WINCHESTER — After more than nine hours of action, Handley track & field coach Mike McKiernan was feeling tired, but feeling good, too.
“What I felt like this meet showed us was we could score points in a big meet,” McKiernan said. “We may not dominate dual meets, but we have athletes who can place in a meet like this.”
And meets don’t get get much bigger than Saturday’s Handley Invitational at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium.
The three-time defending Class 4 Northwestern District champion Handley boys shined the brightest among the local schools, pleasing McKiernan by tying for third. That finish was due largely to three individual championships and three runner-up performances — including two relays — that delivered 54 of the Judges’ 66 points, equal to Loudoun County’s point total. Seniors William McKay (pole vault champ), Stephen Daley (shot put champ, second in 100 meters, ran a leg on the second-place 4x100 team) and Ryan Stickley (400 champ, ran a leg on the runner-up 4x800 team) starred for Handley.
Jefferson (W.Va.) won the boys’ title with 92 points and Loudoun Valley placed second with 69 points. James Wood (fifth, 37), Sherando (tied for 10th, 25), Millbrook (13th, 21) and Clarke County (26th, 2) rounded out the local performances.
Led by senior discus and shot put champion Ella Carlson — the only local double winner for either the girls or boys — Sherando had seven top-five performances to pace local teams and finish fourth in the girls’ meet with 53 points behind Middletown of Maryland (71), Jefferson (62.5) and Fauquier (59). Handley (seventh with 31 points), James Wood (eighth, 30), Millbrook (13th, 19) and Clarke County (tied for 21st, 7) rounded out the local scores.
As the reigning Class 4 state outdoor champion, McKay’s win in the pole vault wasn’t surprising, but it was needed in his season debut. He recorded a mark of 12 feet, 6 inches to beat Patriot senior Dominic McCombs’ 12-0.
McKay — who vaulted 14-9 to break a 48-year-old school record at last year’s state meet — did not clear the bar at all at this year’s district indoor meet in three attempts at 11-6, which ended his season. (McKay would have won the district meet had he cleared the bar — Fauquier’s Dylan Damer placed first with a 9-0.) McKay did not attend the one regular season meet Handley had that would have given him a region- or state-qualifying mark.
The reason why McKay struggled so much was because of an injury. McKay fractured his middle finger playing a game of “capture the flag” with his track teammates at a practice, sidelining him a few weeks before the district meet. He said he only had a couple of days of practice before the district meet.
Sitting out the rest of the indoor postseason has given McKay even more fuel to finish his high school career in strong fashion in outdoor track.
“It’s making me work a lot harder,” McKay said. “I just really want it. I know how bad it is to no height and not make it past districts.
“My vaulting feels a million times better. I’m getting back into it and getting the repetition down. I’ve been back getting decently over a 14-foot bungee [cord], and the biggest thing is moving up poles to get on bigger poles, and I’ve been doing that really well.”
While McKay has more work to do approach his school record, he took his first big step toward defending his state championship on Saturday. His performance qualified him for the state meet, and he said it was big to win against someone who pushed him in McCombs.
“It gives me a lot more confidence,” McKay said. “I was extremely nervous. I didn’t want to no height again. It’s definitely good to have a win under my belt.”
“I was really happy for Will,” said McKiernan, who was pleased with numerous performances from the team on Saturday. “It’s really nice to see him get back on track.”
Daley’s speed might draw the most attention, but as of right now his best event is the shot put. Daley placed fourth at the Class 4 indoor meet with a mark of 49-2.5. He opened the spring season with a 48-3 at the City-County meet and achieved a mark of 47-4 to win by two feet, six inches on Saturday. Daley only putted the shot the one time because he was busy getting ready for his running events.
“I have a technique now,” said the 6-foot-2, 250-pound Daley, who did not qualify for last year’s outdoor state meet after placing sixth with a 43-8 at regionals. “[Last year], I was just kind of going out there and throwing it. I do a glide, and that’s added a lot of feet to my throws. And I’m getting stronger every year.”
Daley’s working his way back into back into peak sprint form, especially since his primary indoor sport was basketball this year. The man who placed third in Class 4 in 10.81 seconds last year improved on his City-County time of 11.46 seconds by running an 11.26 Saturday. But Daley said he didn’t get out of the blocks well, and that he could be in better shape. Jefferson sophomore Keyshawn Robinson cruised to victory in 10.96 on Saturday.
“It was just great to get out here and compete against some really good people, kind of see who I’ll compete against for regions,” Daley said. “For discus, there’s two Sherando kids and a Loudoun County that are really throwing.”
Daley placed fifth in the discus with a 135-1 behind Sherando senior Avery Dodson (144-10 to win by 4-1) and Warriors freshman Micah Carlson (third, 139-4), who each earned state-qualifying marks. Daley’s still working to get back to where he was last year in that event, when he was fifth in Class 4 with a 147-10.
Daley was also part of an impressive Handley 4x100 performance. Junior Aaron Lee (leadoff), sophomore Manno Lusca and sophomore Christian Metzger teamed to record a time of 44.56 to finish only behind Jefferson’s 42.76. Daley liked what he saw from Metzger, who was added to the 4x100 team at last year’s region meet as a result of an injury to former Judge Jayden Vardaro. Lusca is the one newcomer to the team that finished fifth in Class 4 last year.
