THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503110138
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, CLIPPER SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The Deep Creek boys indoor track team successfully defended its state title March 3 and 4 at the Group AAA indoor track championship at George Mason University.
Today, the Hornets took their show on the road again, competing in a national meet in Syracuse.
Last weekend, five players came home with individual state titles: Deon Dyer in the shot put, and Deodus Harrell, Lawrence Claiborne, Damone Perry, and William Eason in the 800 relay.
Jason Waters, an Eastern Region titlist in four events, placed in three events at state and accounted for 22 of Deep Creek's 58 team points.
``It was just a banner meet,'' said coach Richard Cox. ``Every guy on the team did an outstanding job.''
According to Cox, Dyer ``set the tempo for the whole meet'' in Friday's shot put competition, turning in a throw of 55 feet, 1 1/2 inches, on his final attempt.
The throw, a personal best, won the title by a half inch. Dyer had a throw of 53 feet, 7 inches on his first attempt and scratched on his second.
Next up for Deep Creek was the long jump. Waters scratched in his first attempt because he was busy in the running heats and was in fourth after the second rotation.
Waters went from fourth to second by turning in a jump of 22 feet, 11 3/4 inches, a personal best by 8 inches, on his third attempt. He scratched in his fourth attempt.
Waters had to come back early Saturday morning for the high jump. The early call, after a late night of competing, found Waters at less than 100 percent, and the senior finished out of the running.
``He was disappointed because he's a competitor, but he pretty much understood how it goes,'' Cox said.
Waters rebounded with a second-place finish in the triple jump. His distance of 46 feet, 1 1/2 inches was a personal best by nearly a foot, according to Cox.
Waters wrapped up his meet by taking third in the 55-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 7.53 seconds.
The Hornets were no slouches in the running events. Deep Creek qualified three of six competitors in the 55, a virtually unheard of accomplishment.
Claiborne finished second in 6.4 seconds, losing by 1/100 of a second. Perry took third at 6.35 and Harrell finished fifth in 6.55.
``Lawrence stood straight up out of the blocks and the kid nipped him at the line,'' Cox said.
For six long minutes, Harrell thought he had won the state title in the 300 meters. He was later disqualified when a track-side official said that he had run into another lane.
``The kid in lane two was behind Dee the whole way, and he said he never saw Dee run into his lane,'' said Cox. ``Dee was very, very upset. He was the slowest kid on the relay team in 10th grade and ended up the fastest kid in 12th grade. That tells you how hard he worked.''
Harrell had already qualified to run in the 200 meters in the national meet with an earlier time. Claiborne and Perry will compete in the 55, Dyer in the shot put, and Waters in the five-event (high jump, long jump, hurdles, shotput, and 1000 meter run) pentathalon. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
The Deep Creek boys indoor track team defended its state title.
Standing, from left, are: Coach Richard Cox, Deon Dyer, William
Eason and Damone Perry. Seated are: Jason Waters, Lawrence
Clairborne and Dee Harrell.
by CNB