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Breakthrough Performance: Monticello boys track and field wins first indoor state title

Photo submitted, Monticello indoor track celebrates winning state title.

 

It was essentially a Central Virginia takeover Tuesday at the Class 3 state boys indoor track tournament with Monticello’s first-ever team state championship in indoor track leading the way for six individual state champions from area schools.

 

The Mustangs also continued an excellent week of success for Monticello athletics who along with the girls swim team winning a state title last Thursday, the second and third-ever state titles for the department. Monticello held off runner-up and defending champion Western Albemarle with 57 points to the Warriors’ 53 points.

 

It was particularly sweet for Steve Ivory, the only indoor track head coach Monticello has ever had in the last 23 years, winning the state title for the first time. 

 

UVa football signee Malachi Fields was a huge reason the Mustangs got there as he put together a decathlete-type day. Fields won a tight 500-meter race with a time of 1:09.22, edging out five other runners who ran 1.10.37 or better including teammate Will Trent who finished fourth. Fields also was the runner-up in the shotput, placed second in the high jump, took fifth in the long jump and ran a leg for the Mustangs’ runner-up 4×200 squad. Phillip Estes and Kenneth Dillard joined Trent and Fields on that relay.  

 

The Mustangs also got a big outing from state runner-up Hunter Ray in the 1000, Esteban Vizcaino taking third in the 3200 and Trent adding a leg of the 4×200 to his fourth in the 500.

 

Western’s second place finish got a big boost from Joseph Taylor winning the 1600-meters in 4:26.67 and Henry Sullivan winning the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.79 seconds. 

 

Beyond those two individual titles, the Western relays did some serious work with a runner-up performance in the 4×800 relay with Chris Miller, Colby Acton, Jonathan Kumer and Taylor combining for that runner-up finish. The 4×400 squad of Zach Patterson, Ben Nitzsche, Connor McMahon and Sullivan also combined for a runner-up finish.   

 

Taylor also tacked on a sixth in the 1000 and Walter Moak took fifth in the 1600 eighth in the 3200. Western’s Wade Donalson and Trevor Donalson went 5-6 in the pole vault and Luke Strobach finished seventh in that event for the Warriors.  

 

High Point-bound thrower Alex Hoffman of William Monroe won the shot put with a throw of 56-04.25, out-hurling runner-up fields by more than eight feet. Hoffman’s teammate Trevor Myers finished fourth in the shot.

 

Goochland’s Tyler Black, who’s also the football team’s kicker, won the state title in the pole vault with a clearance of 13-feet. 

 

Charlottesville’s Miles Kershner finished as the the state state runner-up in the 300-meter race, Jamez Lynch took third for the Black Knights in the triple jump and Nicholas Pederson finished fourth in the 55-meter hurdles. Reece McKeen finished seventh for the Black Knights in the 3200 and Charlottesville took fifth in the 4×800 with McKee, Edison Tennant, Jack Helmke and Alasdair Greenland combining for the finish.

 

For Fluvanna, Jaden Ferguson was the runner-up in the triple jump while the 4×400 relay of Ryan Hicks, Nathan Valentin, Aidan Girard and Rocco Calderone worked together to take third.

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