Girls' - Handley Track & Field Invitational

WINCHESTER — Taylor Beard didn’t honor her late grandfather the way she planned to on Saturday.

But everyone who knew Moody Aylor was probably picturing him smiling from ear-to-ear based on the dazzling performance his granddaughter put on for the crowd at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium on Saturday.

Beard won all four of her events to capture her second consecutive Joseph “Doc” Casey Outstanding Performance Award at the 77th Handley Track & Field Invitational.

The University of Cincinnati-bound Beard won the triple jump with a meet-record leap of 38 feet, 5 inches and set personal records of 15.56 seconds to take the 100-meter hurdles and 46.04 seconds to capture the 300 hurdles. No one came close to touching those marks, as Beard won the triple jump by 2 feet, 6.75 inches, the 100 hurdles by 1.08 seconds and the 300 hurdles by 2.67 seconds.

Beard also won the high jump, an event in which she’s claimed six state championships between indoor and outdoor track and also achieved All-American status.

Beard’s goal was to honor Aylor, whose funeral was on Friday after passing away at 84, by breaking her own meet record of 5-8 that she set last year in the high jump. Beard leapt 5-6 on Saturday to put the competition away, but the All-American who has soared as high as 5-10.75 couldn’t find a way to clear 5-9.

“I think I was just in my head mostly,” said Beard after the 300 hurdles. “I was thinking, ‘This is going to be for him, this is going to be for him,’ and I think I just lost sight of what my focus was, which was to just get over the bar and come out and jump good.”

Beard might have been a little disappointed after the high jump, which was her second event of the day. But after turning in record-setting performances in the 300 hurdles and triple jump after that she realized that it was a day that any grandparent wouldn’t hesitate to talk about with anyone they ran across.

Beard beat her best 100 hurdles time by 0.08 (this despite making hard contact with one of the hurdles) and her top 300 hurdles time by 0.35. Her triple jump was just an inch short of her PR and shattered the meet record of 37-8 set by Skyline’s Oshene Kelly set in 2010. If Aylor were still alive, Beard said he would have been at Wilkins Stadium to watch her on Saturday.

“Words can’t really explain,” said Beard, shortly after she was handed the Casey Award. “It’s been a hard week. Just winning this is really rewarding for me. I know I made [my grandfather] proud. It gives me comfort.”

Handley coach Mike McKiernan said Saturday was just the latest example of what makes Beard so special.

“For her to go through what she went through this week and to come back and compete like she did is a real testament to her fortitude and her toughness,” McKiernan said. “I’m very, very, impressed with her. Always.”

Beard scored 40 of Handley’s 85.5 points as the Judges took second in the 16-team meet to Woodgrove, which scored 95 points. The five local teams all finished in the top half of the half of the field and combined to win 10 of the 17 events. Led by double-winner Kaycee Cox-Philyaw, Millbrook placed fourth with 76 points. Sherando was sixth with 50.5, James Wood was seventh with 48 and Clarke County was eighth with 33.

Handley sophomore Mary McKay also broke a meet record, eclipsing the mark of 11-0 she set in the pole vault last year by vaulting 11-6 on Saturday to win the competition by 3 feet, 6 inches.

The Judges were also led by junior Alexis Grady (tied for third in the pole vault, 7-0) and senior Chloe Putnam (third in the shot put, 31-11).

“I’m very pleased with our team finish,” said McKiernan while discussing both of his teams. “We weren’t looking at winning the meet. We were looking at coming out here and trying to improve. To have kids meeting individual goals and do well as a team was great.”

Millbrook had a spectacular cross country season, and the runners that helped the Pioneers to a third-place finish at the Class 4 state meet are showing they’re just as adept on the track. A total of 43 of the Pioneers’ 76 points came from the 800, 1,600, 3,200 and 4x800.

Cox-Philyaw led the way by winning the 1,600 in 5:10.77 and 800 in 2:23.14. Cox-Philyaw led throughout both races and pulled away at the start of the final lap in each, though Clarke County senior Madison Webster made the 1,600 a little interesting with a late kick that brought her to within 0.65 of Cox-Philyaw (5:11.42). Webster was also the runner-up to Cox-Philyaw in the 800 with a time of 2:24.44.

