WINCHESTER — As Kate Konyar charged down the final straightaway of the girls’ 3,200 under a steady rain, her face broke into a huge grin and she began waving her arms excitedly with about 30 meters to go.
The reason? The James Wood High School junior was looking at the time clock, and she knew a dream was about to come true.
On a day when personal records were almost impossible to come by because of the rain that fell throughout most of Tuesday’s Region 4D Track & Field Championships at Millbrook High School, Konyar showed that anything is possible by winning the 3,200 with a time of 10 minutes, 57.96 seconds.
Konyar is the school record-holder in the 3,200 in both indoor (11:02.67) and outdoor (11:03.79). She set the outdoor record with no one around her at the Apple Blossom Invitational at James Wood last month, and Tuesday’s breakthrough was also achieved through her own determination. Konyar won by 32.85 seconds over Blacksburg freshman Harper Olsen.
“[Under 11 minutes for the 3,200] has been a goal for so long,” said Konyar after receiving numerous hugs from her team and family. “That was my main goal my freshman year. I was like, ‘By the time I’m done with high school, I’ve got to go sub-11.’ It’s amazing that I reached it junior year.”
Konyar and shot put champion Erin Link helped James Wood place second in 15-team Region 4D with 75 points. Defending Class 4 state champion Blacksburg won the meet with a whopping 231.5 points. E.C. Glass was third (66.5). Led by high jump champion McKenna Hardy, Sherando was fourth (60). Janai Washington won the 400 and led Millbrook to fifth (54). Handley senior Emeryce Worrell was the only local girl to win two events, capturing the 100 and 200 to lead the Judges to seventh with 38 points.
The top four finishers in each event at the Region 4D meet and anyone who’s achieved qualifying marks and times throughout the season will participate in the Class 4 state meet on June 6-7 at Liberty University in Lynchburg.
After the Northwestern District meet in which she cruised to victory in the 1,600, Konyar was hoping someone would push her in the 3,200 at the region meet. However, Charlottesville star Elaina Pierce (top season time of 10:28.68) and Blacksburg freshmen Lola Olsen (11:09.54) and Ruthie Delapp (11:01.18) each chose to run in the 1,600 on Tuesday.
As evidenced by her time, Konyar didn’t let the competition situation bother her, or the rain. She noticed that her friends were handling the rain well.
“I’ve been racing myself all season, so I was like, ‘You know what? It’s OK,'” Konyar said. “I’m going to come in here and do what I always do. Just race myself and race the clock. And I know I can PR in any condition if I try hard enough. Just because it’s raining doesn’t mean you just give up.”
Konyar went out hard with a 1:15.77 first lap, 4.18 seconds faster than Harper Olsen. Her next six laps were all fairly close to each other — 1:22.17, 1:23.95, 1:23.69, 1:24.24, 1:24.50 and 1:24.62.
“I was hitting my times perfectly,” Konyar said. “The few splits I heard from my dad I was like, spot on. I [thought], ‘OK, I’ve just got to hold on.’ That’s the main thing. You can’t let up.”
Matthew Lofton, Konyar’s cross country coach, was handling public address duties for Tuesday’s meet, and he noted to the crowd as Konyar hit the bell lap that she would have to pick up the pace if she wanted to get under 11:00.
Konyar said she did just that as the final lap started, and some encouragement helped. Everyone she knew at the start/finish line, including meet workers, were urging her on at the 400-meter mark, and James Wood senior and distance standout Eli Clark was shouting to her with about 300 left.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got to do this. It’s going to hurt, but I’ve just got to put it all in,” said Konyar, who added she started gritting her teeth after passing Clark.
Konyar would turn in a final lap of 1:19.25, which allowed her to relax those gritting teeth into a toothy grin at the end.
“I’m incredibly happy for her,” James Wood coach Danielle Koelker said. “Again, running by herself, and the fact that she can just [run that well] on her own … she put her mind to [running under 11 minutes] and did it. She’s been working hard for it. I knew that the work she’s putting in, that she could do it, and she finally just executed it. It was perfect.”
Konyar’s performance on Tuesday gives her plenty to look forward to. If she can drop five more seconds, she’ll qualify for national competition. And as of Tuesday, Konyar — who placed fourth in the Class 4 3,200 last year behind two graduated seniors and Loudoun County’s Fallon Fetterolf, now a sophomore — believes Pierce is the only person who’s run faster in Class 4 than her this year in the 3,200. Pierce ran the 800 (second to 3,200 champion Zoie Lamanna, now at Tennessee) and 1,600 (first) at last year’s state meet.
“There’s always the hope that she doesn’t [do the 3,200] so hopefully, I can contend for the win,” Konyar said. “But if she does [run the 3,200], she’s an amazing runner. She’s got it. I love her. She’s really sweet.”
The sophomore Link continued her impressive season in the shot put. Two weeks after her PR of 36-0.25 to win the Northwestern District meet, she won by 2 feet, 8 inches over Halifax County’s Jomari Yancey with a mark of 34-8.25 on a day where it was hard for throwers to stay in the circle and get a good grip on the shot.
