RICHMOND, VA -- The Eastern

Region once again dominated the state AAA outdoor track and field championships

as they swept the team titles with Deep Creek repeating as the boys team winner

and perennial power Bethel taking the girls crown this past weekend at Sports

Backers Stadium in Richmond.

The Deep Creek boys scored 23 of their 42 points in the three relay events

and clinched the team title by winning the final event, the 4x400 meter relay,

in 3 minutes, 18.31 seconds in the meet which had team scoring through eight

places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Northwest Region champion Colonial Forge and

Central Region champ Thomas Dale tied for second with 37 points with Colonial

Forge scoring 18 of their points in the high jump as Jerome Miller won with a

leap of 7 feet and his brother Jason Miller finished second at 6-5 while Thomas

Dale's big point producer was senior Alex Tatu with victories in both the 1,600

run (4:19.41) and 800 run (1:54.39).

Lake Braddock was the highest local team finisher in fourth place with 33

points to edge Northern Region team titleist Westfield's fifth place point total

of 32 points. The Bruins were forced to compete without star hurdler Craig

Gallimore, who was one of the favorites in both the 110 high and 300 meter

intermediates but still bothered by a hamstring injury. Gallimore's availability

would have conceivably put the Bruins over the top but Lake Braddock still put

up a very solid effort keyed by victories in the long jump by Carl Hunter

(23-1.25) and Steve Hoogland in the 3,200 run (9:33.43).

Westfield showed plenty of depth as they were able to score points in seven

of the seventeen events led by junior Alvin Tondereau who finished third in the

300 hurdles (38.93), seventh in the 110 hurdles (16.25) and ran the leadoff leg

for the Bulldogs' third place 4x400 relay (3:21.32) which also included Philippe

Tondereau, Chris Courson and Chris Black.

Robinson finished in a three way tie for seventh as Robinson senior Steve

Huntzinger made his final high school appearance in the state a grand one. On

Friday, Huntzinger won his second consecutive discus throw title amidst swirling

wind conditions with a farthest fling of 174-10 with First Colonial's Khaliff

Mitchell (167-1) the only competitor within 24 feet of Huntzinger's winning

throw.

On Saturday morning in a steady, light rain Huntzinger had his work cut out

for him in the shot put since Mitchell had thrown 62-7 to win the Eastern Region

title the week before and Huntzinger the Northern at 62-8. Mitchell got the

competition off to a brisk start with an opener of 60-3 and Huntzinger came

right back on his first throw of 61-0. Huntzinger improved his best to 64-0.5

and was able to hold off the imposing Mitchell, who managed to increase his best

toss to 61-10.5 but could not overtake Huntzinger as the Robinson senior won his

third straight outdoor shot put title.

The only other local winner was Reynold Smith, Jr. of Forest Park, who

captured the triple jump at 47-8.5 to edge runnerup Alton Hewlett of Meadowbrook

(47-6.5) and Smith also finished third in the long jump (22-9) and sixth in the

300 hurdles (41.14) to account for 19 of the Bruins' 27 seventh place points.

The highest place winners in the area in other events were Westfield's John

Schenck in the 100 dash (5th; 11.14); Travis Parker of Robinson in the 400 dash

(6th; 49.55); Woodbridge's Daniel Simpkins in the 800 run (6th; 1:56.06);

Hayfield sophomore Brian Fussell in the 1,600 run (4th; 4:23.70); Mount Vernon's

Ernest Asante, who was second in the 300 hurdles (38.59) and third in the 110

hurdles (15.52); Gar-Field's 4x100 relay of Terry Jackson, Darren Garrigan,

Derek Liggins and Eric Coleman (5th; 43.24); Gar-Field's Jarmel Latney in the

high jump (4th; 6-3); Lake Braddock pole vaulter David Hodulich (4th; 14-0) and

West Springfield's 4x800 relay (2nd; 7:44.30).

The boys 4x800 meter relay was the best event, performance wise, from top to

bottom and arguably the most exciting. The 4x8 was being run for the first time

ever at the state outdoor meet as the last event on the Friday schedule which

had previously contained only field events and trial heats in the running

events. The wind velocity had died down considerably with temperatures very

comfortable in the upper 60's. The nine teams in the top seeded section were all

geared to running fast times since their relay members now had overnight to rest

up for their next event, instead of one to two hours to recuperate when the

4x8's had previously been run as the first race on Saturday in past years.

