James Wood Girls Defend Title At Arrowhead Invitational

Posted: March 21, 2016
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

STEPHENS CITY — The word “cursed” was being thrown around the infield as the golf-ball sized snowflakes accumulated during the second Arrowhead Invitational Saturday.

For the second year, weather wasn’t very spring-like for the Warriors’ track and field meet. Last year, it was 17 degrees with gusting winds that made it tough for athletes and coaches.

On Saturday, the 11 teams competing in the first large invitational of the season dealt with the rain and snow. That caused the boys’ high jump to be called off and the boys’ and girls’ 300 meters was canceled.

But the less-than-great conditions didn’t seem to bother James Wood’s girls’ performance.

Although some teams pulled some athletes from competition and some left early, including boys meet champion Battlefield, who did collect its first place trophy before exiting, enough remained to make the meet count as a state qualifier.

“It’s cool that even with the predicted weather that the teams came and stuck it out as long as they could to make it a state qualifier,” said James Wood coach Matt Stegmaier. “When you run in a meet like this in conditions like this you can always use that, ‘it’s not as bad as Arrowhead, it’s not as bad as Arrowhead.’ It used to be the Jim Taylor Relays or the Wildcat Invitational. March is like that, this is my 11th year as a head coach and I can remember one March Saturday meet that was really decent weather.”

The weather didn’t stop James Wood’s girls from marching its second straight title, winning the meet with 134 points.

“It was fun in the snow,” Stegmaier said. “We told the group last week everyone is running the in the same weather and stuff like that so let other people make excuses and just come out and compete. That’s what everyone is doing.”

The Colonels swept the 200 meter dash with Princess Sales taking first (28.35) followed by Dy’ Avean Sloane and Kara Norman in second and third, respectively. Sales also took third in the 100 meters.

James Wood’s girls also swept the triple jump with Becca Ferrulli taking first (32-9.75) followed by Emma Hammond and Rene Rosso. Rosso won the high jump at 5 feet, placed second in the 100 hurdles and joined Sloane, Ferrulli and Blais Bailey to take second in the 4x400 relay. Ferrulli won the long jump at 16 feet, 3 inches and Hammond placed third.

The Colonel girls 4x100 relay team of Sloane, Blais, Jamie Marcy and Rhiannan Bradford also finished third. Grace Greene won the girls discus (110-7) and finished second in the shot put.

“The girls came out and were tough in the areas that we think they are going to be tough in,” Stegmaier said. “We went 1-2-3 in the triple, Rene [Rosso] won the high, Becca [Ferrulli] the long. Grace [Greene] won the disc and took second in the shot. Both the teams came out and competed well even though they were hurting a little bit. I’m proud of both squads.”

The Colonels boys team did not come away with any team hardware, but took fourth place led by Max Lindquist’s first-place finish in the 3,200 with a time of 10:27.86.

“My middle laps were a little slow, but I tried to pick it up towards the end,” said Lindquist, who had teammate Jacksen Costa follow in third. “It was good that it wasn’t as snowy as it was during the mile, but I like running in the cold so it wasn’t as big of a shock to me. It’s just hard to get warm and stay warm. A lot of guys dropped so I don’t know where I would have been had everyone been racing, but it felt really good to be out in front.”

The Colonels’ Ryan Rupp took third in the 200 meters and joined Tyler Ostinato, Donte Henry and Chris Vitagliano for a second-place finish in the 4x400. Vitagliano also took second in the long jump and third in the triple jump.

Host Sherando took second place in both the girls (85 points) and boys (861/2) team competition.

Warriors hurdler Davina Lane surprised no one when she took first in the 100 hurdles (16.63) and she said she was relieved about the decision to cancel the 300 hurdles because of the conditions.

“My time was really slow in the 100 hurdles but it was really cold,” Lane said. “It wasn’t as bad as last year but it doesn’t help when there are like half snowballs falling from the sky. I’m happy they canceled the 300-meter hurdles because who knows how that would have been. It was nice to get out there because I ran indoor for the first time and it is a big transition from running 55-meter hurdles in the indoor to running the 100-meter hurdles.”

Lane also ran a leg on the Warriors’ 4x400 relay with Alora Dennis, Olivia Brown and Evelyn Gibson that took first in 4:45.56.

Paige Conner added to the Warriors’ individual titles, taking first in the 3,200 (12:29.26).

The Warriors’ 4x100 relay team of Donzailya Berg, Brown, Rachel Burton and Ann Marie Kelly came second.

Ania Summers also took second in the 100 meters, and Dennis placed third in the 400 meters. Berg came second in the high jump, and Allison Combs finished second in the discus and third in the shot put.

While Lane led the way for Sherando’s girls, senior Trevor Whiteside paced the Warrior boys. Whiteside, the reigning indoor state champ in the 1,000, won the 1,600 (4:36.74), and teamed with David Restrepo, Billy Brown and Thomas Powars for another victory in the 4x400 (3:43.64). He also took first with Restrepo, Powars and Thomas Shea in the 4x800 (8:22.66).

“With this type of weather you never know what to do with it,” Whiteside said. “All you can think is to go out and try to hit the paces that you need to hit. I was trying to get down to like a 4:20. Every single time on the back stretch the snow kept getting in my eyes so I had to keep wiping it. You can only do so much in this weather. It’s hard to get PRs or get the times you want. But you can just go out and give it your best and at least hope for the win.”

Powars finished third in the 3,200. Jacquari Hayes won the long jump (21-00.50), and came in second in the triple jump. Isaiah Allen won the shot put (42-01.00).

“Alora Dennis did a real good job for us today and Paige [Conner] has been real steady,” Grim said. “Trevor [Whiteside] is going to be Trevor, and of course Davina [Lane] is Davina. That’s the thing when I decided to cancel the 300 hurdles, I wasn’t just thinking of [just] Davina — I was thinking of all the kids because the snow was starting to stick to the inside lanes. With the huge flakes it was hard to see, especially when you have to jump over something.”

Millbrook’s boys’ and girls’ teams each came in third.

The Pioneers’ Kaycee Cox-Philyaw won the 800 meters (2:33.08) and placed third in the 1,600 meters. Hannah Croyle took second for the Pioneers in the 1,600, and Mellany Groll took second to Cox-Philyaw in the 800.

Emily Muldowney finished second in the 3,200 and Sophie Edlich followed in third. Ashley Bigler took third in the 100-meter hurdles.

Alec Schrank led the Pioneer boys, taking first with a time of 2:08.02 in the 800, and Schrank also finished second in the 1,600.

Josh Davis finished second in the 200. Austin Devart came up with a second-place finish in the 110 hurdles, and Andrew Smith followed in third. Tyler Russell earned the Pioneers’ lone field medal by taking second in the shot put.

“It’s been a little tough because the cold and the snow,” said Millbrook coach Kevin Shirk. “About midway through the meet they gave us the option if teams wanted to leave or continue. We came here to compete so we decided to stick it out and I’m glad we did. It’s been fun despite the weather. We had some pretty good performances on the track. We took three out of the six places in the mile for the girls and in the 800 and in the triple. All around we scored pretty well on the girls’ side.

Handley finished seventh in the girls’ competition with 17 points, and the Judges’ boys took ninth with 13 points.

Handley’s lone medals came in the boys’ relays.

David Bui, Micah Strother, Chris Bockey and Tyler Mudd finished third in the 4x100, while Bennett Crow, Eli Bell, Kevin Heredig and John Delaney also took third in the 4x800.