THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604210235
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH POMPEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
South Hampton Roads' track teams stole the show Saturday at the Peninsula Relays.
Western Branch won the combined boys and girls Group AAA title. Bayside's Lashonda Cutchin was named the Most Valuable Female Performer. And the Lakeland boys shattered four Group AA meet records.
``I wasn't watching all of the individual performances, but what I did see the teams in this area did pretty good,'' Western Branch boys coach Wade Williams said.
``And I was pretty pleased with our performance. I was shocked that we won because we didn't have any plan to win this meet.''
Western Branch's nine points nipped second-place Oakton by two. Norview finished fourth with six points.
The Bruins, who scored their points in the boys competition, were led by Clayton Porter.
The senior won the individual long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 10 inches. And he teamed with Darryl Walton to take the long jump relay (44-3).
The two then joined Darren Walton and Malik Cook on the first-place 4x100 relay (42.4).
That was only the beginning for the Bruins.
Jamal Jones, Lawrence Ward, Mark Manning and Billy McGlaughan won the distance medley (10:59.0). And Kevin Moseley and Dushane Purchus took first in the 300 hurdles relay (83.4).
While Western Branch had numerous medal winners, none was as dominating as Bayide's Cutchin.
The junior set a meet record in the 200 (24.10), then joined Ebony Shelton, Davon Lamb and Tamika Williams on the Marlins' meet record-setting 4x100 (47.8) and 4x400 (3:55.1) relays. After her performance, Cutchin was voted the female recipient of the Harry Chandler memorial award.
``I wanted to win this award last year,'' Cutchin said. ``But by winning it this year, it came right on time.
``Coming into this meet we were looking to break the 4x100 and 4x400 records, so we can get ready for the Penn Relays (in Philadelphia next week). We did that, so I'm happy to get the award this year.''
Unfortunately for the Lakeland boys, there weren't enough awards to go around.
Like the Bruins, the Cavaliers dominated the boys events. But unlike Western Branch, Lakeland fell to third place after the boys and girls points were combined.
``We thought they should have scored the meet differently,'' Cavaliers boys assistant coach Greg Roundtree said. ``We broke four meet records and don't have nothing to go home with.''
Melvin Faulk - who helped break three meet records - led the way.
Faulk set a record in the 200 (22.3). Then he teamed with Reginale Wiggins, LaRon Claude and Phoenix Long in the 4x100 (44.0). Faulk and Claude later joined Lindell Hunter and Kevin Knight in the 4x400 (3:28.2).
James Bruden set the last record in the 3200 (10:25).
Western Branch, Lakeland, and Bayside weren't alone. Granby's girls also shined.
Lameka Carter and Trinell Conquest won the shot put relay (70-4 1/4). Tanya Jones and Marquita Morton took second in the long jump relay (32-6). Then Jones and Christina Branch took fourth in the 300 hurdles relay (1:37.3). And Monica Hawkins and Lakeesia Ebron took second in the triple jump (66-8 1/2).
``I'm really proud of my girls,'' Granby coach Christine Handy said. ``We are right where we want to be.''
In other events, Churchland's Jamin Elliott and Dion Langley won the boys triple jump. by CNB