Pratt-Perez rallies to win 800, leads Wood boys to second place at ABI track meet

WINCHESTER — As Woodgrove senior Prescott Noll chased James Wood senior Ethan Pratt-Perez on the backstretch of the second lap of the 800-meter fast heat on Saturday, people on the Kelican Stadium infield could hear a Wolverines coach utter the words, "Not yet."

Everyone at James Wood High School would soon find out why there was concern about Noll going too fast, too soon.

Noll passed Pratt-Perez with 200 meters to go, and even caused Pratt-Perez to pull up slightly to avoid contact. But when they made the turn for the final 100, Pratt-Perez had moved up to Noll's shoulder.

Pratt-Perez then ran the final 100 meters in a manner befitting the fierce look of determination on his face to claim the 800 by 1.18 seconds over Noll in a personal-record time of 1:56.68.

Pratt-Perez completed his day by anchoring the 4x400 relay team to second place in the final event and that lifted James Wood to a second-place finish as a team in the 55th edition of its own H. Brian Landes Apple Blossom Track & Field Invitational.

Woodgrove took first out of 17 teams with 98 points, 26.25 more than the Colonels (71.75) on a cool day in which it rained for about an hour — it came down hard for the last 30 minutes — during the morning field events while there was a break on the track. A leaf blower was used to clear off the water that accumulated in the shot put circle.

High school proms on Saturday for Handley and Sherando — and the Warriors' decision to have several athletes compete only on Friday at the Falcon Track Classic — left those teams depleted, but the Judges still placed third with 68.5 points and Sherando was ninth with 31. Clarke County placed fifth with 60 points and Millbrook took 12th with 18.

Pratt-Perez and Noll ran against each other in the 1,600 the previous week at Woodgrove's Wolverine Classic, and James Wood coach Craig Woshner said the duo had a similar switching of positions in that race. Noll passed Pratt-Perez with 300 meters left, but Pratt-Perez came back to take second in 4:21.73, while Noll finished third in 4:22.47.

While on a run together earlier in the week, Pratt-Perez and Woshner discussed strategy for the ABI, and Woshner said Noll might have learned a lesson about surging too early against Pratt-Perez.

"I was kind of surprised with 250 left, the Woodgrove kid went on him again," Woshner said.

Pratt-Perez was clearly ready to respond, but not before an unexpected moment.

"He cut me off, so for a second, I stopped," said Pratt-Perez with a laugh. "But because he passed me, I picked it up."

Pratt-Perez went out hard to start the race, because he was hoping to break the the school record of 1:55.3 set in 1998 by Mike Connelly. Seeing the time on the electronic scoreboard helped push Pratt-Perez even harder on the final straightaway.

"I saw 1:51 on the timer, I was like, 'This is it. Go,'" said Pratt-Perez, who beat his previous best time by 0.01. "But my legs were like, 'No, not this time, buddy.'"

Noll had walked over to Pratt-Perez at that point. After the two runners congratulated each other — Noll also ran a PR — Pratt-Perez said he was grateful to have Noll in the race.

"If hadn't been for him, no way I would have been so close [to the school record]," Pratt-Perez said.

Pratt-Perez should have at least one more opportunity to break the school record — things could change, but his current plan is to run the 800 and 3,200 at the state meet on May 31-June 1. Woshner said it will be a hard record to break.

"When you start getting around 1:55 range, improvements come in tenths of a second," Woshner said. "Overall, I thought he ran a great race. He's extremely competitive and doesn't like to lose.

"A lot of kids, when they get passed at that point in the race, they're just going to give up and fold. Ethan hung in there, and then you can see him with 150 left [start to move. Assistant] coach Tyler [Cox-Philyaw] has [our runners] do 150s a lot of times at the end of a distance run or practice, specifically because that's the point we tell people to start taking off going into the last turn. He played that to perfection today."

Pratt-Perez teamed with junior Trenton Manili, Connor Kenney-Fitzner and Ivan Andrews to run the 4x400 in 3:33.93 to improve on their seed time in their runner-up finish.

