Handley Track & Field Invitational

Posted: April 22, 2013
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Handley coach Mike McKiernan had to admit he was a little perplexed by his boys’ team Saturday.

“It’s really hard to figure out where all our points came from,” he said.

All that mattered was that those points added up to a championship at the 72nd Handley Track & Field Invitational on a windy day at the Handley Bowl.

Though the Judges were without two of their best athletes and won just one of 16 events, Handley won the boys’ title at its own meet for the first time since 2005.

The Judges scored 66 points to defeat runner-up Loudoun County (54.5 points) in the 19-team meet. James Wood was third with 46 points, Sherando tied for sixth with 39, Clarke County tied for 12th with 26 and Millbrook tied for 14th with 25.

Loudoun County was one of four schools scheduled to compete in Friday’s Wolverine Classic at Woodgrove High School that were added to the Handley field because of that meet’s cancellation. Millbrook was supposed to compete at Woodgrove and have a few of its athletes also compete at Handley, but the Pioneers wound up not adding to their original entry list for the Handley Invitational after the Woodgrove meet was cancelled.

When told by assistant T.J. Butler before the 200 meters — the third-to-last event — that the Judges were winning, McKiernan told Butler he felt certain Loudoun County would catch Handley.

McKiernan was more than happy to admit he was wrong.

“The kids did a really nice job,” McKiernan said. “We got some fourths and fifths and sixths, which helped boost us up. We had some quality performances, but it was our depth that won the meet.”

Handley did not have the services of junior thrower Jordan Dowrey or sophomore sprinter and jumper Justin Washington, the latter of whom was held out because of knee tendonitis.

But even without Washington, Handley was able to capture the 4x100-meter relay handily, as Kyrell Davis, Dominique Glover, Stuart Carper and Dontae Mauck won by 1.64 seconds with a time of 44.70.

And without Washington, the sprinting and jumping corps more than held their own individually, too. Mauck led the way by placing second in the 100 (11.75) and 200 (23.27). Carper was fourth in the 400 (52.94), Darion Robinson was second in the high jump (6 feet, 2 inches) and Jarett Cestaro was fourth (5-10). Killian McPartland also placed high in the 110 hurdles (second in 17.25) and 300 hurdles (fourth in 44.63).

Mauck said it definitely hurt not having some of Handley’s top performers, but he wasn’t surprised the Judges won.

“We still thought we were good enough with our reserves that we could still do pretty well and win,” Mauck said. “A lot of people have started [qualifying for] states early in the season, so by the end of the season I think we’ll be a lot better and doing well.”

James Wood coach Matt Stegmaier was definitely pleased with the Colonels’ performance. James Wood was strong in the throws (Logan Shiffler placed fourth in both the shot put and discus, Trent McCarty was second in the discus, and Connor Green was sixth in the shot put), but Stegmaier was particularly impressed with Danny Aldstadt, who was first in the 3,200 in a season-best 9:46.00 to win by two seconds.

“He’s just been chopping time,” said Stegmaier, who added Aldstadt began the year in the 10:20 range. “And he finally got to race. He was one of those kids, we go to a meet, we’d have somebody ahead of him, and they were scratched, or we’d just go to a meet and there was nobody to run against. So today was awesome.”

Sherando has been battling numerous injuries — Warriors coach Tom Grim said he had three or four sprinters that didn’t compete Saturday.

Defending Group AA high jump state champion Chris Smith has been injured as well, and hadn’t been doing any jumping since hurting his knee on April 3 in a dual meet with James Wood. But he cleared his third attempt at 6-4 to win the high jump, then decided to stop jumping so as not to push himself too hard.

Smith said his knee feels about 90 percent, but his confidence is more like 100 since adjusting his approach to the bar by starting out wider to get more speed.

“It’s helping me out a lot,” Smith said. “Hopefully as my knee gets better I’ll see some improvement.”

Aldstadt wasn’t the only local distance runner with an impressive win, as Clarke County senior Zach Campbell took the 1,600 with a season-best time of 4:28.84 to edge Millbrook freshman Tyler Cox-Philyaw (4:29.35).

“I took the lead with 200 meters to go, and just tried to hold on from there,” Campbell said. “I like to make my move late, because I want to see what happens in the race, and who’s going to go out hard.”

Campbell is also moving toward a strong finish to his career. Campbell placed third in Group A in the 1,600 last year and seventh in the 3,200, and on Saturday he took second in the 800 in 2:00.20.

Only Loudoun County’s Patrick Joseph was faster. The Otis “Snag” Sargent Award for the male performer, Joseph set the only meet record with a time of 1:52.64 to break Jason Morgan of Handley’s record of 1:52.7 set in 1985.

It doesn’t hurt that Campbell gets to work out with Joseph. Campbell’s father is Loudoun County head coach Courtney Campbell, so Clarke County coach Andre Kidrick allows Campbell to spend one day a week working with the Raiders.

“It gives him some different motivation,” Kidrick said. “He can run with guys that are going to keep up with him or beat him in practice. He’s looking real good this year.

“He deserves everything he’s getting, because he’s going out to earn it. Hopefully we can get in some events he can win, and get a state championship. He’s one of the old-school distance runners we used to have, where whenever you look up, you see him running. I love it.”

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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