Dejor Simmons

The USATF National Junior Olympics wrapped up on Sunday with only several high school athletes from Virginia making the trip to Nebraska. Meanwhile, a much larger delegation of Virginians will be in Detroit, Michigan this week for the AAU National Junior Olympics with many Eastern Region athletes competing. Live Results at aauathletics.org AAU National JO Results by Day: Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six - Day Seven Day 8 (Saturday, August 2nd) Highlights: Dejor Simmons closed out a remarkable week in Michigan at the AAU Nationals by winning national titles in both the 100 and 200 meter dash on Saturday in the intermediate boys division. Simmons first won the 100 meter dash in convincing fashion with a 10.54 clocking with second place in the finals at 10.85, while the Green Run rising junior was a big winner again in the 200 meter dash at 21.55. Bethel's Ja-Vell Bullard added a third individual national title to his collection for the year as put on a thrilling finish to overtake Bernard Goodwyn from Delware in the final stretch for a 47.32 victory in the finals of the young men's 400 meter dash. Taylor Sykes of Great Bridge and Darryl Brickhouse of Nansemond River also competed in the same finals race as they placed seventh and eighth respectively. Keith Ricks did not win a national title like Simmons in the 200 meter dash, but rolled out an even faster time and the state's fastest performance of the year with his 21.19 clocking to earn All-American honors in a third place finish in the young men division finals. An All-Star team of athletes competing for the Norfolk Real Deal Track Club put up a stellar time to win the AAU 4x400 national title in the young men's division as the quartert of stars Darryl Brickhouse, Sherrard Marrow, Keith Ricks, and Ja-Vell Bullard clocked in at 3:10.57 to close out the meet with a first place finish in relay action. Day 7 (Friday, August 1st) Highlights: With 16 runners breaking 49 seconds, it was very competitive for the eight spots of athletes advancing onto the finals in the 400 meter dash for the young men division. Three Virginians in Ja-Vell Bullard, Taylor Sykes, and Darryl Brickhouse al made the cut with Nike Outdoor Nationals champion Bullard as the third fastest qualifier at 47.41. Great Bridge rising junior Taylor Sykes was just off of Bullard's time winning his heat in a new personal best time of 47.55 (previous best of 47.87). It was only the second time that Sykes has ever broken 48 seconds. Nansemond River's Darryl Brickhouse also needed a personal best performance to advance onto the finals as he nearly broke 48 seconds for the first time as the sixth fastest qualifier at 48.06. Two other Virginians also had solid performances, but failed to make the finals in Bethel teammates Sherrard Marrow (48.38) and Austin Cuffee (48.81). Marrow earned All-American honors earlier in the week in the 400 meter hurdles. Cosby's Andre Redd was the last qualifier to the 400 meter dash finals in the intermediate boys prelims with a 49.78 performance. Redd just completed his sophomore year and first season of track at Cosby with a 48.17 personal best at 400 meters, but has competed in AAU summer track since a young age. Churchland's Tiffany Harris had an outstanding race in the prelims of the young women 400 meter dash as she ran a personal best time of 55.86. Harris had a previous all-time best in the event of 56.69 from the AAU Regional Meet and had not broken 57 seconds during the school year at Churchland.  

Deep Creek rising sophomore Dejor Simmons claimed the second AAU National Junior Olympics Games title among Virginian preps on the final day of competition in the intermediate boys' division of the 100 meter dash. Simmons, seeded second in the event coming in from the semifinals, claimed an AAU national title with a 10.79 clocking in the prelims, which is his second fastest time ever in the event (10.72 personal best). The Eastern Region 100 meter champ nearly earned a second victory in Knoxville, Tennesee in the 200 meter dash, but had to settle for a runner-up finish with a 21.72 clocking behind Ronnie Wingo from St. Louis, Missouri (21.57). Marlena Wesh of Landstown was another AAU national runner-up from Virginia as after finishing seventh in the 100 meter dash finals for the intermediate girls earlier on Saturday, came back to put up a time of 24.39 to take in a second place performance in the finals of the 200 meter dash.

Hannah Varnell (pictured left by John Herzog), a rising junior at Gloucester High School, claimed the national title in the intermediate girls' division of the 1500 meter run at the AAU National Junior Olympic Games in Tennessee. Varnell, who clocked a personal best for 800 meters by four seconds in a time of 2:14.94 in Tuesday's preliminaries, came back to continue her great week in Knoxville on Thursday with a national championship in a 1500 meter time of 4:45.16, which would convert to a 12 second improvement on her actual 1600 meter best of 5:18.  Varnell had finished seventh in the 800 meter finals on Wednesday. Read more on performances by Virginia's high school athletes so far in Knoxville. MileSplit Network's Results Page Live Results Live Webcast 

