4A State Track Meet Finals

Posted: June 8, 2015

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

HARRISONBURG — When Sherando senior thrower Trent McCarty had to curtail his regular weightlifting routine in the middle of the season because of an injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder after falling while playing flag football, he had concerns that it might prevent him from performing his best the rest of the year.

But the injury healed sufficiently a month ago, just in time for the postseason. And from that point on, he not only performed his best, but he also proved he was the best discus thrower in all of Group 4A.

McCarty completed an undefeated postseason by winning the discus with a mark of 151 feet, 10 inches at the Group 4A state track and field meet at Harrisonburg High School to become Sherando’s first male state champion since Chris Smith won the Group AA high jump in 2012.

“It’s huge,” said McCarty, who had never advanced to the state meet until this year. “Not making it past the region meet two years in a row, then coming here and winning, it’s unbelievable.”

While perhaps not unbelievable, it was a bit of a surprise that McCarty was the only area athlete to earn a state title at the two-day meet.

Handley senior Dontae Mauck had an outstanding state meet by earning all-state honors (top eight) in five events, but his second-place finishes in the 100 meters — where he lost by just 0.01 — and long jump — where Mauck broke his school record — were the closest he came to winning his first outdoor state title.

In addition, Millbrook junior Tyler Cox-Philyaw was unable to defend his 1,600 title (he took fourth). And while Cox-Philyaw was the top seed in the 800 — his second event of the day — he took fourth behind three runners who did not participate in any events Saturday before running the 800 on a sunny and windy day.

Like Cox-Philyaw and Mauck, McCarty was also a top seed, with a top mark of 155-7 that he achieved while winning last week’s 4A North Region meet, but that was only two inches better than Denbigh’s Gabriel Boyd.

McCarty took the lead for good with his second throw in preliminaries with a 148, then put the pressure on the field with his 151-10 on his second throw in the finals.

“I definitely didn’t think a 148 was going to do it,” McCarty said. “I had to push myself a little bit further to try and give myself a little more comfort.”

Neither Boyd — who took second with a 144-3 — or anyone else was able to threaten McCarty on their final throws.

“He showed his consistency today,” Sherando coach Tom Grim said. “That next-to-last throw he threw that [151-10], and I think that really put the heat on [Boyd]. I’m just so happy for him.”

A lot of people were. His mother Darla, and grandmother Shelly, each wrapped him in hugs, and his grandmother had to dab her eyes with a tissue over the final moment in a spectacular postseason run.

McCarty came agonizingly close to making states in the discus his sophomore year (missing by one place at regionals) and junior year (missing on a state mark by one inch), but he was at his peak these past few weeks. McCarty won the discus at the Conference 21, 4A North Region and Group 4A state meet. In the shot put, he won the conference meet, set a personal record with a 50-9 to take second in the region meet, and threw 49-4 to place fifth at the state meet.

“They say with consistency comes big throws,” McCarty said. “I wanted to PR, but a state championship is more than I can ask for this year.”

McCarty helped Sherando take sixth place with 32 points. I.C. Norcom took first with 95 points and Phoebus placed second with 54. Handley led local schools by placing fifth with 33 points. Millbrook tied for 12th with 16, and James Wood tied for 19th with 11.

Mauck scored all but four of Handley’s points after a busy two-day stretch, one that Mauck said might have been too busy.

“It’s tough to do your best when you’re doing so many events,” said Mauck in a phone interview Sunday.

Mauck’s state meet started on Friday with his best triple jump of the year, a 46-5 ½ that was good for third place. He also recorded the fastest 100 time in the prelims (10.92) and the fourth-fastest 200 time in the prelims (22.26).

With all signs pointing to I.C. Norcom running away with the boys’ meet, Handley and Mauck decided to pull out of the high jump Saturday morning to conserve his energy. (Mauck was the co-No. 2 seed with a top mark of 6-4.)

Mauck’s first event Saturday was the 100, and he couldn’t have come any closer to winning his first career outdoor state title. Mauck ran the second-fastest 100 of his life (10.70), but his lean at the finish line left him just 0.01 behind Phoebus’ Dartrez Thompson, who achieved a personal best this year.

The close finish gave Mauck reason to believe he might have won. It really wasn’t obvious to any spectators until they called athletes down to the podium to receive their medals that he hadn’t — the names are usually read off from eighth place to first place, and Mauck’s name was announced second-to-last.

The toughest defeat for Mauck to take was probably the long jump. Nansemond River’s Kadeem Middleton posted a stunning 24-3 ¼ in the preliminaries, nearly two full feet more than his personal best (22-4). In his first jump in the finals, Mauck improved on his school record of 23-9 with a 23-10 ½.

At that point, Mauck needed to check in for the 300 hurdles. Mauck said Sunday that after that first long jump in the finals, he wanted to scrap the 300 hurdles so he could finish the long jump. But he ultimately decided to do the 300 hurdles, and he took seventh (39.86). After that, Mauck had two more attempts in the long jump, but could not match his previous effort.

Mauck finished his day with a strong run in the 200 to take fourth (21.87, just 0.12 off his personal best), but it didn’t feel that way.

“My legs were just gone by that point,” Mauck said.

