Class 4 Girls' Track

LYNCHBURG — It was only by one-hundredth of a second, but Handley senior Elizabeth Imoh knew immediately when she crossed the finish line that she had taken second in the 100-meter hurdles to top-seeded senior Myzhane Solomon of Heritage (Newport News) on Saturday at the Class 4 state track & field meet at Liberty University.

When Imoh completed the 300 hurdles later in the meet, she had every reason to think that after six state silver medals in her decorated track career, she had finally earned gold for the first time.

But despite crossing the finish line first in her race with the second-fastest time in her career, she would soon have to come to grips with finishing second in the official meet results for the third year in a row in the 300 hurdles.

Atlee junior Josie Rempe — the 10th seed with a time of 46.34 seconds coming into the state meet — competed in the second of three heats of the 300 hurdles, just before Imoh’s heat. She recorded a time of 44.70 seconds to win the state championship, 0.22 ahead of Imoh’s 44.92.

“She thought for a while she had won,” said Handley coach Mike McKiernan of Imoh, who upon crossing the finish line looked at the scoreboard, put her hand on her mouth, and kneeled on the track. “When I came up and told her she hadn’t, it broke my heart to be the one to tell her.”

A lot of other people associated with Handley initially thought Imoh had won and were clearly heartbroken as well. But demonstrating why McKiernan calls Imoh “a class act,” Imoh did her best to soothe the situation by telling those people, “It’s OK. It’s OK.”

After that exchange, Imoh knew she did everything she could to put herself in position to win a state title.

“It was definitely a good run,” Imoh said. “I did my best.”

Imoh and sophomore Emeryce Worrell scored all 30 of the Judges’ points, which was good for ninth place out 41 scoring teams at the two-day meet. Worrell placed second in the 100 and third in the 200. Imoh didn’t compete in the high jump so she could rest her legs for the 300 hurdles, and the 4x100 team they both compete on placed 14th in 50.85.

Sophomore Jada Arrington had an area-best three All-State performances (Top 8) and scored all 13 points for the Pioneers (16th place). Distance runners scored the remainder of the area’s points, with freshman Kate Konyar and the 4x800 team picking up James Wood’s points and seniors Emma Ahrens and Eva Winston recording Sherando’s points. The two squads tied for 25th with 5 points.

Tuscarora and Heritage (Newport News) tied for first with 62 points. Another Heritage senior kept Worrell from gold in the 100. Madison Whyte — who will run for the University of Southern California on a full scholarship next year — defended her state titles in the 100 (12.07, won by 0.77 over Worrell), 200 (22.81, 2.34 seconds ahead of Rempe) and 400 (53.79 to win by 2.52 seconds).

In the 100 hurdles, Imoh was at her best over both days. In Friday’s preliminaries, she recorded a 14.90 to improve on her seed time of 14.97.

In Saturday’s finals, she gave Solomon everything she could handle with another PR of 14.82, just behind Solomon’s 14.81. Imoh slapped her hands together in resignation as soon as she crossed the finish line. Solomon’s seed time coming into the state meet was 14.51, and Solomon let out a quiet “Thank God” when she left the track after barely holding off Imoh.

“That was painful, for sure,” said Imoh of the close finish. “I wasn’t even expecting to be that close on her just based on her times the rest of the season.”

Imoh set the PR while running into a headwind of 4.3 miles per hour. McKiernan said that running into that type of headwind converts to a time in the 14.5 range without a headwind.

In the 300 hurdles, Imoh came in as the second seed with a time of 43.96 to Monacan junior Tori Lewis’s 43.93. For the first 200 meters, Imoh appeared to be in great shape, but she had trouble maintaining her form as she approached the sixth of eight hurdles.

“It looked like her steps into the hurdle were a little off, and she chopped,” McKiernan said. “To me, she almost came to a stop when she went over. But being the competitor she is, she fought back.”

She did indeed. Imoh’s last 100 might not have been completely smooth, but she was pushing her body to the max. That helped her beat everyone in her heat by 0.48.

McKiernan felt bad that Imoh didn’t win a title, but couldn’t have been prouder with how she dealt with coming so close, particularly after it looked like she won the 300 hurdles.

“She was well-composed, mannerly,” said McKiernan, referencing how Imoh conducted an interview. “As much disappointment as she had to feel, for her to still be such a class act just says everything you need to know about her. She may have been second in those two races today. But she’s a champion in the way she handles herself, and with her work ethic. I’m really going to miss her, not just as a track kid, but as a person in general.”

Worrell had to run into a similar headwind in the 100. While her time of 12.84 wasn’t her best, she did push to beat Kings Fork’s Courtney Johnson by 0.01 to improve on her third-place finish in the prelims. And in the 200, she ran a 24.97 that was just off her season-best time of 24.94.

“Finishing second [in the 100], I was definitely proud of that,” Worrell said. “With the 200, I would have preferred second, but it was a good run. I’m happy with the results today. It was a hot day and exhausting weekend.

“I didn’t make it to finals in either of the events last year, so making both of them this year and placing top three was really exciting for me.”

Konyar ran her first lap in one minute and 17 seconds to slot into fifth place, and she maintained that position over the remainder of the 3,200 and finished with a time of 11:23.78, just a second off her personal-best on the hot day.

“I felt good about my two-mile,” Konyar said. “I think I could have done a little bit better, but for states, taking fifth place, I’m very proud of myself.”

On Friday, James Wood’s 4x800 team of senior Lillian Lovelace, freshman Lauren Thompson, sophomore Ruby Ostrander and senior Quetzali Angel-Perez placed eighth in 9:56.98. The Colonels’ 4x800 team was also All-State last year.

“I’m so proud of [Konyar],” James Wood coach Abeeb Badmus said. “She’s been great for us all year. The past few years, the 4x800 has been kicking butt, and we want that to be a tradition. I’m very proud of them, too.”

Arrington earned All-State honors in three events for the second straight year and set personal records in two of them. She placed third in the 400 in a PR of 57.49 (she placed sixth in Class 4 last year), fifth in the 200 in a PR of 25.36 (sixth last year) and took sixth in the 100 in 13.05, just off her fifth-place finish last year.

Ahrens placed sixth in the 3,200 in 11:32.51 and Winston placed seventh in the 1,600 in 5:17.17.

For more coverage of the meet, see Tuesday’s edition of The Winchester Star.

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