James Wood Girls Take 2nd At Handley Track And Field Invitational

Posted: April 13, 2015
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — The Handley boys defended their home turf against a large field to win the 74th Handley Track and Field Invitational Saturday at the Handley Bowl.

Handley rallied around reigning event MVP Dontae Mauck to finish with 84 total points, nearly 10 better than second-place Loudoun County (74.25 points).

For Handley coach Mike McKiernan, a championship in the 20-team meet wasn’t something he was anticipating. But going into the final event, the 4x400 meter relay, the Judges led the field by 5.5 points, and Handley’s fourth-place finish in the event ensured the victory.

“To be honest we hadn’t really set ourselves up to try and win it today,” McKiernan said. “We are still experimenting. We had a number of people kind of new to the sport so we were kind of playing around.

“We knew someone like Dontae would do well in his events and also some of the older kids, but we didn’t try to overload or pile a lot of work on anyone today. Obviously we did very well today. I’m not taking anything away from the athletes’ performance today but I think there is still room for us to grow and we are going to need to if we want to compete. This was a big meet but there will be others.”

Also in the boys’ meet, Sherando was sixth with 47 points, Millbrook was seventh with 35, Clarke County was 11th with 21.5 and James Wood tied for 13th with 17.

James Wood came up just short of winning the girls’ meet, taking second with 78 points to Rock Ridge’s 86. Sherando was fourth with 54.5 points, Handley was seventh with 42.5, Millbrook was 10th with 21, and Clarke County tied for 15th with 10.

For the second straight year Mauck, a senior, claimed the Otis “Snag” Sargent MVP award. On Saturday he won the 100 meters (11.30 seconds) and triple jump (44 feet, 1 inch) and tied for first in the high jump (6-4). Mauck qualified for the state meet in the triple jump and high jump with his performances in those events.

“I just like to have fun and compete,” Mauck said. “I like to have competition. It’s no fun when there is no competition. These big meets are longer but it’s more fun because you actually have to try because there will be another guy that’s just as fast, if not faster, than you.”

The Judges also added a first-place finish from Aaron Arslan in the 3,200 (9:56.65) and second-place finishes in the 300 hurdles (Zach Foote, 43.08) and the shot put (Marquaye Jackson, 45-4). Senior Jarett Cestaro finished third in the 400 meters (52.75) and tied for third in the high jump (5-10).

“I thought it went very well,” said McKiernan of the meet overall. “We had [20] schools here today. For as many entries as we had I thought the meet went very well.

“I’m especially proud of the way our kids competed. Everybody competed hard and I saw a lot of maximal effort out there today. I was pleased that we got the number of state qualifiers that we had today. I thought for this only being our second meet of the year I thought kids competed and had really good performances for this time of the year.”

In such a large meet a lot of eyes were focused on individuals, and not just Handley’s Mauck.

Millbrook junior Tyler Cox-Philyaw elected not to compete in his best event, the 1,600, and instead did the 800 because he felt that would better prepare him for his appearance in the upcoming Penn Relays. Cox-Philyaw will run the mile on April 24 at the prestigious event in Philadelphia.

“We found out Drew [Hunter of Loudoun Valley] was in the race, and we needed to get a good speed workout in to get ready for the Penn Relays,” said Cox-Philyaw, who took second in the 800 Saturday with a time of 1:56.16 to Hunter’s 1:55.52. “He’s going to be [in Philadelphia] too. It was either that or go do a workout.

“I felt good, it was really windy coming down this home stretch here both times. He’s not really a speed guy so I knew I’d have to take him out hard to get in a good rhythm and get a good time. I figured even if I lose it was going to be a good time. I definitely feel a lot more confident going into the Penn Relays now. I feel like my speed is there. I think if I’m there with 300 or 400 to go I definitely have a shot at winning.”

Millbrook also placed Nazeeh Johnson second in the long jump (20-51/2) and Austin Devart third in the 110 hurdles (17.81) .

Sherando had Trent McCarty take first in the discus (143-21/2) and Thomas Powars second in the 1,600 meters (4:43). The Warriors 4x800-meter relay team also finished second (Thomas Shea, Powars, Jonah Pearson, Jahlil Northover in 8:32.28).

James Wood had distance runner Andrew Shade place second in the 3,200 (10:07) while Clarke County’s Justin Dulaney placed third in the 100 (11.97).

On the girls’ side of the meet the James Wood Colonels got another strong effort from their young team. The Colonels, often described by coach Matt Stegmaier as a field team that also runs track, used their strength in the field to put up stout numbers on Saturday.

Grace Greene won the shot put (35-11/2) and was second in the discus (111-9). Sarah Johnson tied for third in the shot (32-2) and was third in the discus (108-11). Becca Ferrulli was second in the triple jump (33-11). Freshman Rene Rosso placed third in the high jump (5-0) and in the triple jump (33-2). The Colonels 4x100 team also placed third (Ferrulli, Amanda Funk, Kara Norman and Princess Sales in 52.62).

“The girls are just doing a fantastic job,” Stegmaier said. “We scored a lot of points coming out of the field events and we’ve got kids scoring in the track events coming out of the slower heats. Rene did that twice today. She just comes out having fun. She’s still learning just about track and field in general. It’s exciting to see someone that young come out and contribute that much. She’s doing an awesome job.

“Some people look at those performance lists and rankings and just from my experience as an athlete you have to ignore that stuff. We tell the kids if you want to see who’s running that’s great but don’t worry about where people are ranked because some of these entry times and marks are career-bests and not season-bests. It’s nice that the kids have enough confidence and trust us to go out and compete.”

Individually there was another stellar performance from Sherando sophomore Davina Lane. Lane won the 300 hurdles (48.69) finished second in the 100 hurdles (16.47) and took fourth in the 200 (28.06).

“I think I did OK,” Lane said. “Nothing too amazing. My times weren’t that great but I’ve been working on my starts so I think my starts are getting better and I just focused on those today.

“I really wanted to beat the girl who beat me in the 100-meter hurdles (Ashlyn Nolan of Rock Ridge, who ran a 15.36). So I got a really good start going into the first hurdle and then my form was just lost so I just ran because I wanted to win.

“I’m nowhere near where I want to be. But it’s just a start because I’ve been changing a lot of things so it’s like I’m a whole new person.”

Katie Rogers placed second in the 800 (2:32) and Sherando’s 4x800 relay team finished second (Haley Powers, Paige Conner, Andi Crosby and Rogers in 10:27.59).

Handley junior Angelica Robinson defended her high jump title with a state-qualifying mark of 5-2. Mya Mintschenko also had a state qualifying mark in the high jump (4-11, which tied for fifth) and took third in the 300 hurdles (50.29). The Judges 4x400 relay team placed second (Abby Swartz, Mintschenko, Kia Franklin, Alysandra Worrell in 4:24.50).

Millbrook’s top finisher was Hannah Croyle in the 800 (2:33.54).

The Clarke County girls were led by the 4x400 team of Madison McClean, Kolby Parrott, Hannah Ravenscroft and Eve Lettau, which placed fourth in 4:26.71.