Things to Look For at 6A Virginia State Track Meet - POSTPONED FOR THIRD TIME!! WILL NOW RUN NEXT MONDAY AND TUESDAY 3/9 AND 3/10

Going to put a brief hold on my 5A preview, but Nolan Jez posted one, and it can be found on Milestat.com.

I’m looking forward to getting back on track – figuratively and literally. After spending the entire winter diverted with other professional ventures, I’m finally realigning with Milestat.com to help provide coverage of this weekend’s 5A/6A state indoor track meet. For the record, it’s been about six years since I did any work with MileStat, and I thank current webmaster Nolan Jez for responding to my offer to help. With TrackNation magazine on hiatus (I think it’s a break?), I’ve been looking for more writing opportunities with cross-country and track and field.

Anyhow, enough of that. This weekend promises to be a barnburner at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. Nolan will be providing the more formal meet preview and recap, but I want to point out some aspects of this weekend’s meets that I’ll be looking to cover. Today, I’ll look at the 6A meets, while moving on to 5A tomorrow.

T.C.'s Noah and Josephus Lyles will be looking to help the
Titans to an indoor state track title, one to match the crown
they won last outdoor season.

6A Boys – The team champion could easily come down to the final lap of the final race. There are five real dogs in this race – Lake Braddock, T.C. Williams, Grassfield, Western Branch and Chantilly.

Grassfield will almost entirely rely on Grant Holloway for its points, although Owen Chappell should win the shot put.  Chantilly (seeded 5^th) will need top performances from all of their athletes, and at least 24 individual points from the McGorty brothers, Brandon and Ryan, as well as a win in the 3200 relay and top three placement in the 1600 relay. Lake Braddock features a trio of distance runners, Alex Corbett, Kevin Monogue and Colin Schaefer who can score heavily, as well as enough entries in other events to keep the other teams honest. Bruin distance coach Mike Mangan readily admits that Grassfield (with Holloway and Chappell in the field) could get to 50 points “in a hurry,” which could make them hard to catch. But Lake Braddock won the 6A North regional, and is seeded first this weekend, so they have to be slightly favored to win the title.

T.C. Williams is seeded second, and with the power of Noah and Josephus Lyles on their side in the shorter sprints and high jump, can make an honest bid for the title. But never count out Western Branch (seeded 4^th). The team has a knack for having 7^th and 8^th seeded athletes suddenly earn top-four honors at States, and runners such as Tyson Robinson (300, 500) and Jahkwan Blackley (55) could emerge from the seeding shadows this weekend.

6A Girls – Western Branch is the heavy favorite, with the real question being if they will top 100 

points. Claude Toukene’s girl’s team will be too much for the rest of the state again. The Southside

Milan Parks will be one of the keys for Western Branch
this weekend as they enter the 6A girls meet

version of the Bruins, as usual, will be loaded in the hurdles and jumps. Faith Ross and Jewel Smith will contribute crucial points in the 300 and 500, and the Bruin relays are too far ahead of the rest of the field to dare predict an upset in the 800, 1600, and 3200 relays.

But there will be other stories. Lauryn Ghee of Grassfield has been a U.S. leader in the 55 and 300, but she’ll see some heat, particularly in the 55, from Alexys Taylor (Osbourn Park) and Mallory Pitchford (James River). Freshman Titiana Marsh of Thomas Dale sports a 40-foot triple jump, so she will be worth watching, while Maria Muzzio of Robinson will be the favorite in the shot, with a 42-6.5 entry.

Lake Braddock’s Kate Murphy could be a double winner in the 1600 and 3200, where she is almost 22 seconds ahead of second seed, Oakton’s Allie Klimkiewicz.