Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405220099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Medium
Both the boys and the girls teams made a clean sweep of the Group AA Region IV meet at Abingdon High, the boys for the sixth year in succession and the girls for the first time since 1987.
The boys dominated, despite not keeping precisely to coach Randy Bailey's schedule (he maps out on paper how he expects events to transpire before they are contested), scoring 100 points to second-place Lee High's 68 and Virginia High's 59.
The Blue Demons girls got strong contributions from weight thrower Maureen Jackson and distance runner Bethany Eigel along with Pam Jones and the 1,600-meter relay team to edge Abingdon 89-76. Third-place Radford had 73.
Bailey was found nervously eyeballing his paperwork early in the meet. All was not going as planned and he pronounced himself to be "sweating bullets."
Eventually, he calmed down.
"Jeff Custer [Christiansburg's former distance coach] used to call me `Mr. Paranoia.' I'm not sure I like that monicker, but I do tend to look at worst-case scenarios," Bailey said.
The boys had no first-place finisher other than the 400-meter relay team of Andra Beasley, Stephen Trail, Steve Surratt and Larry Carter. But the Blue Demons did place at least one athlete in every event.
Beasley, the most gifted of the team's athletes, had what may have been for him a disappointing day. Nonetheless, it was a productive one. He placed in six events - long jump, triple jump, shot put, 100, 200, and 400 relay - and scored 28 1/2 points.
Essentially, though, Christiansburg was a team of unsung heroes. Eric Childress was unseeded in the 300 hurdles but placed anyway. John Cochran was tied for fourth seed coming into the high jump and finished second. Jack Moore was unseeded in the discus but finished fifth.
For Christiansburg's girls, it was another matter. For one thing, the heroines - Jackson and Eigel - weren't hard to find. Jackson was first in the shot put with a heave of 36 feet, 4 inches and second in the discus. Eigel finished first in the 1,600 - her favorite event - and second in the 3,200.
Jones came through with a third in the triple jump and fifth in the long.
"We needed those points from the field events because we had nothing in the 110 hurdles, the 100 and the 200," Christiansburg coach Norma Cox said.
Jackson battled a sore arm (she pulled a muscle several weeks ago) and raw nerves before her winning shot toss.
"My preliminary throws weren't that good at all," she said. "My footwork wasn't very good; I couldn't get into it. My Mom was the one who really helped, though. She told me, `You know what you have to do.' She also told me to calm down, just as she always does."
Eigel came within one second of tying a personal best in the 1,600 with her time of 5 minutes, 17 seconds.
"The good competition pretty much did it," she said. "It was packed. Any one of about six runners could have won it."
In the end, it came down to her, Coleen Crawford of Abingdon and Sarah Hendricks of Blacksburg.
Christiansburg had to have all the heroics it could muster to hold off Abingdon and Carrie Bundy, who was sensational, placing in seven events and scoring 43 points.
The victory was capped by the winning run of the 1,600 relay team of Kesa Walton, Meredith Ritter, Leslie Cosgriff and Sarah Slikker. The team set a school record with a 4:16.
Elsewhere in the meet, Radford was well-represented by Shayla Evans and freshman Charlee Taylor. Evans earned firsts in both the 100 and 200 and Taylor won the 800.
Nikki Hunt of Blacksburg triumphed in the 400 after pulling a hamstring in the New River District meet.
Radford's Dion Powell won the boys' discuss with a heave of 142-10. \
See microfilm for complete results
by CNB