  The AAU National Junior Olympic Games & USATF National Junior Olympic Championships are beginning to get underway this week with Virginian preps competing in both events with the AAU in Tennessee (July 28-August 4) and USATF in California (July 23-July 29). For the first time ever, both events are having live webcasts of the meets. The USATF webcast can be found here: http://usatfyouth.sportnet.com/ and the AAU webcast can be found here: http://www.aaujrogames.org/trackfield_playon.php  Several Virginians will be in contention to become AAU Junior Olympics national champions or at least All-Americans in their respective events. Dejor Simmons of Deep Creek (pictured above by John Herzog), the Eastern Region 100 meter champion as a freshmen this past spring, is the top seed for the intermediate boys in the 100 and 200 meter dash. Meanwhile, Landstown rising junior Marlena Wesh has the second best seed time in the 100 and 200 meter dash among intermediate girls.  AAU Junior Olympics Performance Lists: Boys - Girls  USATF National Junior Olympics Championships Live Results AAU National Junior Olympics Games Live ResultsLIVE WEBCASTS: USATF - AAU   

The Eastern Region had some of the state's best freshmen in Virginia this spring with the likes of Deep Creek's Dejor Simmons, Ocean Lakes' Drew Paisley, and Woodside's Brandon Burton. Simmons won the Eastern Region 100 meter dash title as well as finished as a state runner-up in the event. Paisley (pictured right by John Herzog) finished as a Nike Outdoor Nationals All-American in the freshmen mile as he was the only freshmen under 4:30 for 1600 meters with a 4:27.04 best at the AAA State Meet. Meanwhile, Brandon Burton also recorded his best in state competition in the 800 meter run with a swift ninth grade time of 1:57.75. Other exceptional athletes included Salem's Anthony Medley, who dipped under 40 seconds several times in the 300 meter hurdles. Top 25 freshmen rankings per event included.

The Virginia Beach Flames Invitational this past weekend had some of the best high school performances in the summer track season so far this year with numerous noteworthy marks and times in the intermediate boys and girls as well as young men and women divisions.   Booker T. Washington junior DeShana Briggs (pictured left by John Herzog), who has struggled in the past with her consistency in the high jump as well as performing well in state competition, seems to be correcting that now after being a non factor at the AAA State Indoor Meet despite clearing 5'8" two occassions before the season.  Briggs cleared 5'8" in two early season outdoor meets and returned back to her season best height at the AAA State Championships to place third in the event.   Much of the higher expectations which were placed on Briggs this year were due in large part to a clearance of 5'10" last summer at the AAU State Meet. Well she is back in top form again after this weekend with her second clearance ever at 5'10". With the likes of multiple state champion Ashley Gatling and Nike Outdoor Nationals champion April Sinkler graduating, the expectations will once again placed on Briggs to win a state championship after another 5'10" clearance to tie Gatling as a state leader for the year.

4:21 is only good enough for 7th at Nike Spring Invite 1600 Mike Spooner of West Springfield and Chris Tyson of West Springfield worked out a pre-race plan to take the first 800 meters out together in 2:04 and then Tyson would push the third lap in hopes of both attaining personal best times and possibly a run at a sub 4:10. Neither was able to come close to breaking 4:10, but Spooner earned a PR in a 4:13.31 win and their bold racing strategy made the rest of the field come along for the ride with 7 runners at 4:21 or faster for one of the deepest races one will find in Virginia in the distance event. Check out the race video!  (Photo by Brandon Miles)  One of the biggest weekends so far with the number of invitationals being held across the state this weekend, so please be patient as we try to digest it all! MileStat.com's Brandon Miles tried his best to be everywhere by attending three meets in two days with the Fluvanna Invitational on Friday night, Gar-Field Invitational on Saturday, and Nike Spring Invitational on Saturday Night. Photos and video are forthcoming from all three meets by Brandon Miles as well as photos from other selected meets by MileStat.com contributors. Meet directors please email us your meet results. Results posted so far from Caroline Inv, Draper Invitational, EMU HS Qualifier, Five Forks Track Classic, Fluvanna Invite, Gar-Field Invite, Landstown Invite, Lee-Davis Subvarsity Invite, Lynchburg All-Area Meet, Nike Spring Invite, Suffolk Invite, Times-News Relays, T.C. Williams Invite, and VMI High School Classic. Check back Sunday for more results and throughout the week for more coverage from this past weekend with performances, meet summaries, photos, and videos to be added.  Tuesday's focus of site work will be on capturing, editing, and uploading of video and pics from Fluvanna, Gar-Field, and Nike Spring.

The Deep Creek boys were the lone Virginia relay to make into the Championships of America finals this past week at the Penn Relays as the Hornets won their qualifying heat on Saturday morning with a time of 3:18.08. In the COA finals of the 4x400 meter relay, Deep Creek finished sixth in 3:19.44 as the second US squad with Long Beach Poly of California winning in 3:09.89. Making up the Deep Creek 4x400 were Keonta Coleman, Dejor Simmons, Dewey Gatling, and Curtis Campbell. Lakeland junior Chris Copeland had the highest individual finish at Penn among any of the Virginia boys in the high jump as the Nike Indoor Nationals All-American and defending AAA state indoor champion matched his personal best height with a clearance of 6'8" to earn second place honors. Check out race videos from Penn Relays at flocasts.com