Longtime Lafayette track and field coach Melvin Jones said he wasn’t the least bit surprised with the dominant effort shown by his boys’ team at the second Bay Rivers District outdoor track and field meet of the season held Thursday at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton.
The Rams’ boys team, which finished runner-up at the Group AA state meet a season ago, returns a bulk of last year’s talent and appears poised on holding on to the Bay Rivers District and Region I titles for a consecutive season.
Lafayette’s girls, however, were a pleasant surprise for Jones on Thursday. The Rams, who totaled 68 points en route to a third-place finish in the district opener back in December, racked up 103.50 points to outlast defending Region I champ Tabb (94.50) and Grafton (89), the two likeliest favorites to capture this year’s district title.
“That’s a whole lot of points,” Jones said of the 103.50 points on Friday. “For a team that only has three seniors, they really had to grind out points. They showed major improved from back in early December.
“I was very surprised. I was pleased, but surprised.”
No individual, boy or girl, gave a stronger performance than the Rams’ Deborah Allison, who was the catalyst of Lafayette’s big day. Allison took gold in three separate events – the 500 meter dash (1:21.29), 55 meter hurdles (9.35) and triple jump (35-02.00) – while setting personal bests in the 55m hurdles and triple jump.
The Rams also got standout efforts from Katheryn Tomczak, who won the pole vault with a 9-06.00 leap, and Megan Jones, who placed second in 55m dash (7.58) behind district champ Dasha Hill of Bruton, who finished in 7.53.
Other top performers on the girls’ side:
State-champion Julia Young of Grafton won the high jump with an impressive 5-02.00 leap before placing third in the long jump at 16-00.00. Young’s teammate Caroline Beaudoin won the long jump with a 16-10.00 finish.
Bruton senior Carley Shannon showcased her talents in the distance events. The Bay Rivers cross country champion won the 1000m in 3:10.86 and the 1600m a personal-best 5:19.04.
Tabb’s 4×200 meter relay squad showed why they’re the heavy favorites to repeat as state champions. In addition to winning the event Thursday, the four runners all placed in the top five of the 300m dash. Brittni King won the 300m in 41.28 followed by Micah Hanks in second (42.45), Alison Harmatz fourth (44:27) and Taylor Omweg fifth (44.38).
Exactly how dominant were Lafayette’s boys Thursday? The Rams, who cruised to 159.50-91 win over runner-up Smithfield, won four out of the five individual races and eight total races after sweeping the three relay events.
The individual winners for Lafayette’s boys were:
-Kwame Durant, who won the 55m dash in 6.83
-Derek Holdsworth, who won the 300m dash in 36.17 and the 500m 1:06.65.
-Kurtis Steck, who won the 1,000 in 2:37.66
-Jason Menzies, who won the 1600 in 4:30.90.
Click Here to check out complete results from Thursday’s meet courtesy of milestat.com.
