2017 Girls' Track & Field Preview: James Wood shows early strength

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — The James Wood girls’ track and field team didn’t waste any time showing that it will be a team to watch again in 2017.

The eight-school Gary Bugg Co-ed Classsic on Tuesday at Harrisonburg High School featured combined boys’ and girls’ scoring (several relays featured boys and girls on the same team) and did not contest any individual track events.

But the meet also scored the girls’ and boys’ separately, and James Wood won that by a whopping 44 points. The Colonels won the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800, and junior Rene Rosso (victories in the high jump and triple jump) and senior Hannah Cavanagh (wins in the discus and shot put) led a typically stout field performance from James Wood.

“James Wood is good,” said Sherando coach Jamie McCarty, whose team could pose the biggest threat to the Colonels in Conference 21 West. “They have a great coaching staff, and they’ve got some talented girls over there.

“Until someone can beat them they’re the champs. Obviously we’re going to take a shot at them and give it the best we can, but they’re going to be tough.”

Rosso headlines James Wood’s returnees after a sophomore season in which she participated in four events at the state meet, earning all-state honors in the 100-meter hurdles (fourth) and 300 hurdles (seventh). Rosso posted the area’s best marks in the long jump (17-0¼) and triple jump (37-0½) and the No. 2 marks in the 100 hurdles (15.08), 300 hurdles (47.24) and high jump (5-4).

Senior Emma Hammond is another standout for the Colonels in the jumps. She had a top mark of 35-91/4 in the triple jump last year and placed 15th in Group 4A, and she also tied for 17th in the state in the high jump (4-10).

“Emma looks like she’s been training non-stop,” said James Wood coach Matt Stegmaier, whose team topped runner-up Woodgrove by 61 points for last year’s confererence title. “Rene has come out pretty strong. She’s leading the workouts like she should. I’ve always told kids that if you’re the fastest on the team, you better be fast in practice too, and she’s held true to that.”

The Colonels suffered a huge loss in Grace Greene, last year’s state discus champion and all-state performer in the shot put who is now competing for George Mason University.

But Cavanagh (ninth in the shot put at last year’s state meet) qualified for this year’s state meet in both the shot put and the discus on Tuesday. Cavanagh’s 35-43/4 in the shot put was just off her top mark of 35-6 from the 2016 season.

“We’ve got some big shoes to fill with the losses that we’ve had, but I think we’ve got some girls ready to step up,” said Stegmaier, who believes his distance crew should be stronger than in years past with additions like Winchester Star Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year Kenzie Konyar, a freshman.

Stegmaier definitely thinks Sherando will be tough, and as always the Warriors figure to get a ton of points from Davina Lane this year, who will join James Wood’s Greene at George Mason next year.

The senior and three-time Winchester Star Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year won state titles in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles last year, and took fourth in the 200 preliminaries. (The final was held four days after the prelims because of a storm, and Lane did not attend.) Lane posted the area’s best times in the 100 hurdles (14.43), 300 hurdles (43.91), 100 (12.63), 200 (25.45) and 400 (59.83) last year. All but the 400 are school records.

Lane didn’t run indoor track this year so she could focus on basketball, but McCarty doesn’t expect that to be much of an issue.

“She’s not coming in in quite the condition she was last year, but she still put in quite a bit of work in the offseason as far as getting in the weight room and working on the things she needed to work on,” McCarty said. “Not doing [indoor] may have made her a little bit hungrier.

“Knowing this is the end for her, I think she’s really going to want to execute. She’s going to want to break the records she already has, and maybe add a couple more to that.”

The Warriors have a number of other talented athletes besides Lane, including Donzailya Berg (tied for fifth in the state in the high jump, top mark of 5-2; third in the area in the long jump, 16-41/2) and Conference 21 West 100 champion Ania Summers, who posted the area’s second-best times in the 100 (12.85) and 200 (27.02) behind Lane.

The Handley girls could also contend for the outdoor conference title after winning the conference indoor meet. (James Wood does not have an indoor track team.)

