep led by a US #2 and state leading mark of 49'5" from Kendrick Smith. Also performing well in the event for the Bruins was Marcus Dean at 47'9.50" and Keenan Smith at 45'11". Without a dominant individual in the sprints or hurdles, Western Branch may have to rely on their triple jumpers and their distance crew for another state title run. Their 4x800 meter relay certainly look to do their part at the state meet as shown with their state best time of 7:58.02 on Friday night as Western Branch became the first team to break 8 minutes this season in Virginia.     Eastern Region Championships - Day 1 Results   More to come from the Eastern Region Championships including photo gallery by Ryan Kelly, race videos by Andy Paisley, and full meet summary.