Millbrook boys, Sherando girls claim conference track crowns

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI THE WINCHESTER STAR | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — The Sherando girls and the Millbrook boys deserved to savor every step of the raucous sprints to pick up their Conference 21 West track & field championship plaques on Thursday night at Millbrook.

Led by a spectacular individual effort from senior Davina Lane (four individual wins and 51 total points), Sherando scored 150 points to edge two-time defending conference champion James Wood by nine points (141).

And while the Millbrook boys won by a dominant 50.5 points in the boys’ meet to repeat as conference champions, Sherando looked very much like a team that could knock them off based on the event seedings coming into the meet.

The Warriors’ chances were finished almost immediately because of a hamstring injury to Jacquari Hayes, but the Pioneers’ display of impressive performances was non-stop.

Seniors Cameron Faint (three wins) and Alec Schrank and Josh Davis (two each) combined to win seven events, with Faint pulling off an incredible back-to-back by winning the 800 not much more than 10 minutes after winning the 300 hurdles.

Though Lane specializes in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles (defending state champion in both) as well as the 200, she added the three jumping events to her repertoire this year simply for the chance that doing so might lead to her celebrating a conference title with her teammates.

And the Warriors did celebrate. It’s possible that the screams they made as they sprinted to the podium were heard in Stephens City, one of the last moments of an evening that started off with multiple weather delays.

“It means a lot,” Lane said. “This is my last year with my team, and the fact that we came out with a conference win, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Because we all gave everything we had.”

In her first career six-event day, Lane did her part by winning the 100 hurdles in 14.95, the 300 hurdles in 44.98, the 200 in 25.79 and the long jump with a mark of 17 feet, 2.5 inches on her final jump. She also placed third in the high jump (5-0) with a personal-best. Despite being exhausted, she then finished her day by taking fourth in the triple jump (35-3).

Lane’s performances in the high jump and long jump were her most important.

Tied for the seventh seed in the high jump, Lane scored two more points than James Wood’s Emma Hammond (tied for No. 3 seed) in the high jump. In the long jump, Lane trailed James Wood’s Rene Rosso by 3.5 inches (16-9.5 to 16-5) heading into her final attempt, but she unleashed a 17-2.5 to pass Rosso and create a four-point swing.

“We needed the win in that one, and I knew I could win,” Lane said. “The last [jump], you’ve just got to go all out, and whatever happens, happens.”

Sherando made a lot of special things happen Thursday.

“Davina’s been obviously great for the program, and was willing to go out on a limb by doing so many events,” Sherando first-year head coach Jamie McCarty said. “The big thing, she brought everybody with her. You look at how we performed tonight, and we overperformed in so many events with kids stepping up and scoring points because they knew what was on the line.

“We had the conversation that Davina could do these things, but we have to give her help. Tonight we got that help. We were able to pull points that we didn’t know for sure we were going to get, though we knew we had the talent to get them.”

Other winners for the Sherando girls were Ania Summers in the 100 (13.05), Stella Williams in the 1,600 ( 5:26.18), Olivia Couillard in the 3,200 (11:56.80) and the 4x100 team of Summers, Donzailya Berg, AnnMarie Kelly and Kaitlyn Roberts (51.46),

Sherando also had Berg take second in the 100 (13.35) and third in the 100 hurdles (16.64).

James Wood might have lost its conference crown, but it was not for lack of effort.

As usual, Rosso led the way for the Colonels. In addition to taking second in the long jump, she placed first in the triple jump (35-8), second in the 100 hurdles (15.96), second in the high jump (5-4), third in the 200 (27.17) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (49.23).

As for the other teams in the girls’ meet, Woodgrove took third (116 points), Handley was fourth (113), Millbrook was fifth (70) and Harrisonburg was sixth (34).

The Handley girls were led by double winner Casey Nelson (discus with a 116-8, shot put with a 38-2).

A junior, Nelson has starred all year in the shot put, but her seed mark was just 101-5 coming into Thursday’s meet for the discus.

“I’ve been preparing a lot in practice,” said Nelson, whose top performances were 87-6 in the discus and 29-11 in the shot last year. “I’m doing a lot of extra reps, and getting a lot of feedback from my coach. I’ve been using a spinning technique in the discus a lot more this year. I tried it last year, but wasn’t comfortable.

“I’m just amazed and grateful [for my success in both events this year].”

Other winners for the Judges were Taylor Beard (high jump, 5-5), Kristin Blake (800, 2:25.09) and the 4x400 team of Desi Morefield, Blake, Mya Mintschenko and Beard in 4:16.76, with Beard fighting as the anchor leg to give the Judges a 0.10 win over Woodgrove. Alexis Grady won the pole vault for the Judges on Tuesday at Handley with a 6-0.

In the boys’ meet, Faint won the 110 hurdles in 15.21, the 300 hurdles in 40.17 and the 800 in 2:01.88.

Faint’s win in the 800 was particularly impressive. After purposely conserving energy in the 300 hurdles, Faint was instructed to immediately get on the shoulder of top seed Will Saunders of Woodgrove.

Faint did so. He picked up the pace with 200 meters to go to force Saunders to hold him off, then finally caught him with about 50 meters to go. With Faint taking huge breaths down the stretch, he managed to push past Saunders to win by 0.12 (2:01.88 to 2:02.00).

“He had a little bit of a kick coming off the [200],” said Faint, who had only run the open 800 once in his career prior to Thursday. “I just had to stay with him, and in the last 100 I had to let everything out of the tank.”

As Faint made his way toward the infield, Millbrook athletic director Scott Mankins and Sherando’s McCarty were among who came up to Faint to congratulate him on his display of excellence and grit.

Faint said all of his teammates gave great efforts as well.

“It means a lot,” Faint said. “Coming into this year we lost some key athletes like Tyler Cox-Philyaw and Tyler Russell, but throughout the year we practiced hard and did what we needed to win.”

Pioneers coach Kevin Shirk warned his team that they wouldn’t be victorous if they didn’t perform their best on Thursday.

“As the season went on, we were a little worried,” Shirk said. “Sherando’s been looking really, really good lately. They’re super stong in the jumps and the throws, and they have other kids here and there too. When they won [the Apple Blossom Invitational on April 29], they caught our eye and a little bit by surprise.

“I told our kids all week that based on the performance list, they had us by seven or eight points. We had to step up in certain places, and they did a really good job. I’m glad we won, because we have a lot of seniors on our team, almost in every event. I wanted to see them come out on top, and they did.”

Millbrook was also led by Schrank (1,600 in 4:27.31, 3,200 in 9:50.62) and Davis (200 in 23.15, 400 in 51.25). Davis added a third in the 100 (11.52).

The Pioneers also received a win from its 4x400 team of Andrew Smith, Jayden Johnson, Daniel Ludwig and Will Martin in 3:33.69.

The Pioneers’ other top performances came from Smith in the 110 hurdles (16.02, third) and 300 hurdles (40.99, third), Martin in the 300 hurdles (40.87, second), Conner Freeman in the high jump (second, 6-0) and Antwon Rodgers in the triple jump (second, 43-4.5).

Sherando came into the meet with legitimate hopes of winning the boys’ team title, but the Warriors’ chances were hampered severely when Hayes pulled up while leading the 100 meters with about 20 meters to go. The Warriors elected to hold out Hayes — the meet’s top seed in the long jump and triple jump — for the rest of the meet.

Sherando had several strong performances in the field though. Isaiah Allen won the discus (145-4), Sam Johnson won the shot put (51-0) and T.J. Washington won the long jump (21-7.75).

Woodgrove and Handley tied for third with 107.5 points, James Wood was fifth with 91.5 and Harrisonburg was sixth with 67.

James Wood was led by 100 champion William Crowder (11.45). The freshman also made up a sizable deficit to anchor the 4x100 team of Cody Dahlinger, Mason Bean and Chris Vitagliano to victory in 44.20, .01 ahead of Woodgrove.

Handley was led by Trey Causey, who won the high jump (6-2) and triple jump (44-4) and took second in the 100 (11.50).

The top six finishers in each individual event and the top two finishers in each relay event qualified for the 4A West Region meet next Thursday at Liberty University.

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