THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030221
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
WESTERN BRANCH will be the defending champion in both the boys and girls divisions in the annual Southeastern District indoor track meet.
The two-day meet will get under way on Wednesday at Churchland. It will conclude at the same site on Saturday.
Leading contenders to dethrone the champs are the Churchland boys and the Great Bridge girls. Both Norcom and Deep Creek's boys teams will be threats.
Field events will be held Wednesday starting at 2 p.m. Saturday's running events will begin at 10 a.m.
As always, the ``indoor'' meet is held outdoors since there are no facilities inside the Southeastern schools.
Five records were broken and another was tied last year despite freezing weather. The victories by the two Western Branch teams were the first indoor titles for either.
Overall balance is the key for Western Branch once again. Last year the Bruins' boys team won only one of the 15 events but placed in 12 categories. The Bruin girls are led by distance favorite Meredith Turnage.
``We have some quality people but I don't know if we have enough to win,'' said Churchland coach Clarence Brown, whose Truckers won the title two years ago.
``Western Branch has a lot of people, and a lot of good people.
``To illustrate the depth Western Branch has, we won an event this year and lost ground to the Bruins. We had six points for a first and they had nine for second, third and fourth-place finishes.''
In tuning up for the district meet the teams had four quad meets, two in December and two in January.
Churchland's Greg Boothe reeled off a 6.45 clocking in the recent Wendy's meet in Blacksburg, just missing the Truckers' school record of 6.3 set by district and region champion Chris Edmond.
The district meet indoor record also is 6.3, shared by Edmond (1993) and Wilson's Demetrius Hinton (1988).
``Greg is just rounding into form and I think he can break it,'' said Brown. But he can expect to be pushed by Deep Creek's Lawrence Claiborne.
Qualifiers will advance to the Eastern Region meet on Feb. 20 and Feb. 22.
Following are the district records:
BOYS
Long jump - Chris Edmond, Churchland (1993), 22-4 1/2
Shot put - Chris Snyder, Indian River (1993), 55-9 1/2
High jump - Keith Jordan, Manor (1992), 6-4
Triple jump - Rasha Joyner, Indian River (1994), 45-8
Pole vault - Lawrence Johnson, Great Bridge (1992), 14-8
55-meter hurdles - Lawrence Johnson, Great Bridge (1992), Daryl Cameron, Indian River (1994) and Eric Jordan, Western Branch (1994), 7.6
55 meters - Chris Edmond, Churchland (1993), and Demetrius Hinton, Wilson (1988), 6.3
300 meters - Larry Whitaker, Oscar Smith (1989), 35.0
500 meters - Jason Buckley, Great Bridge (1994), 1:06.0
1,000 meters - Muhammed Moore, Oscar Smith (1989), 2:34.7
1,600 meters - Hank Savedge, Western Branch (1993), 4:33
3,200 meters - John Johnson, Great Bridge (1993), 10:08.8
800-meter relay - Indian River (1993), 1:30.8
1,600-meter relay - Western Branch (1991), 3:27.9
3,200-meter relay - Great Bridge (1993), 8:24.4
GIRLS
Long jump - Vandisha Wilder, Deep Creek (1991), 17-4
Shot put - Nicole Robertson, Norcom (1992), 38-11 1/4
High jump - Yolanda Hines, Wilson (1993), Alisa Curtis, Great Bridge, (1991), and Shander Gary, Wilson (1990), 5-3
Triple jump - Yolanda Hines, Wilson (1993), 33-8 1/2
55-meter hurdles - LaTasha Colander, Wilson (1994), 7.9
55 meters - LaTasha Colander, Wilson (1994), 7.0
300 meters - Batanya Poole, Manor (1991), 40.0
500 meters - Batanya Poole, Manor (1991), 1:19.7
1,000 meters - Jennifer Sivils, Western Branch (1991), 3:20.3
1,600 meters - Jennifer Sivils, Western Branch (1991), 5:22
3,200 meters - Jody Bing, Great Bridge (1990), 12:15.0
800-meter relay - Indian River (1993), 1:50
1,600-meter relay - Manor (1987), 4:22.0
3,200-meter relay - Great Bridge (1994), 11:01 ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Meredith Turnage, second from left, is the distance favorite for
Western Branch's girls indoor track team.
by CNB