“Christian ran some people down on the last stretch, which is good for us,” Daley said. “After states last year, he was a little bummed out because we had the lead and he lost it. For him to just be able to hawk people down probably gives him more confidence back and believe in himself that he can be that guy for us anchoring.”
Stickley also had an outstanding day. Seeded third in the 400, the 2021 All-State performer in the event won in a personal-record and state-qualifying 50.57 to beat Jefferson’s top-seeded Isaiah Fritts (50.94). Stickley also ran the leadoff leg on the 4x800 team that placed second in 8:21.60.
Pierce Francis, Max Ware and Nico Schianchi (fifth in the 1,600, 4:32.10) also competed on the relay, which was neck-and-neck throughout the race with James Wood until Colonels anchor leg Nathaniel Woshner’s 2:00 split. Woshner passed Schianchi with 150 meters to go bring the team of senior Liam McDonald, sophomore Ethan Pratt-Perez and freshman Eli Clark across first in 8:19.60.
James Wood also led by Andrew Link, the junior who earned All-State honors in both hurdles events last year. He won the 300 hurdles in 41.51 (0.67 ahead of Jefferson’s Chase Brown) and placed fourth in the 110 hurdles (16.31). Senior Brendan Cassidy placed third in the 110 hurdles (16.09).
The Millbrook boys were paced by a dominant performance from junior Nick Hayden in the 3,200. He set a PR by more than 25 seconds and ran 4:40 in the second mile to pull away dramatically for a 17.14-second win in 9:27.44. Junior Landon Baker placed third in the 200 (22.79).
The Clarke County boys were led by senior Dain Booker (seventh in the long jump, 20-2.5).
Ella Carlson — the defending Class 4 girls’ state champion in the disc and shot — was glad to get the wins but not pleased with her marks. Carlson — whose top marks in those events were 138-5 and 38-11, respectively, last year — threw 121-2 to win the discus by 7-7 and 33-11 to win the discus by 2-8 on a cool day at Handley.
“I don’t want to blame it on weather, but my muscles were not warm enough,” said Carlson, who could be seen spending a lot of time on her discus throwing motion between preliminaries and finals. “I wasn’t happy with what I threw it all today in either event.
“It’s just kind of frustrating, because I know what I can hit and today was just not one of those days.”
The thrower who’s bound for NCAA Division I William & Mary expects some big days in the future, particularly in the discus.
“This year, with my strength and skill, I have the potential to be in the 160s toward the end of the year,” Carlson said. “I did several 150s in practice. Sometimes I change one part of my throw and it will get out there and then I can’t get it back. I think the more consistent I get the farther I’ll be able to leap out of it.
“How I come out of the back, I’m going to try and start tall and go low, instead of vice versa. And then my block toward the ending, I’m working on getting that stronger so that I can get the discus down the middle more consistently.”
Carlson was part of an excellent performance from Sherando overall.
The 4x800 team of junior Emma Ahrens, senior Julianna Duke, freshman Cassidy Crittenden and junior Eva Winston placed second (10:28.71), dropping 20 seconds off its previous best this season. Ahrens led entering the final lap of the 3,200 and placed third (11:41.90). Senior Victoria Corbit placed second in the long jump (16-2.75) and fourth in the triple jump (33-6). Winston placed fifth in the 800 (2:28.92).
“Emma Ahrens showed us that perfect pacing prevents a poor performance,” Sherando coach Josh Ilnicki said. “She did an absolutely fantastic job in the two-mile today. It’s just exciting to see all the hard work really paying off.
“Emma has like a built-in metronome. She’s able to set a pace in her mind, and [distance] Coach [Megan] Roberts and I are just helping her with 200 splits. She just ticks back and forth, and it really makes a successful race by being able to hit those target 200 intervals.”
Handley was led by junior Elizabeth Imoh. She placed second in the 100 hurdles (16.49), fourth in the high jump with a state mark of 5-2, and helped the 4x100 team place fourth (51.03).
James Wood was paced by its 4x400 meter relay team of Lauren Beatty, Olivia Smith, Lillian Lovelace and Ruby Ostrander (third in 4:26.88). Beatty, a senior, also had a state-qualifying performance by taking fifth in the 1,600 (5:20.85).
Millbrook was led by junior Madison Murphy, who like Ahrens also led during the final lap of the 3,200 but settled for second in 11:39.93, 2.05 seconds behind Loudoun Valley sophomore Eryn Lackey. Lackey made up a ton of ground on Ahrens and Murphy with a 73-second final lap. Murphy also placed sixth in the 1,600 (5:26.74), and Pioneers freshman Jada Arrington placed third in the 200 (26.28).
Clarke County sophomore Bailey Beard, the Class 2 state runner-up in the 200 and 100 last year, placed fifth (26.74) and sixth (13.08), respectively, in those events on Saturday.
For more meet coverage, see Tuesday’s edition of The Winchester Star.
