DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704200184

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C11  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JAMES C. BLACK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   62 lines

TOSS OF THE BATON COSTS TEAM A TITLE IN THE PENINSULA RELAYS, WESTERN BRANCH'S RELAY TEAM IS DISQUALIFIED AFTER A FIRST-PLACE FINISH.

In the eyes of coach Wade Williams, Western Branch's Mark Manny hardly did enough for his team to be disqualified in the distance medley Saturday.

Manny's toss of the baton after the distance medley disqualified the Bruins after a first-place finish.

``He did not spike the thing,'' said Williams, who appealed the decision to no avail. ``If I had not seen it, I would not have said anything.''

The controversy was enough to keep the Bruins from taking home the Group AAA team championship at the Peninsula Relays at Darling Stadium. The Bruins scored six points to place one behind winner Dinwiddie.

Kenny Moseley broke the meet record in the 100 hurdles (13.93), and the Bruins placed first in the 4x800 relay (8:07.2) and the 300 intermediate hurdles relay (1:21.34). Moseley broke the record of 14.3 set by a Lake Taylor runner in 1989.

The Bruins also finished second in the 4x100 relay (43.67) and third in the discus relay (256-11).

The boys' most valuable performer trophy went to First Colonial's Brian Kollar, who was not at the end of the meet to receive his honor. The thrower left early for his junior prom.

Kollar won the discus with a throw of 175-6 and the shot with 50.11 1/4. He and teammate Eric Miller also combined to win the relay events of the shot put (98-8 1/4) and discus (334-3).

``The discus throwers in general had a good day because of the weather,'' First Colonial coach Charlie Fishel said.

While the weather contributed to the breaking of some meet records, some athletes found the conditions to be a detriment.

The weather was a factor ``a little bit on the back stretch,'' Bayside's LaShonda Cutchin said after narrowly breaking Chantelle Evans' 1989 record in the 400.

Cutchin competed in the Arcadia Invitationals last weekend in California, where the weather conditions were similar.

``It was cooler . . . but there was no wind,'' Cutchin said. ``When we get to Philadelphia (for the Penn Relays next weekend), it's probably going to be cold up there too.''

Cutchin eclipsed the Kecoughtan mark by one-tenth of a second with 57.1 in the 400. One-tenth of a second, however, was the time in which Bayside was short in breaking the mark in the 4x100 relay.

Cutchin ran anchor leg as the Marlins missed breaking Armstrong Kennedy's 1982 record of 48.4. The Clemson signee later went on to run 23.8 in the 200, breaking the old mark of 25.6 held by runners of Thomas Jefferson and Phoebus. And though she was one of four runners to break a record in the 200, the Bayside senior's performance was not enough to earn the girls' MVP award.

Bruton's Nicole Kelly was a part of five winning events and placed second in another one as Bruton won the Group A,AA championship.

Kelly ran 24.9 in the Group A,AA 200 to surpass the old mark of 26.9 by a Middlesex's Jackie Pratt in 1990.

Smithfield's Chris Parker ran 22.1 to break the 1989 Group A,AA 200 record of a Tabb runner by five-tenths of a second.

And completing the record-setting in the 200 was Nansemond River's Temetrius Robinson.

Robinson ran 21.6 to surpass the 1990 Group AAA meet record by one-tenth and edge Great Bridge's Brian Hunter, who won his heat at 21.8.

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