Charlottesville’s David Johnson can go ahead and call himself a state champion, and after day one, things are starting to fall into place for Louisa County and the Lions’ run at a Group AA team championship in Harrisonburg.
Johnson picked up his individual title in the triple jump as part of a dominant Central Virginia contingent in the event, leaping 48-2.75 to hold off Louisa’s jumping tandem of Tony Green and Corrinn Harris who took second and third with jumps of 46-6.25 and 45-6 respectively.
Even Louisa’s Ben Ragland placed 17th in the event.
Green and Harris’ combined 14 points in the triple helped stake the Lions to a 22.5 point day one. Andre Mealy picked up a point for Louisa in the shot put by moving up a place over his seeding to take eighth. Then in the pole vault, Louisa’s Robert Davis finished third by also clearing 13-06 while Lucas Roumillat of Louisa earned 1.5 points for the Lions in the team standings with a seventh place tie.
That’s a healthy start for the Lions, and while Harris just missed out on qualifying for the boys 200-meter dash, checking in at ninth just five hundredths off the eight and final qualifier, Louisa is in good position coming into Saturday.
Green also staked himself to the top spot in the 110-meter hurdles with a qualifying time of 14.50, seventh hundredths faster than his seed time coming into the meet.
While Roumillat and Davis bolstered the Lions’ standing in the pole vault, Harrisonburg’s Pavel Makayed edged out Fluvanna County sophomore Chance Parmly for the boys’ pole vault title. Parmly cleared 13-06 while Makayed took first with 13-09. The runner-up spot ends an incredible year for Parmly, who won the indoor title earlier this year and took Jefferson District and Region II titles during outdoor.
In the 3200-meter boys race, a contingent of Central Virginia runners finished within a couple of seconds of each other. Western’s Derek Armstrong finished fourth in the event by edging out Monticello’s Nathaniel Hermsmeier who finished .14 off Armstrong’s pace. David Taylor of Western took sixth less than two seconds later and Western’s Henry Giles grabbed ninth. Kyle King of Grafton won the 3200-meter race with a time of 9:11.88.
Jerome Jordan of Charlottesville placed 15th in the shot.
The Western boys 4×800 pulled together a 12th place finish in the boys edition.
Group AA girls
A couple of Central Virginia girls athletes also had solid days in the limited action and preliminary races in Harrisonburg.
Maggie Kooken topped her seed throw in the girls discus to score two points for Western Albemarle with a seventh-place finish. Kooken unleashed a throw of 106-2, with Christiansburg’s Rochelle Evans winning the event with a throw of 135-7.
Louisa’s Javanique Burruss checked in at 14th in triple jump finals, but the Louisa sophomore earned top seeding in the 100-meter hurdles. Fluvanna County’s Greer Brown wasn’t far off, qualifying third for the finals slated for Saturday morning.
Western Albemarle’s girls’ 4×800 team matched the boys squad’s 12th place finish with a re-tooled lineup.