Cox-Philyaw was hoping to break 5 minutes on Saturday after setting a personal record last week in the adidas Raleigh Relays in North Carolina (She recorded a time of 5:08.55 for the mile, which converts to 5:06.76 for 1,600 meters). But given that she didn’t have anyone in front of her to chase like she did last week, she was satisfied.

“She wasn’t thrilled with her race today, but I thought what she did was equally as impressive as a PR because she led it from start to finish,” Shirk said. “In her PR race, she was kind of pulled along a little bit by other girls and she got to settle into a pack. She didn’t get to settle in at all. She kind of gunned it from the start, so I thought it was a really good performance.”

The 800 was a personal record for Cox-Philyaw, topping her previous best mark of 2:25.

“I started a little slower than I wanted to, but I picked it up with 500 to go,” Cox-Philyaw said. “I was glad to come through with a 71 [over the final 400] because I wanted to make the second lap go faster. So I’m pretty happy with the 800.”

Cox-Philyaw described going to the Raleigh Relays as “amazing,” both because of the elite competition that she went up against and because of the college athletes that was she was able to watch compete. Cox-Philyaw will be competing in college next year at NCAA Division I William & Mary. Cox-Philyaw is in frequent contact with Tribe assistant coach Steve Jones and has been guaranteed a spot on the team.

Cox-Philyaw’s older brother Tyler, a two-time Winchester Star Track & Field Athlete of the Year and Cross Country Runner of the Year, ran at William & Mary as a freshman in 2016-17.

“My brother said I should email the coach if I wanted to run, so I did,” Cox-Philyaw said. “It’s worked out really well. I went down there for a visit in October and I connected really well with the team. I’m super excited to go down there.”

The 4x800 team got Millbrook’s strong distance day started. Senior Emily Muldowney and the freshman trio of Lina Guerrero, Madison Smith, and Rebecca Edlich won in 10:19.10, with Edlich making up a deficit about 10 meters in the final 100 to give the Pioneers a time of 10:19.10 to Fauquier’s 10:20.56. Edlich also took third in the 3,200 (11:48.30).

Milbrook was also led on Saturday by junior Sarah Purdy, who took third in both the 100 hurdles (16.96) and 300 hurdles (49.59).

Sherando freshman Ella Carlson continued her impressive debut season.

Carlson started her year by throwing 120-9 to win the discus at the Sprint into Spring Invitational at Eastern View High School. At Handley, the top-seeded Carlson scratched on her top two throws. She recorded a 112 on her third throw, but she trailed Clarke County sophomore Sara Murray (118-7) and Fauquier’s Kayla Pavlock (117-1) before unleashing a personal-record of 124-2 on the event’s final throw.

“It means a lot [to win this],” Carlson said. “I’ve had lots of people come up to me and say, ‘Are you the freshman from Sherando who hit 120?’ I’m doing better than I expected this yer, because my farthest last year was 108, so I’ve completely blown through that. I’m very proud of myself.”

Other top performances for Sherando on Saturday came from sophomore Haley Mack who took second in the 100 (12.75) third in the long jump (16-9) and teamed with Thais Agard, Indhya Hayes and Kaitlyn Roberts to take second in the 4x100 (50.64).

Junior Kenzie Konyar, who won the 3,200 by almost seven seconds in 11:37.82, led James Wood. Other standouts were sophomore Brooke Sandy (third in the high jump, 5-0) and the 4x400 team of sophomores Ja’Niyah Stovall, Faith Gansor and Riley Rose and junior Mia Johnson (second in 4:16.67).

Clarke County coach Andre Kidrick said Murray’s 118-7 on Saturday was a PR, and he believes she’s got a lot more in her.

“With a couple of little tweaks, she can be right around 130,” Kidrick said. “There’s so many technical little things in disc and shot you don’t think of. It’s not just a big kid going down there to throw a heavy stone. It’s the footwork, the upper body, where your shoulders are, where your head is. When she gets it right, she’s going to be dominant. She’s just a sophomore.”

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