Despite the Virginia High School League’s new postseason alignment, the Bay Rivers District will still crown an indoor track and field champion this season.
This year, though, one meet in early February will not decide the champion. Instead, the team with the highest number of combined points from each of the three 10-team district meets will receive the trophy, and two-thirds of the way in, Lafayette’s boys and girls are running away with both titles.
Similar to the first district meet of the season held back in early December, the Rams boys and girls teams each posted convincing victories at meet No. 2 on Wednesday.
Lafayette’s boys finished with 148.33 points to second-place Jamestown’s 75.33, while the girls collected 101.5 points to Warhill’s 80. On the season, Lafayette’s boys have totaled 303.33 points — nearly 140 points ahead of their closest contender Tabb (169.33) — while the girls have totaled 257.5 to the Tigers’ 136.5.
On Wednesday, Lafayette’s boys displayed great depth in both the field and distance events.
Standouts Jason Menzies and Derek Holdsworth, who earlier this season set a national-best time in the 500 meters, both set personal records in the 1,600-meter run to finish first and second, respectively. Menzies crossed the finish line 4:23.22 after pulling away from Holdsworth (4:27.32) on the final lap.
Cade Moreno (second in 2:42.41) and Josh Peterson (fourth in 2:50.52) both placed in the top five of the 1,000-meter run for the Rams, while Konrad Steck added a second-place finish in the 500-meter dash (1:10.51).
In the field events, Josiah Wells and Derrick Harris finished first and second, respectively, in both the long and triple jump events. Jordan Weatherwax added a second-place finish in the pole vault (12-00.00) for the Rams. Lafayette also won the 4×400 and 4×800 relay events as well.
Lafayette’s girls were led by a dominant showing in the field events from Deborah Allison, Kathryn Tomczak and Megan Jones.
In addition to tying a personal-best 11-foot, 6-inch leap to win the pole vault, Tomczak also ran a leg in the Rams’ first-place 4×200 relay squad and placed second behind Allison in triple jump. Allison won the event in 33.07 seconds.
Jones, who leaped 11 feet, seven inches to win the girls long jump, also added an impressive second-place finish in the 55 meter dash (7.48), finishing just behind Tabb’s Micah Hanks, who won in 7.40.
Above is a slideshow of photos from Wednesday’s meet. Click here for complete results, courtesy of milestat.com.