“[The conditions were] pretty bad, but I try not to use that as an excuse,” Link said. “You’ve just got to throw the way you can throw and do your best. That’s what I try and do.”
Link is looking forward to giving her all at the state meet. As a freshman, she missed out on advancing to the state meet by one place by taking fifth.
“It definitely feels good to have a PR of 36, and be able to win today,” Link said.
Koelker said she was impressed by her team’s determination.
“Everyone pretty much persevered through the weather,” Koelker said. “There was no one that really kind of let the weather kick their butts. They just went out there and did their thing despite everything. I’m incredibly proud.”
James Wood was also led by Isabelle French (second, 100 hurdles, 16.31); Emma Messick (discus, second, 95-10.5); the 4×400 team (Omaie Aarami, Melanie Padilla, Peyton Sinasac, Mallory Juvinall), second, 4:28.06; Alina Kieffer (third, 3,200, 11:34.94); Ruby Ostrander (fourth, 1,600, 5:17.86); and the 4×100 team (Alexis Brown, Olivia Boyce, Sierra-Nicole Wimer, French), fourth, 51.58.
Handley’s Worrell is the defending Class 4 state champion in the 100, but for the second straight meet she found herself seeded second in the event.
At the Northwestern District meet, Worrell took second to Brentsville Class 3 state champion Kayla Smith in the 100 but defeated her later in the meet in the 200. On Tuesday, Blacksburg sophomore Tamoy Douglas came in with a seed time of 11.96 to Worrell’s 12.23 in the 100. Worrell got of the blocks well and never left any doubt who would win the 100. She recorded a season-best time of 12.08 to beat Douglas by 0.19.
Worrell said she doesn’t look at seed times prior to races, but she knew she had a challenge on her hands since she was placed in Lane 5 and not in Lane 4.
“It definitely motivates me more [when I’m not seeded first],” Worrell said. “It gives me inspiration, because I know I’ll be running against competition. It definitely allows me to push myself.”
Worrell was encouraged by her time in the 100. The 200 was difficult because there was a false start — most of the field, including Worrell, did not hear the starter’s gun go off twice, and they ran almost a full 100 before stopping. Seeded first in the event, Worrell regrouped and won in 25.33, 0.30 ahead of Blacksburg’s Mirra Bowman.
“Not too happy with the time, but under the conditions, I’ll accept it,” Worrell said. “I think I ran a strong race, so I’m OK with it.”
Unlike last year, Worrell will get to run in a relay at a state meet. Handley already had a state time heading into Tuesday, and the Judges took third on Tuesday in 51.01. Jordan Coates, Keila De La O Granado and Monet Thomas ran the first three legs. Also for the Judges, Elisabeth Pitcock took fourth in Monday’s pole vault (8-0).
Sherando’s Hardy won the high jump with a mark of 5-0 by leaping over the bar every time on her first attempt at a new height until she got to 5-2, while Millbrook’s Washington — who also jumped 5-0 — needed three attempts to clear 4-10 and 5-0.
Hardy had previously qualified for the state meet in the high jump and 100, and on Tuesday she also qualified in the triple jump by taking third (33-7.5).
Sherando coach Brad Symons was proud of his whole team, and he was glad to see basketball standout Farren Crist’s decision to come out for the track team her senior year pay off. She took second in the triple jump (33-11) to qualify for the state meet.
“She never complains and does what she needs to do,” Symons said. “One year being out here and doing this, this is awesome for her.”
Sherando was also led by Mercedes Silver (third in 300 hurdles, 49.12); Ariana Stafford (third in shot put, 31-5) and Kalysta Falls (fourth in 100 hurdles, 16.66).
Millbrook was without All-State sprinter Jada Arrington. The senior was involved in the nursing program at Dowell J Howard and attended graduation ceremonies on Tuesday. Pioneers coach Jamie McCarty said if not for the rain moving the ceremony inside to James Wood, she likely could have run in the 200, and the Pioneers would have run their 4×400 team.
McCarty said Arrington’s presence could have helped the Pioneers finish higher than fifth.
“I feel like we had the second-best team in the region, but circumstances kind of took that wind out of our sails,” McCarty said. “I feel like as a team, we performed well. There’s just a couple of things that took us out of where I thought we could have or should have been.”
Washington was seeded seventh in the 400 with a time of 1:01.74, so for her to run a 1:00.51 was a good sign. She won by 0.79 over Blacksburg’s Lena Tyhurst.
“It’s kind of the breakthrough race we’ve been waiting for,” McCarty said. “We thought she could run 60 seconds. She was close to it a couple of times. We just couldn’t get it out of the way. To run it from Lane 7 isn’t the lane you think you would run that in, but she got out really well and hung on. That was impressive.”
Millbrook was also led by its 4×800 team (Savannah Florek, Harper Weiss, Marisol Lara, Caydence Bayne), second in 10:19.44; Essense O’Banion (third, discus, 91-6); and Jillian Taylor (fourth, discus, 90-0).
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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