DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703300228

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C17  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JAMES C. BLACK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   47 lines

SOUTHEASTERN DISTRICT GIRLS SOAR IN NEW TRACK EVENT THEY TAKE THE TOP THREE PLACES IN THE LOCAL DEBUT OF THE GIRLS POLE VAULT.

The girls pole vault made its local debut on Saturday and the Southeastern District was prepared.

Southeastern competitors earned a sweep of the top three places of the girls pole vault in the 17th Annual Conn-Madden Relays at Todd Stadium.

Great Bridge's Abbey Garrett recorded a jump of 7 feet, followed by 6-6 from Deep Creek's Mariel Brown and Great Bridge's Mellisa Anfinson.

``It was a lot of fun,'' Garrett said. ``It was good to show people that girls could do the pole vault.''

The new event has been sanctioned by the Southeastern and will take place at district meets. However, the girls pole vault has not been approved by the Eastern Region and, at this point, will not be an event in the regional meet. Neither the Eastern District nor the Beach has the event.

As a squad, Great Bridge placed third with 27.5 points in the overall girls team competition.

Bayside, which won the 4x100 relay and 4x200 relays, won the team competition with 43 points. Manchester placed second with 37 points. In the 4x100 relay, the Marlins ran 47.3 to break the old mark of 48.5 held by two schools.

Granby, which tied for fifth in the overall competition, won the combined discus with throws of 193-06.

Deep Creek's narrow victory in the final event - the 4x400 relay - led to a just as slim win over Salem in the overall boys competition.

Deep Creek won the 4x400 in the time of 3:25.3 and placed first in the overall competition with 29.5 points.

Salem came in second in the 4x400 with the time of 3:26.2 and had 26 points in the overall competition. Lake Braddock finished one point back with 25.

``I knew if we placed in several events, we had a chance,'' Deep Creek's Lamar Clairborne said.

And Clairborne did his part, helping the Hornets to medal finishes in the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and the long jump relays. Clairborne also competed in the combined high jump but the Deep Creek tandem missed third place by a foot.

In the boys long jump, Western Branch set a meet record, only to have it broken by Denbigh. The Bruins had a jump of 45-05.75 to beat the previous record of 44-07.25 by Menchville in 1982.

Norfolk Academy broke a meet record in the boys B division of the sprint medley. The Bulldogs ran a time of 3:40, beating Bruton's 1983 mark by one second.

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