Handley coach Mike McKiernan said normally, he’d have thought that Mauck’s performances in the 100, long jump and triple jump would have been good enough to win state titles. Mauck thought so too.

“But that’s not what happened,” said Mauck, who added that he couldn’t take any real satisfaction in a career-best long jump performance because it didn’t result in a state title. “Those guys were just a little better than me.”

Mauck said he’s still proud of his season, and McKiernan said Mauck should be proud of that as well as his state meet.

“Dontae competed hard and had great performances,” McKiernan said. “The fact that he’s all-state in five events shows his versatility and his toughness. I doubt there were very many other kids who did five events here.”

Handley’s other all-state performance came from junior Aaron Arslan, who took fifth in the 3,200 in 10:03.38.

Cox-Philyaw posted strong times but took fourth in both the 1,600 (4:26.61) — an event he won at last year’s Group 4A meet — and 800 (1:58.55). Cox-Philyaw was the top seed in 800 (1:54.57) and the second seed in the 1,600 (4:13.06).

Cox-Philyaw started to struggle with his stride with about 300 meters to go in both races.

Cox-Philyaw ran a scintillating 61-second first lap en route to winning last year’s 1,600 in 4:17.24. But with E.C. Glass senior Peter Seufer leading the way, the first lap of this year’s 1,600 was about 67 or 68 seconds according to Cox-Philyaw.

That pace wasn’t to Cox-Philyaw’s liking, so he grabbed the lead with 900 meters to go and held it for about 600 meters. But around the 300 mark, Cox-Philyaw slowed down noticeably as he struggled to move his arms and legs in a smooth fashion, and three runners, including Seufer, passed him in the next 25 meters. Midlothian’s Randy Hahn eventually passed Cox-Philyaw too, but Cox-Philyaw did recover to beat Hahn and finish fourth, six seconds behind Seufer.

“It was a strategic error on my part,” said Cox-Philyaw, who was hoping not to set the pace in the 1,600 so he could conserve energy for the 800 later in the day. “I shouldn’t have taken the lead with about 900 to go. I should have just sat back. The longer I sat back, the fresher I would have been.”

Cox-Philyaw said the wind — which played a role for both days of the meet — also contributed to his performance in the 1,600.

In the 800, Cox-Philyaw had Fauquier’s Raul Chavez in the race to set the pace, but Cox-Philyaw wasn’t able to stay with him once the leaders hit the straightaway on the backstretch, nor was Cox-Philyaw able to respond when Sherando junior Trevor Whiteside passed Cox-Philyaw with about 250 meters left in the 800.

Whiteside wound up taking second (1:55.23) and James Wood senior Andrew Shade also eventually passed Cox-Philyaw and placed third (1:57.19). For Chavez, Whiteside and Shade, the 800 was their first event Saturday.

“My body just didn’t respond when Trevor went by,” Cox-Philyaw said.

Millbrook also received an all-state performance from Alec Schrank in the 3,200. Schrank placed third in 9:37.45, 2.85 seconds behind Seufer.

Schrank — who took seventh in the 3,200 last year — set the pace for the first five and half laps, and with the heat and wind he thinks he would have been better off dropping back and letting someone else set the pace.

“I was hoping for second,” said Schrank, who was seeded second with a seed time of 9:26.42 behind Seufer. “I can hit my pace on good days, but some days I just need somebody else to pull me along and help me out, and today was just one of those days. The problem was that Peter wasn’t going to take it out, because he had the mile later, so I figured I had to. But this is something to build on for next year.”

Though he qualified for states in the 1,600, Whiteside decided not to enter the event so he could make a run at winning the 800. He nearly pulled it off by passing Cox-Philyaw and running up behind Chavez on the backstretch to make Chavez take the brunt of the wind. Whiteside tried to run around Chavez once they hit the final 100. The expression on Whiteside’s face showed just how much strain he was putting on his body to win, but ultimately Whiteside finished 0.49 behind Chavez (1:54.74 to 1:55.23).

“Overall, I’m happy that I pushed myself as hard as I could,” Whiteside said. “I gave my best effort, and that’s all I was hoping for.”

Whiteside’s performance came on the heels of Friday’s school-record performance in the 4x800 with junior Thomas Shea, senior Jahlil Northover, and sophomore Jonah Pearson, the second straight year that Sherando has set a school record in that event at states. With three different teammates last year, Whiteside helped Sherando eclipse a record that had stood for 16 years by six seconds with an 8:01.58, and Friday they ran an 8:00.58 to place fourth after entering with a seed time of 8:09.45.

Shea also had a memorable individual accomplishment. Though he was the lowest-seeded runner of the 21 people who entered the 3,200, he grabbed the final all-state spot by placing eighth in 10:09.61.

The Warriors also had an impressive performance from Jacquari Hayes in the triple jump, as he improved his personal-best by almost three feet with a mark of 44-10 ½ to place fifth.

James Wood’s two all-state performances came from Shade and senior Landon Rutherford, who placed fourth in the shot put Friday with a mark of 49-4 ¼.

Shade was slated to run the 3,200, but the decision to pull him out worked out well.

“It worked for him to trust us and not worry about running the 3,200,” James Wood coach Matt Stegmaier said. “His best chance to place was in the 800, and he had a great effort. We talked about this for a few weeks, and it was right move.”

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