THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502150173
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, CURRENTS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Few people probably noticed the third-place finisher in the boys 500-meter run at the Southeastern District indoor track meet.
But Western Branch coach Wade Williams was rooting for him all the way.
Great Bridge's Jason Buckley and Churchland's Jarmon Mayes finished 1-2 and drew the cheers of the crowd. Buckley was clocked in 1:07.5, Mayes at 1:07.8. Both made runs at the record 1:06 posted by Buckley when he won the event a year ago on the same Churchland track.
Donald Taylor of Western Branch was third, finishing at 1:09.5.
Scratch the six points that Taylor picked up for his third-place finish and Western Branch would have placed third in the district meet Saturday.
With the points, the Bruins repeated as champions - by four points over Deep Creek and five points over Churchland.
It was the Bruins' depth that enabled Western Branch to successfully defend the title it had never won until a year ago.
Deep Creek won five of the 15 events and shared in a sixth first-place finish. Western Branch had two firsts and a co-title.
But the Bruins had three runners-up, seven third-place finishers, four in fourth, two fifths and six in sixth-place. Points were awarded on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis.
Western Branch totaled 121 points. Deep Creek had 117, followed by Churchland with 116, Great Bridge with 46, Norcom with 29, Indian River with 16, Wilson with 14 and Oscar Smith with one.
The meet hinged upon the final event - the 1,600-meter relay. Entering that race, Deep Creek had 113 points, Western Branch 111 and Churchland 108.
In winning, Western Branch's foursome registered a record 3:27.5 time. The old record of 3:27.9 was posted by the Bruins in 1991.
Churchland was second at 3:30.8, Great Bridge third at 3:34.7 and Deep Creek fourth at 3:44.8.
``We owe a lot of credit to our distance runners,'' said Williams. ``I'm talking especially about Billy McGlaughan, Alan Sivals, Neil Wells and Bobby Birsch. They all had the flu but competed anyway. They gave us 23 points. I know if they had been well they would have done even better. But we could not have won without their contributions.
``I think we did all we could do in this meet.''
Sivals, a second-place finisher, actually had a 1,600-meter time that was faster than in any previous Southeastern meet. But Churchland's Ryan Smith was shattering the all-time mark with a 4:28. The previous record was 4:33 by Western Branch's Hank Savedge two years ago.
``There was a little wind on the side but I ran just the way I hoped to run,'' said Smith. The time also was a Churchland school record. Smith's previous school mark was 4:29 in the Eastern Region meet two years ago.
He stood at 2:13 after two laps and 3:18 after three.
Smith also won the 3,200-meter run at 10:21 when teammate Robbie Williams was disqualified for running out of his lane. Williams had a 10:15 time.
Perhaps the most exciting event of the day was the 55-meter dash in which five runners were clocked in times faster than ever run before in this meet.
The previous record of 6.3 was set by Wilson's Demetrius Hinton in 1988 and tied last year by Chris Edmond of Churchland.
Churchland's Greg Boothe reeled off a 6.0. Deep Creek runner-up Lawrence Claiborne and teammate Damone Perry each finished at 6.1. Deodus Harrell of Deep Creek was fourth at 6.2. Fifth-place Justin Cotten of Great Bridge also had a 6.2 time. No. 6 finisher Darone Watson of Western Branch was clocked at 6.4, just a tenth of a second off the old standard.
``Without question, Greg is the fastest runner I have ever coached,'' said Churchland coach Clarence Brown. Brown had predicted the victory earlier in the week.
Weather conditions were much better than usual for the meet, which is held outdoors, and five records fell in the boys competition.
In addition to the records by Smith and Boothe and Western Branch's 1,600 relay mark, Tony Smith of Western Branch set a new standard at 7.4 in the 55-meter hurdles and Deep Creek's 800-meter relay team had a record 1:30 time.
Tony Smith erased the 7.6 mark shared by Great Bridge's Lawrence Johnson (1992), Indian River's Daryl Cameron (1994) and Western Branch's Eric Jordan (1994).
The Deep Creek 2x400 unit nipped eight-tenths off the record by Indian River two years ago.
An individual standout was Deep Creek's Jason Waters, who won the triple jump, high jump and long jump and finished second in the 55-meter hurdles.
The girls team provided a sweep of top honors for the second year in a row for Western Branch.
Western Branch finished with 102 points, followed by Wilson with 85, Great Bridge with 67, Norcom with 58, Deep Creek with 53, Indian River with 22 and Oscar Smith with 6. Churchland did not score.
``Our team was short in numbers but high in quality,'' said Williams.
Western Branch won five events, which included a record-setting 3:19 by Heather Allen in the 1,000-meter run. The previous record was 3:20.3 by Western Branch's Jennifer Sivils in 1991.
Allen also captured the 3,200-meter run.
Two other records were broken and another was tied. Wilson lowered the 800-meter relay mark from 1:50 to 1:49.7 and the Presidents erased the 1,600 relay record (4:22.0) with a 4:20.8 time.
Jonelle Whitley, Kathryn Riddick, Devona Chambers and Erica Hines formed the 800 unit. Whitley, Hines, Shanell Jenkins and Jenita Harris ran the 1,600.
``If we had been able to fill in a few spots where we didn't have people, we might have won the meet,'' said Wilson coach John Crute. ``The 3,200-meters really was the difference. Western Branch placed four and had 21 points there and we didn't have anybody running. But we are happy with what we did.''
Norcom's Jennifer Cook, a junior, tied the 55-meter dash record of 7.0 by Wilson's LaTasha Colander last year. Runner-up Latarisha Ward of Deep Creek also was timed at 7.0.
Cook also won the 300-meter run with a 45.0 time. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Lamont Johnson of Deep Creek missed the high jump at 6 feet, 2
inches. He finished second to Jason Waters of Deep Creek, who
cleared 6-2.
by CNB