Overall, Woshner thought the team competed well. James Wood was also led by sophomore Jorel Baltimore (second in the 110 hurdles in 16.49, third in the 300 hurdles in 42.34) and Manili in the 200 (third in 23.31). The Colonels did well in the throwing events, with junior Jude Miller placing fourth in the shot put (41 feet, 1.25 inches) and fifth in the discus (115-1), and junior Trey Guynn taking fourth in the shot put (119-0) and sixth in the discus (39-7).

"Jude and Trey have been pretty consistent all year," Woshner said. "None of the field events had very good performances today just because of the conditions, but they competed well and they scored us some points. Jorel Baltimore has been doing really well for us in the hurdles.

"Trenton had some injury issues earlier in the season, which is still giving him a little bit of trouble right now. We weren't sure if he was going to be able to run the 4x400 or not, but he sucked it up and was able to do it. Our 4x4 team is starting to shape up pretty well, at least when Ethan is in it. He won't be in all the time."

All things considered, Handley had a productive day at a meet where the Judges were without distance standouts Will Pardue and Will Thomas (both involved in non-track events out of town) and jumping star Hassan Akanbi (Handley prom), and didn't run its top-seeded 4x100 team with athletes leaving early for prom.

"With all that, for us to take third, I'm very pleased," Handley coach Mike McKiernan said. "We had some kids pop up and do some nice things today. They competed very well and very hard. We relied on a lot of younger kids for points today, so that was good."

Before he left the meet, Handley senior Manno Lusco won the 100 meters in 11.43 seconds even though he didn't compete in the fastest heat. He was 0.12 faster than Clarke County freshman runner-up Isaac Nei, who captured the top heat in 11.55.

Handley junior indoor state champion Jaishaun Offutt took the shot put with a mark of 49-4.50, topping Millbrook senior and first-year thrower Cole Purdy, who set a PR with a runner-up mark of 44-3.

The Judges were also led by senior Peter Kim (the senior was the only boy or girl to clear the bar in Thursday's pole vault competition at Handley, recording a mark of 11-0); junior Brendan Campbell (second in the 300 hurdles, 42.03); senior Breylon Miller (third in the long jump, 19-1.25, tied for third in the high jump, 5-8); and sophomore Rylan Stribling (third in the 100, 11.62). Stribling wound up sitting out the 200 as a precaution after his hamstring tightened up in the 100.

"I'm very happy with Brendan Campbell," McKiernan said. "He's really starting to get the 300 hurdles down. He had a PR today, and I thought he looked very good over the last two hurdles."

For Clarke County, Eagles senior Will Booker took second in the high jump (6-2) and also placed second in the triple jump (37-11.75). Nei also captured fourth in the long jump (19-1) and anchored the 4x100 team of Chris Reid, Carson Chinn and Wyatt Palmer that placed third in 45.73. Freshman Landon Horton placed third in the 3,200 (10:23.77), the 4x800 team of Luke LaMaster, Adam Hillerson, Matthew Stroot and Matthew Lisk took third in 8:57.05; senior Cal Beckett placed fourth in the 1,600 (4:31.17); and the 4x400 team took fifth (3:40.81).

Sherando was led by its athletes who competed in the 4x800 on Friday at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, where they ran a time of 8:16.39.

Junior Noah Harris fought through the pouring rain in the high jump to win with a mark of 6-2. He needed two attempts to reach that mark, while Booker took second because he needed three jumps. Senior Dylan McGraw placed third in the 1,600 in 4:27.38 and senior Brock Smith took third in the 800 in 1:59.39.

In addition, Sherando freshman Tate Martin placed third in the shot put with a mark of 41-0.75.

Along with Purdy, Millbrook was led by its 4x800 team (fourth in 9:05.94) and senior Elijah McGee (fifth in the 400, 53.42).

Mountain View (Quicksburg) senior Stuart Pirtle won Most Valuable Performer honors. He captured the long jump by 6.25 inches with a mark of 20-2.75; captured the 110 hurdles by 1.13 seconds in 15.36; and helped the 4x100 team win by three-tenths of a second in 44.89.

For more meet coverage, 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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