The race featured a matchup of state indoor runnerup Midlothian which had

finished third at the prestigious Penn Relays in 7:47.98 a month ago against

state and national indoor champ West Springfield, which had run 7:50 both

indoors and outdoors this year. Midlothian held a slight lead over West

Springfield through their first three legs of Ryan Witt, Robert Gielow and

Taylor Matthews as they matched up against the Spartans first three of Tim Kwak,

Joe McMahon and John Cook.

Going into the anchor leg, Midlo's Andrew Baker held a one stride lead over

West Springfield's Jeff Day with the time after three legs at 5:49 and both

teams with a shot at Menchville's meet record of 7:46.83 set in 1995. Baker was

able to stay a stride ahead of Day until the last 100 meters and Baker then put

his head down slightly and gradually pulled away to win in what was to be the

only meet record on either the boys or girls side of the weekend at 7:42.93 with

West Springfield also under the old meet standard and with a new school record

of 7:44.30.

There were also plenty of fast times behind the top two as Lake Braddock also

set a school record at 7:50.96 to edge Deep Creek (7:51.00) for third place with

Westfield was fifth in a school record time of 7:52.92, Herndon sixth at

7:53.69, Jefferson eighth at 7:55.21 for one team point and Oakton running a

very creditable 7:55.99 for what was amazingly, a non-scoring ninth place.

The girls side team scoring has the top two spots conceded as Peninsula

District rivals Bethel and Menchville squared off at the state level once again

with Bethel riding freshman Francena McCorory's wins in the 100 and 200 dash and

anchoring a come from behind victory in the 4x100 relay to score 63 points and

offset Yvette Lewis of Menchville's 38.5 points from the long, triple and high

jumps; 100 hurdles, 100 dash and 200 dash as the Monarchs totaled 57.5 points.

The weather from Saturday's action, which started as a steady rain, then

became partly cloudy with very strong, gusty winds for about three hours

followed by a hailstorm and then a half hour respite of non-precipitous weather

followed by strong rain, caused the postponement of the girls vault until 5:00

p.m. Sunday afternoon with a majority of the 28 girls entered still remaining in

contention.

Thus, the third place trophy is still in doubt, but with 16 of the 17 events

completed and with Bethel and Menchville not able to change positions because

they have no pole vault qualifiers; Salem is currently in third with 41 points

and Gar-Field is fourth at 36 points with neither of those schools having any

vaulters. Lake Braddock is fifth with with 35 points and have Cristina Zuniga

and Abbey McGrath of the Bruins still in contention while Eastern region teams

claim the next seven of eight spots and ten of the top thirteen team places

overall.

Individually, the Eastern Region dominated as well, as the team scoring would

indicate as the Northern Region claimed one title and the Northwest three. From

the Northern, the Robinson 4x800 meter relay team of Meredith Brooks, Vicki

Moore, Joanna Rodgers and Sam Ference (2:15 anchor leg) triumphed by 40 meters

in a school record time of 9:12.13 with Kellam second (9:18.98) and Jefferson

third (9:23.17).

The Northwest victories were accomplished by Gar-Field as seniors Tiffany

Evans and Afua Amponsah accounted for all of the Indians' 36 points. Evans

easily took the shot put at 45-4 with Hayfield senior Ashley Crocker second

(40-8) and in the discus Evans came from behind to win on her final throw of

139-3 with Lake Braddock senior Jessica Sawers the runnerup at a personal best

distance of 134-7. Amponsah was the winner of the 100 hurdles in 14.82 with all

of the dash times slowed by the steady headwind on the homestretch and Amponsah

also finished third in the 300 hurdles (45.35).

The top area girls performers in field events included Lake Braddock's Ashley

Haislip second place finish in the high jump at 5-4 with Amy Seward also at 5-4

but the winner based on fewer misses at the previous height; Shea Spann of Mount

Vernon in the triple jump (4th; 37-2.5) and Oakton's Kathleen Woody in the long

jump (17-10.75).

Top performers in the running events included Potomac freshman Candace

Robinson in the 100 dash (12.94) and 200 dash (25.96); Woodbridge freshman

Brittney Hazel sixht in the 400 dash at 60.57 in the very windy finals after

running 57.16 in the relatively placid Friday trials; senior Jemissa Hess of

C.D. Hylton, who finished third in both the 800 (2:14.74) and 1,600 (5:04.80)

runs; Forest Park junior Beth Fahey in the 3,200 run (3rd; 11:14.13); Lake

Braddock's sixth place 4x100 meter relay team of Jessica Preko, Meredith Brill,

Cristina Zuniga and Jenny Eakin (49.61) and Lake Braddock's 4x400 relay squad of

Zuniga, Brill, Abbey McGrath and Christine Francois (5th; 4:01.37).