Boy's Track and Field: Handley Invite

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Cameron Faint clipped each of the last three hurdles in the 110 meters, and he had to switch from his preferred style of extending his left leg to go over the hurdles to a right-leg approach two-thirds of the way through the 300 meters.

Situations like that would probably slow a lot of people down, but Faint’s lethal combination of athleticism and speed helped him continue to pull away instead.

The Millbrook senior captured the Otis “Snag” Sargent boys’ MVP award at the 75th Handley Invitational track and field meet on Saturday at James R. Wilkins Stadium with a performance that was simply dominant.

In the 110-meter hurdles, Faint recorded a time of 15.14 seconds to win by an incredible 0.99 seconds. Faint tied his own school record that he set last year, but Millbrook coach Kevin Shirk noted Saturday’s mark was more legitimate since last year’s time was a hand time.

In the 300 hurdles, Faint was the No. 2 seed, but he blew the field away with a time of 39.71, 1.21 seconds faster than the runner-up.

And while individual split times on relays are only kept by each team’s respective coaches, there might not have been a faster 400 time on Saturday than the one ran by Faint to finish the 4x400.

Faint’s 49.6-second split - almost 1.5 seconds faster than the 51.09 that won the open 400 - helped Millbrook finish third in the 4x400 (3:32.40) and tie for second in the team standings with Fauquier with 61 points. Loudoun Valley - the 2016 Group 4A state runner-up - won the meet with 71 points.

“He’s tough, and he’s in good shape,” said Shirk of Faint, an all-state performer in the 300 hurdles last spring and a all-state performer in the 55 hurdles and 300 hurdles this year during indoor season. “He’s just a good all-around competitor. If we would let him do more events, I’m sure he’d jump into more events.”

Led by a winning school-record performance from Isaiah Allen in the shot put, Sherando took sixth with 44.5 points in the 24-school meet, believed to be the largest field in event history. High jump winner Trey Causey helped Handley take 11th with 26 points, Clarke County was 14th with 19 and James Wood was 18th with 12.

Faint said his successful indoor season helped set him up for what he’s doing now.

“It made me a lot faster going over the hurdles, and it helped with my speed,” said Faint, who added that the improvement of his teammates is also pushing him to get better.

After blitzing through the 110s, Faint did well to adjust his lead leg in the 300 hurdles.

“I didn’t stutter, so that’s a good thing,” Faint said. “I never want to stutter. I was faster than I was last week [at the Courtland Invitational] and every meet I hope I go faster and faster.”

Had Millbrook been focused on winning the team title, the Pioneers might have done so, but for a variety of reasons Shirk was careful with some of his athletes.

After running Millbrook senior and New Balance Emerging Elite Indoor Nationals two-mile champion Alec Schrank in two events last week at Courtland, Shirk elected to pull back and limit Schrank to the 1,600 on Saturday. (After a thrilling battle in the last 200 meters, Schrank took second by 0.01 to Loudoun Valley’s Colton Bogucki. Schrank’s lean almost won, but Bogucki’s shoulder crossed first in 4:27.58 to Schrank’s 4:27.59.)

Also, Pioneers senior Antwon Rodgers won the triple jump on Saturday with a school-record 43-11, but during the 4x100 Rodgers’ hamstring started to bother him. The all-state performer was pulled from the long jump, where he was seeded fifth, as a result.

“We were just playing it smart,” Shirk said. “Antwon was looking awesome before he got hurt. On a cold, windy day, it’s easy to have injuries. I’m still happy with today. The whole team did really well.”

Others who ran on the 4x400 team were Josh Davis, Daniel Ludwig and Andrew Smith. Smith also took third in the 300 hurdles (41.61).

Sherando’s Allen took fourth in the state last year with a 51-1.5 in the shot put. The sophomore blew past that and his season-best of 49-5 on Saturday with a 52-7 on his second throw. No one else in the field reached 50 feet.

Allen’s been working on a new throwing technique this season, and he was excited to see it make a difference on Saturday.

“I switched to the spin, and it’s been a rough road,” said Allen, who went on to place fourth later in the day in the discus (136-2). “It was a kind of a step back from the glide, where I was real consistent and dominant.

“But now I’ve really bought into the process of really training and getting into it. Today it finally paid off with a big PR.

“Most of the time with this new technique I’ve been fouling on my throws. But today when I actually landed it and I looked to see how far it was, it was a really big weight taken off my shoulders, because I really just wanted to put one out there.”

Sherando coach Jamie McCarty said it was only a matter of time before Allen had a day like Saturday’s.

“Switching over was tough, but the consistency is starting to come, and the comfort level,” McCarty said. “We knew he had the potential to do it, so it was good to see that. He needed that, so it was a good confidence boost for him. With the work that he puts in, he’s relentless. He wants to get better. He’s happy, but he’s not going to be satisfied with today.”

The Warriors were also led by Hayden Williams (second in the 3,200, 9:55.26) and Allen’s fellow football offensive lineman Sam Johnson in the shot put (third with a 46-11).

Causey - a junior who was an all-state high jumper last year - cleared 6-4 on his second high jump attempt to win on Saturday. The bar was then lifted to 6-7 so Causey could try for a national qualifying mark ad personal record, but he was unable to do so.

Causey took up track last year after previously playing basketball. Causey wasn’t allowed to jump for about a month after suffering a hand injury playing basketball in mid-February, but since his return he’s improved his personal best from 6-5 to 6-6.

“I’ve had to work hard on my form, but [high-jumping] felt natural the first time I did it,” Causey said. “I hope I can get to 6-7 or 6-8 this year.”

McKiernan said it was good to see Causey have to fight to win. Causey won by 10 inches at the last week’s Ram Country Invitational at Strasburg, and the entire field was eliminated by the time he started jumping.

“It was a solid field today,” McKiernan said. “This week he had some pressure on him, and he responded very well to it.”

Handley was also by Max Doerwaldt, who took third in the pole vault (10-0) and seventh in the 110 hurdles (16.88).

Clarke County was paced by Andy Bonett, who placed third in the triple jump (a state-qualifying 41-9), fourth in the long jump (20-1.5) and eighth in the discus (130-4).

“He’s definitely our best all-around athlete,” Eagles coach Andre Kidrick said. “He has awesome throws for a guy who comes down for 5-10 minutes a day to get some disc throws in after working on jumps, sprints and hurdles. He’s team leader by example. He works his butt off.”

James Wood was led by Chris Vitagliano (third in the long jump, 20-2.25, sixth in the triple jump, 39-7).

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1