Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995 TAG: 9505110109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While Northside's boys buried the field, Salem's girls had to wait until the last three events before pulling out the team championship in a rain-soaked Blue Ridge district track meet Wednesday.
The host Spartans trailed Lord Botetourt by one-third of a point going into the final three events. By the time sophomore Johanna Fisher had romped to an easy victory in the 3,200-meter run, combined with a sixth-place finish from Lisa Jeffreys, Salem had clinched the team title without need of its victory from the 1,600-meter relay team.
The Vikings boys, on the other hand, had little trouble. They won 12 of the 16 events with junior Dee Shovely (100 and 200-meter dashes) and sophomore Thomas Maguire (1,600 and 3,200) getting double individual victories.
Jim Murdock also scored big for Salem, winning the triple jump, finishing second in the long jump, fourth in the high jump and second in the 400 and running on two winning relay teams.
For the Northside girls, sophomore Emily Hollett won a pair of field events and set the only record by breaking Patti Fisher's long jump mark. Shovely also ran on a winning relay team.
``Our coach [Arnold Humphries] tells us what to do in practice,'' Shovely said. ``We work hard, and it's paying off.''
Humphries, who will take several entrants to next week's Region III meet at Liberty University, said his team is peaking at the right time.
``We had a lot of personal bests and got points from different people,'' he said. ``As for winning the region, Appomattox is tough. They're loaded.''
Maguire and Hollett were among several sophomores who performed well. Maguire won the 3,200 in a downpour that delayed the final three events. He is out to make up for a good cross country season that saw him finish 16th in the region as he missed making the state.
``I got sick,'' said Maguire, who was nine and 16 seconds off the two meet marks, respectively. ``I'd like to make the state in track because of that. My goals this year were to get in the 4:30s for the mile and near 10 for the two mile.''
``Lord Botetourt is so strong in the field events,'' said Spartans coach Tom Roth. ``I think they scored about 73 points. I kind of thought 120 for us would be a good day.''
In girls' running, the Spartans made up the field event deficit. While they may have won the meet in two of the last three events, it was really the hurdles crew of Cynthia Lundstrum, Amy Pitts and freshman Ashley Bush that keyed the victory.
The three hurdlers finished one-two-three in the 300. Bush finished fourth in the 10 and Salem scored 46 of a possible 48 points in the events while Lord Botetourt managed only nine points.
The Cavaliers' Sara Moore, another sophomore, upset another 10th grader, Salem's Johanna Fisher, in the 1,600. Fisher won the only meeting of the two in the spring, but Moore stayed on Fisher's heels and then passed her on the back stretch of the final lap.
``I knew I had to stay with her,'' Moore said. ``In the first race, I tended to let her get too far away.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB