It was Grassfield’s day as far as the team scores went at the Dogwood Track Classic with as the Grizzlies won both the girls and boys titles at the 2015 running of the huge meet at UVa’s Lannigan Field.
But a slew of locals had huge days in one of the showcase meets of the spring, and one was involved in a wild 1600-meter finish.
Loudoun Valley runner Andrew Hunter has emerged as a big-time track and cross country athlete in his first three years of high school, including a recent victory in the Penn Relays mile. He didn’t take it easy in the Dogwood’s 1600-meter either, burning up the track en route to a 4:03.88 clocking that’s the No.1 time in the United States. But what happened behind him is just as intriguing. The next four runners including Western Albemarle junior Gannon Willcutts sped in for times under 4:11, easily all breaking the previous meet record set in 2014 by Kenneth Hagen of Blacksburg. Willcutts finished fourth with a time of 4:10.75. Just missing out on that rash of record-breaking times was Fork Union’s Alex Lomong, who finished sixth at 4:15.54.
Willcutts was far from the only local who made a splash as Fork Union clawed its way to a second place finish just two points behind Grassfield in the boys standings while Woodberry took third overall. Western finished sixth as a team.
FUMA got a huge boost from Drake Davis, who won the 100-meter with a blazing time of 10.73 while Woodberry’s Michael Davenport took third in that race and Davis’ teammate O’Neil Combs took sixth. Charlottesville’s Tariq Carrington also scoring points with a seventh place finish in the 100. Carrington had a strong outing as he also finished second in the high and long jumps.
Davis and Davenport flopped places in the 200, with Davenport taking the title while Davis finished third.
Jack Claiborne of Woodberry finished third in the 300 hurdles and snagged fourth in the high jump. Woodberry’s Ryan Grady took sixth in the high jump while Charlottesville’s Zaire Tutt grabbed eighth.
Grady tacked on a victory in the triple jump to give the Tigers’ a big lift. His teammate Brady Logan also gave Woodberry a spark with a victory in the shotput and scored a few more points with a fourth place in the discus.
Combs scored a lot of points in the jumps for Fork Union, taking second behind Grady in the triple while snagging third in the long jump with teammate Romello Blanton Wade following in fourth. Two other locals, Albemarle’s Arun Turay and CHS’s Hannibal Reid took eighth and 10th respectively in the triple.
Fork Union’s Daniel Bamisile scored points in both throws with a fifth place in the discus and an eighth in the shot.
In the relays, Monticello picked up a monster win in the 4×800, outpacing second place Louisa County. Fork Union took sixth in that race while Albemarle took eighth. The Patriots took second in the 4×400 and third in the 4×100. Fork Union was fifth in the 4×400 while Louisa was 10th in the 4×100. FUMA also won the 1600 sprint medley relay, with Albemarle finishing eighth. Western Albemarle won the distance medley relay and Albemarle took ninth.
While the 1600 stole the show, locals also ran well in the 400 and 800. Peter Lomong took seventh in the 400 while Albemarle’s Decarai Clark was 11th and Monticello’s Chris Buck was 12th. Woodberry’s Cameron Finley took sixth in the 800 while Peter Lomong was seventh and Willcutts took eighth.
Rounding out the local performances were Jack Bailey’s fifth in the stepplechase for Albemarle, Caleb Rider winning the pole vault for Western while teammate Blake Tolman took third. Joseph Stephenson finished eighth in the 110 hurdles for Woodberry. Western’s Trevor Stutzman took fourth in the 3200 while Charlottesville’s Warren Riley Covert finished fifth.
On the girls side
While the girls contingent of local runners didn’t pick up as many titles as the boys group did, several girls had big time days at the Dogwood.
Louisa’s Aaliyah Clark won the long jump, leaping 17-03 to wrap up the championship. Teammate Taylor Robinson took ninth with Western’s Nichole Heon finished 10th. Clark also finished fourth in the triple, with Charlottesville’s Emonta Burnley taking sixth.
Burnley’s teammate Taylor Watkins had yet another huge day on the track as the senior took third in the 200 behind Grassfield’s Lauryn Ghee and Great Bridge’s Jessica Tucker and then finished second in the 400 again just behind Ghee. Louisa’s Victoria Finn and Amari Quarles went eighth and ninth respectively in the 400.
Caroline Marquis of Orange took ninth in 800 while Western’s Chance Masloff and Annie Taylor finished 10th and 12th. Taylor also finished ninth in the 1600 with Albemarle’s Kathryn Mayo finishing 12th in that race.
Western had a trio of point scorers in the pole vault with Katrina Barredo finishing in the runner-up slot while Madison Masloff was fifth and Sarah Tolman took sixth.
In the relays, Louisa took second in the 4×100 and fourth in the 4×400. Albemarle’s girls finished sixth in the 4×100 and seventh in the 4×400. Western grabbed a pair of seventh place finishes in the 4×100 and 4×800 and also took third in the sprint medley relay. Albemarle was fifth in that race. Monticello took fourth in the 4×800. In the distance medley relay, Western finished eighth while Albemarle squeaked ahead in seventh.
Rounding out the other locals, Brandy Brown finished ninth for Louisa in the 100, Albemarle’s Kenzie Lloyd, a freshman, took 11th in the 3200 and Caroline Outlaw took sixth in the 100 hurdles and seventh in the 300 hurdles. Hailey Dillenbeck, an Albemarle sophomore, finished third in the 2000-meter steppelechase. St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Jayla Davis took seventh in high jump. Louisa’s Breon Washington finished 10th in the shotput.