The Judges are led by two-time indoor state high jump champion and 2017 New Balance Indoor Nationals champion Taylor Beard. The sophomore, who jumped 5-7 over the winter, will be looking to add a state outdoor title to her collection after placing second at last year’s outdoor meet.

“I think she’ll obviously be a good performer in the high jump, but I also think she’ll be able to run some quality 400s,” said McKiernan of Beard, who ranked second in the area in the 400 last year (1:01.86). “We’re trying to teach her to hurdle and triple jump right now as well.

“The temptation is to spread her too thin. We don’t want to do that, but somebody of her quality, it would be a waste to have her only do one event.”

The Judges also feature senior Mya Mintschenko, who tied for 14th in the state in the high jump last year and had a top mark of 5-0, and Casey Nelson, a freshman who placed seventh at the indoor state meet in the shot put this year (top indoor mark: 35-11).

Millbrook will not have all-state high jumper Ali Devart this year, who is focusing on soccer.

But the Pioneers boast a talented distance crew led by 1,600 Conference 21 West champion Kaycee Cox-Philyaw (second in the area in the 1,600, 5:28.41, and 3,200, 11:42.13) and conference 800 champion Mellany Groll (area’s best time of 2:26.23). Millbrook also has two indoor state qualifiers in Ava Derrick (long jump, top indoor mark of 16-11/4) and Sarah Purdy (high jump, 5-0).

In Group 2A, Clarke County is coming off a season in which it took second to George Mason by 83 points at the Conference 35 meet.

The Eagles do bring back all four members of both the 4x400 (third) and 4x800 (sixth) teams that earned all-state honors last year, with senior Kendall Benoit running on both of those teams.

Junior Madison McLean, who ran on the 4x400 relay, is also back after a season in which she took fourth in the state in the high jump (her top mark of 5-2 tied for third in the area and tied for the school record) and in the 400 (1:03.21 top time, third in the area).

“Madison is one of those ones where she pushes herself to where she wears down a little bit,” Clarke County coach Andre Kidrick said. “We want to be careful of that.”

The following is a glance at each area team:

James Wood

Coach: Matt Stegmaier, 12th year.

Last year: Conference 21 West meet champions, 3rd in 4A West Region, 13th in Group 4A state.

Key losses: Grace Greene, Becca Ferrulli, Princess Sales, Sophia Addison.

Top returners: Rene Rosso, Jr., jumps/hurdles/sprints; Emma Hammond, Sr., jumps; Hannah Cavanagh, Sr., throws; Bailey Blais, So., sprints; Jamie Marcy, Sr., sprints/jumps; Kara Norman, Sr., sprints/jumps; Haley Witt, So., distance.

Top newcomers: Kenzie Konyar, Fr., distance; Autumn Hottle, Sr., distance.

Stegmaier’s outlook: “We lost some of our mainstays in the sprints in Becca, Princess and Sophia, but we’ve got some good competition within the team to compete on our 4x100 relay. We get of lot of points out of the field, sprints and hurdles, and I think with Kenzie Konyar and our veterans, the distance portion of our team might be able to contribute more than in the past. I think we kind of need that with some of the key losses that we had in other areas.”

Next meet: April 1 at Strasburg Invitational, 9 a.m.

Sherando

Coach: Jamie McCarty, 1st year.

Last year: 3rd in Conference 21 West meet, 7th in 4A West Region, 8th in Group 4A state.

Key losses: Allison Combs.

Top returners: Davina Lane, Sr., hurdles/sprints; Olivia Couillard (area’s top time in 3,200, 11:37.02), So., distance; Donzailya Berg, Jr. jumps/hurdles/sprints; Ania Summers, Sr., sprints; Lauren Conner, Jr., distance; Stella Williams, So., distance; Camryn Ubert, So., distance; Katrina Munch, Sr., throws; Megan Grose, So., throws; Hannah Helsley, Jr., throws.

Top newcomers: Kaitlyn Roberts, So., sprints.

