Woodgrove girls edge Colonels for ABI crown

Defending champion James Wood lost by just one point to Conference 21 West rival Woodgrove at the 49th edition of the H. Brian Landes Track & Field Invitational on Saturday at the Colonels’ Kelican Stadium.

James Wood trailed Woodgrove 78-76 heading into the meet-concluding 4x400 relay. The fourth-seeded Colonels improved their season-best time by nearly three seconds (4:15.97) to edge the top-seeded Wolverines (4:16.03), but the six points James Wood received for third place wasn’t enough to offset the five points the Wolverines received for taking fourth.

Woodgrove scored 83 points and James Wood scored 82. Sherando — which received wins from senior Davina Lane in all three events she entered before leaving just prior to the 300-meter hurdles for her school prom — placed third with 64 points. Led by high jump champion Taylor Beard, Handley was fourth with 55 points, Millbrook tied for ninth with 32 and Clarke County was 14th at the 21-school meet with 20 points.

Rosso’s outstanding day including a season-best time of 47.29 to win the 300 hurdles; a season-best 15.38 to take second in the 100 hurdles; a mark of 5-3 that tied for a season best to take second in the high jump; a mark of 16-41/4 to take second in the long jump; a mark of 34-13/4 to take third in the triple jump; and she ran the anchor leg on the 4x400 relay for a total of 411/2 points.

But understandably, Rosso and the Colonels — who have won two conference championships in a row — don’t like the idea of losing to anyone, much less a conference team.

“Hopefully it’s a blessing that we lost here, because it hurts a little bit,” James Wood coach Matt Stegmaier said. “Sherando’s girls’ team rolled out [early] because of the prom, and they were still top three. Hopefully our girls realize it’s got to be a team effort to repeat as conference champs, and we just can’t rely on one or two individuals.

“Some kids had great days today, like Dy’Avean Sloane, but others didn’t have their best day today. We told the kids [when we took second to Group 5A Stone Bridge at the Woodgrove meet on April 21] that everybody’s got to step up and take care of each other. If someone slips up, hopefully your great effort makes up for that. It’s not one, two or three kids that are going to make a decision on whether we win conference or not. It’s going to come from kids who get those one-point places. It came down to one point today, and who knows what it will come down to at conference.”

Stegmaier said Rosso certainly deserved MVP honors for everything she did to give the Colonels a chance Saturday. The 4x400 saw Rosso fight to try and catch Handley’s Beard, then edged out Woodgrove’s anchor leg in a sprint to the finish. Dy’Avean Sloane, Kiara Gilkerson and Emma Hammond ran the first three legs for the Colonels.

“What [Rosso] did in the 4x4 … I didn’t think I could be amazed by her anymore, but I have another level of respect for her effort,” Stegmaier said. “She could have easily given up on a a hot day with everything she does, but she it put it in another gear and put the shoulder down.

“There’s not too many people who could do everything that Rene does at the level that she does it, so she deserves the [MVP] award.”

Rosso said she was most pleased with her performance in the high jump. She jumped 5-3 for the first time in her career at the Woodgrove meet, where she also won meet MVP honors.

“I’m starting to like high jump a lot,” Rosso said. “I feel like I’m getting better each meet at that. We changed my approach. Instead of taking three slower steps [to start], I’m sprinting all the way up [before jumping].”

Rosso said she feels like she’s further along in the hurdles.

“I was running 16s in the 100s and 48s in the 300s at this time last year,” Rosso said. “I’ve definitely gotten better.”

James Wood was also led on Saturday by Hammond (second in the triple jump, 34-3.5), Hannah Cavanaugh (season-best 36-71/2 to take fifth in the shot put, sixth in the discus, 101-1) and Sloane, who impressed Stegmaier with PRs to take fourth in the 300 hurdles (49.40) and sixth in the 200 (27.55). Her leadoff leg on the 4x400 briefly had the Colonels in second.

Two days after placing sixth in the 400 hurdles at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Lane returned with some near-record performances.

She won the long jump in 17-21/2 (one inch off her PR), won the 100 hurdles in 15.08 (.01 off former Handley and current University of Maryland star Lisa Meneau’s meet record set in 2013), and won the 100 in 12.70, .07 off her school record from last year. If not for a headwind, Lane might have broken Meneau’s hurdles mark and her own 100 mark.

“My [hurdles], I think I was a little high over all of the hurdles, so I think that definitely could have been a better race,” Lane said. “But my 100, I felt pretty good about that. I’ve been working on my starts, and my start felt better in that race. I wasn’t too far from my PR, and I haven’t ran the 100 since this meet last year.”

Conceivably, Sherando might have won the whole meet if not for the prom. Lane was the favorite in the 300 hurdles, and had she approached her personal best she could have won the triple jump had she entered the event. And Lane wasn’t the only Sherando girl or boy who left early or had their event agenda adjusted because of Sherando’s prom.

“We moved some things around, but our distance girls were able to give us some points,” said Warriors head coach Jamie McCarty of a group led by Olivia Couillard (first in the 3,200 in 12:15.41). “If the distance team can be successful and keep improving, that’s going to help the whole team be successful.”

Sherando was also led by its 4x100 team of Ania Summers, Donzailya Berg, AnnMarie Kelly and Kaitlyn Roberts, which took second in 51.84.

Handley had several strong performances. Beard won the high jump with a 5-4, took second in the 300 hurdles (PR of 48.86) and teamed with Desi Morefield, Olivia Dickens-Bowman and Mya Mintschenko to place second in the 4x400 (PR of 4:15.13). Casey Nelson placed third in the shot put with a PR of 39-61/2, and Kristin Blake took second in the 800 with a season-best of 2:24.59.

“Casey had an awesome throw, and I’m really excited and happy for her,” Handley coach Mike McKiernan said. “We got a regional qualifying time with the 4x400, and three of the girls ran their relay best splits of the year. I thought it was a good day for our team as a whole.”

Millbrook was led by Sarah Purdy, who placed fourth in the high jump (4-11) and seventh in the long jump (14-101/2) and Ava Derrick, who took fifth in the long jump (14-11) and fifth in the triple jump (32-1).

Clarke County was led its 4x800 relay team (Madison Webster, Arianna Montgomery, Catherine Lewis, Skylar Bragg), which took third in a school-record time of 10:15.98.

“[Distance coach Jeff] Webster has been working combinations to see what we have,” said Clarke County head coach Andre Kidrick, referencing both the girls’ and boys’ 4x800 teams. “Today he settled on these teams, and I think they’re ready to do something. We have some depth, and it’s been awesome to see the progress.”

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