THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505240178
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAN COOLEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
ALTHOUGH BOTH Deep Creek Middle School's boys and girls track teams followed up on their regular season titles by winning the Chesapeake Middle School League city championship last week, each squad used different scripts to get there.
The Lady Hornets led from start to finish on their home field and dominated the competition, winning by a whopping 22 points, 41-19, over second-place Western Branch.
``This year's team is certainly one of the best teams I've ever had in my 18 years as a coach,'' said Gene Babb. ``They won their five dual meets by an average score of 60-18.''
``The win feels good,'' said Aisha Wood, who placed second in the 200 meters and ran on the winning 400-meter relay team. ``I was psyched because I was on the team that won it last year, too.''
The Deep Creek boys were involved in a three-team race and won the meet in dramatic fashion by placing first in the competition's last event, the 1,600-meter relay, to score a narrow one-point win over Crestwood, 26-25.
``We put the best group out there we could find and that was the difference,'' said boys' coach Steve Plude. ``The guys had lost once to Oscar Smith and they were upset by that. They wanted to show they were the best.''
The Hornets did more than just win the event - they also set a new CMSL record. The combination of Danny Walton, Kerry Bullock, Steve Hinton and Brian Harris knocked more than four seconds off the old mark - Western Branch's 3:51.4 set in 1987 - with a time of 3:46.67.
The win in the 1,600 relay added to Harris' earlier victory in the 400. Walton lost the 100-meter race by just 0.07 of a second to Crestwood's Anthony Tooles. It was the Falcons' only win of the meet, but the team stayed close to the overall lead by placing second in five events, including all three relays.
Hinton failed in his bid to repeat as champion in the 800. His time of 2:11.26 was a new city record, but Hinton was edged out in a photo finish by Great Bridge's Jason Santucci.
The only repeat winner of the meet was Western Branch's Marvin Urquhart in the shotput. Although Urquhart has dominated the competition in the event all season, he needed a record-setting performance on his third and final throw to win the title.
Urquhart had trailed Deep Creek's Darryl Grant, who had already bettered the city record with a throw of 52-0.
``I was just nervous and wasn't concentrating,'' said Urquhart, whose first two throws were under last year's winning 50-6 effort. ``I told myself I just gotta do it.''
Urquhart responded by unleashing a throw of 53-4, obliterating the old CMSL record by more than two feet.
Going into the final event, Crestwood led by a point over Deep Creek and two points over Oscar Smith. The Tigers relied on victories in two relays to stay in contention. Terrance Knight ran on both winning relay teams and was Oscar Smith's lone individual winner, taking the long jump competition with a jump of 19-2.
Although the Lady Tigers finished out of contention, the team had the only double winner in the girls competition, Joetta Thorpe. Thorpe scored a 0.03 second victory over Crestwood's Kelly Deane in the 100, then notched a victory in the 200 over Deep Creek's Wood.
``This was my first year in track, so I was real happy,'' said Thorpe.
Thorpe had a hand in scoring all 16 of the Lady Tigers' points, as she also competed on the second place 400- and 800-meter relay teams.
The Deep Creek Lady Hornets led from the start of the meet with Lakeila Whitaker's win in the shotput and never looked back. The squad finished with firsts in all three relays and three individual wins - Whitaker, April Ellenberger in the high jump, and Karen Heely in the 400.
Both Whitaker and Heely nearly missed setting city records. Whitaker's throw of 37-8 1/4 was less than an inch off the old mark, and Heely missed the 400 record by 0.03 seconds.
``I was upset I didn't get the record, because I had broken it in the dual meets,'' said Whitaker. CMSL records can only be set in the city championship.
Heely rebounded from her performance in the 400 by anchoring the Lady Hornets' record-setting 1,600-meter relay team along with Toloria Carroll, Tameka Yarrington and Kim Brown. It was the only girls' record set during the tournament. Deep Creek's time was 4:26.92, which easily improved upon Crestwood's 1987 mark of 4:31.20.
Other individual title winners were Western Branch's Leonard Mason in the high jump (5-8) and Jennifer Westfall in the long jump (15-6 1/2). Both were school records. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Leonard Mason of Western Branch clears 5-8in the high jump to set a
school record.
by CNB