McCarty’s outlook: “Donzailya’s goal is to be able to jump 5-4 in the high jump if not consistently, then at least several times. She had some really good jumps in indoor and has worked really hard. As a team, our numbers are up, and I think we’re a little bit deeper across the board. We’ve got a lot of young kids, which is good, because we also have a lot of veteran leadership, and hopefully those kids can learn from them. Hopefully by the end of the year we can find some spots where they can help us.”

First meet: Friday at Strasburg, 4:30 p.m.

Handley

Coach: Mike McKiernan, 6th year.

Last year: 5th in Conference 21 West meet, 20th in 4A West Region.

Key losses: Genna Davis, Angelica Robinson, Alysandra Worrell.

Top returners: Taylor Beard, So., sprints/jumps; Mya Mintschenko, Sr., jumps/sprints; Olivia Dickens-Bowman, Sr., sprints; Kenzi Fergus, So., distance; Kristin Blake (2nd in the area in the 800, 2:27.41), Jr., distance/pole vault; Nicole King, Sr., distance; Riley Fisher, So., distance; Casey Nelson, Jr., sprints/throws, Caitlyn Golightly, Jr., hurdles; Cierra Corbin, So., sprints; Chloe Putnam, So., throws.

Top newcomers: Casey Nelson, Fr., throws; Neysha Washington, So., sprints.

McKiernan’s outlook: “Kristin Blake ran well in the 800 last year, but she’s a little stronger this year, and we think she should continue to improve. We’ve got about 40 or 45 girls, so we have a lot of people out. It’s just a little early to tell how well some of them will do. I don’t know if we can win the conference, but we’ll be competitive. I think we’ll be able to put out quality people in any event.”

First meet: April 1 at Strasburg Invitational, 9 a.m.

Millbrook

Coach: Kevin Shirk, 6th year.

Last year: 4th in Conference 21 West meet, 18th in 4A West Region.

Key losses: Lindsay Lockhart, Nadia Dahimene, Hannah Croyle.

Top returners: Kaycee Cox-Philyaw, So., distance; Ava Derrick, So., jumps; Mellany Groll, Jr., distance; Ashley Bigler, Sr., hurdles; Hope Hawthorne, So., throws; Emily Muldowney, So., distance.

Top newcomers: Lauren Banks, Fr., sprints/jumps; Sarah Purdy, Fr., jumps; Delaney Haley, Fr., throws.

Shirk’s outlook: “I believe we bring the most depth in the distance events, from 800 through 3,200, as well as the jumps. It’ll be important for us to score well in the events that we have depth in and really maximize our strengths. Perhaps more importantly, it will take some newcomers stepping up in events in which we haven’t typically scored well, and capture some points there. That’s where our girls’ season will really be interesting — seeing who is going to surprise us with big performances in our weaker events, and we have a few who I think may do that.”

First meet: March 30 at Skyline, 5 p.m.

Clarke County

Coach: Andre Kidrick, 11th year.

Last year: 2nd in Conference 35 meet, 6th in 2A East Region, 10th in Group 2A state.

Key losses: Allegra Eyles, Madison Palmer.

Top returners: Madison McLean, Jr., jumps/middle distance; Kendall Benoit, Sr., middle distance; Skylar Bragg, So. distance; Kellieanne Bryson, So., throws; Emma Jenkins, Sr., middle distance; Stephanie Miller, So., distance; Becky Roberts, Jr., distance; Jayla Stephenson, Sr., middle distance; Madison Webster, So., distance.

Top newcomers: Morgan Withers, Sr., sprints; Elizabeth Wallace, Fr., multiple events.

Kidrick’s outlook: “I think we’re going to have a very tough girls’ team. I think we can compete with anyone in the conference. We’ve got good leadership. Elizabeth Wallace, [football and wrestling star] Bryan Wallace’s younger sister, she has the ability to do whatever she wants. Whatever she focuses on — hurdles, short distance, jumps — if she shows even a little bit of Bryan’s aggressiveness, she’ll be one who steps up and surprises a lot of people. She’s a natural athlete.”

First meet: Wednesday at Jefferson (W.Va.), 5 p.m.

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