HARRISONBURG — It wasn’t an ideal day for the Handley High School boys’ track & field team, but it was another successful one.
A Judges team that was hoping to challenge for the Region 4D title placed third at Tuesday’s meet at Eastern Mennonite University despite not getting any points from defending Class 4 100- and 200-meter champion Rylan Stribling due to an injury. The senior — who has been battling hamstring issues all year — began feeling discomfort shortly into his race and pulled up well before the halfway point.
The Judges will hope to get Stribling back to full health before the Class 4 state meet at Liberty University in Lynchburg on June 5 and 6. (The top four finishers in each event as well as those with state-qualifying times and marks throughout the season will compete in the event.)
Handley will be well represented at the meet and will feature two senior regional champions. During a meet that sometimes featured significant and light rainfall and sometimes no rain at all, Will Thomas won the 800 meters and Isaiah Baxter captured the triple jump.
In improving on last year’s fourth-place Region 4D finish, Handley scored 88.2 points to finish behind Charlottesville (first with 115 points) and Blacksburg (second with 105) in the 15-school meet. James Wood was seventh (31), Sherando took ninth (29) and Millbrook was 14th (4).
“We were hoping to get first,” Handley coach Lloyd Phillips said. “It was unfortunate to have Rylan go down in the 100. I think if we stays healthy, we give ourselves a shot to win it, or at least take second. That’s just how the dice rolled today.
“I’m really proud of the boys’ team. They executed well and did what they needed to do in a lot of areas.”
Thomas’ main goal coming into Tuesday was to help the 4×800 team qualify for the state meet. The team that also featured Halston Wright, Noah Meleason and Avery Miller did that comfortably, placing third in 8:17.90 to improve on the relay’s best time by nearly 20 seconds.
“That was fun,” Thomas said. “I’m super excited. Halston did awesome, and then Avery, Noah and me all kind of cruised the last 100 [for each of our legs]. The goal was to make states through placement, and then go all out at states and see what happens.”
In the 800, Thomas trailed for much of the race against Jefferson Forest’s Joshua Mignard, but he went outside of Mignard for the last 100 and left him and the rest of the field in the dust. Thomas won by 1.21 seconds in 1:59.73.
“I came in as No. 1, so I was either going to lead [the race] or outkick it,” Thomas said. “Coming down to the moment, I felt a little lactic from the first event, and it came to a kick.”
While Thomas was seeded No. 1, Baxter was seeded third with a 43-5, just two inches behind Mecklenburg’s Tamon Mayo. Mayo improved on his seed mark by four inches, but Baxter exploded past his by 14, recording a 44-7 to beat Mayo’s runner-up 43-11.
“We think he’s a 45, 46 guy, so we’ve been waiting kind of all year for him to hit [44],” said Phillips of Baxter. “It happened today, and that’s the most important thing. He’s a big-time performer. When it matters the most, he brings it.”
Baxter also placed third in the high jump (6-0; teammate Timmy Campbell took second with the same mark but only needed one attempt at that height while Baxter needed three) and sixth in the long jump with a 21-0.75, less than two inches from his season best.
Sophomore Brock Ashe will head to the state meet in both hurdles events. He had previously qualified in the 300 hurdles and took second in that event in 41.34 on Tuesday. Earlier, he earned the last state-qualifying spot by taking fourth in the 110 hurdles during a downpour in 15.71, just off his season-best of 15.58.
“Today, for the 110s, I was just thinking, ‘Give it all you’ve got and just leave it all on the track,'” Ashe said.
Ashe did not participate in the state meet in 2025, a year in which he placed ninth in the 300 hurdles and 10th in the 100 hurdles at the region meet.
“I think just my mentality, and just knowing where I want to be at the end of season [has helped with my improvement this year],” Ashe said. “Every practice, I’m going to work hard. I’m focused. I’m just excited to show everybody what I can do at states.”
Handley also received top-four performances from Gavin Williams (third in pole vault, 12-0), Carson Green (fourth in shot put, 47-5.5) and Everett Otto (fourth in 3,200, 9:51.60). Otto also ran a season-best 4:30.20 to place sixth in the 1,600.
“[Otto] stepped up big in the 3,200 and ran another good race in the 1,600,” Phillips said. “I’m really proud of him.”
James Wood was led by its hurdlng duo of seniors Jorel Baltimore and Duncan Stanton. Baltimore is heading to the state meet in both hurdles events (he placed third in the 110 hurdles in 15.52 and fourth in the 300 hurdles in 41.81) and Stanton qualified in the 110 hurdles by placing second in 15.46.
Stanton hadn’t finished either of his previous 110 hurdles races as a result of a fall and a false start, but he delivered in a big way on Tuesday.
“[Monday night], I was just envisioning this race the entire time,” Stanton said. “[The previous two races were] messing with my head a little. But I came out and did what I needed to do.”
Stanton did not advance to states last year.
“It means a lot [to move on],” Stanton said. “I have to shout out Jorel. We train all the time together and we’re neck and neck the whole time. He’s really helpful with my training progress.”
James Wood coach Danielle Koelker said, “We were hoping that Duncan got all the bad luck out of the way. I think today was just the perfect combination of the training and doing what he needed to do.”
James Wood was also pumped up by seeing its 4×400 team of Ivan Andrews, Riley Malone, Baltimore and Connor Kenney-Fitzner advance to the state meet by placing fourth in 3:31.28.
All are seniors except Malone. Kenney-Fitzner’s blazing anchor leg and PR of 49.77 moved James Wood up from fifth to fourth.
“Obviously, they left it all out on the track, and that’s exactly what we wanted them to do today,” Koelker said.
Tate Martin (second in shot put, 47-10) and Jackson Ogle (fourth in triple jump, 43-7) led the way for Sherando on Tuesday.
“I’m really proud of those guys,” Sherando coach Brad Symons said.
Millbrook’s Samuel Lapp placed eighth in the 3,200 in 10:30.12 and ran on the 4×800 team that took sixth in 8:35.39.
“We’re going to work on improving our numbers and just our overall talent level for next year,” Pioneers coach Jamie McCarty said.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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