Varsity Track
Mason To Field
Powerful Team
At Regionals Saturday
By Niles Lashway (May 28, 2004)
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Strong performances
by many individuals in the District Championship at Manassas Park mean
that Mason will field a powerful team in tomorrow’s Regional Championships
in Charlottesville.
In districts, the girls’ team,
with its star runner Luisa Fairfax having already
qualified for the states championship
in June, still had a good meet, despite
finishing last. Fairfax took
third place in both the 1600 and 3200 meter
runs, while fellow senior Melissa
Womble qualified for regionals by taking
sixth in the 800 meter. Freshman
standouts Agnes Ek and Emma Goetz both
qualified for regionals, Ek by
taking fourth place in the 400 meter and 6th
in the 100. Goetz took fifth
in the 3200.
The only fielder for both the
girls and the guys to qualify for regionals was
juniour Sarah Stanley, who took
sixth in the shot put.
The boys led the way with a fourth
place finish and a series of medals and best personal times. Senior Niles
Lashway got the first medal of the meet with a second place finish in the
110 high hurdles and a personal best time of 15.84. Lashway also took first
in the 300 meter hurdles, in a time of 41.00, a meager .6 of a second off
the district record, set by another Mason hurdler back in 1993.
The spotlight then fell to junior
Chad O'Hara with a gold in the 400 meter dash, clocking his best time of
the season in 53.7. He will be joined at regionals in that event by fellow
junior Ted Rowdybush who finished sixth. On the distance side of the team,
juniors John Sullivan and Johnathan Byers both took third place in their
events, the 3200meter
for Sullivan and the 800 meter
for Byers. Sullivan will also be going to regionals in the 1600 meter after
taking 6th place with a personal best of 4.44. Cross Country Captain Orie
Bumgarner took fourth in the 800 meters. |
Senior
Luisa Fairfax, who has already
qualified for states,
runs her way to
third place at
the district championships
in Manassas Park.
Fairfax is part of
Mason’s team that
will compete Saturday
in the regionals
in Charlottesville.
(Photo by David
Newhall) |
The unquestionable hightlight
of the meet came during the very last stretch of the final event, the 4x400
meter rely in which the Mason team, composed of lead leg Chad O'Hara, Jonathan
Byers, Ted Rowdybush, and anchor Niles Lashway, took first place in a dramatic
and controversial run. Going into the third and final handoff, with a very
tight and crowded field coming down the last straightaway, Rowdybush made
a move to step into lane two, when some coaches claimed that there wasn’t
enough room to make such a move, thereby earning a disqualification. But
despite the post meet appeals of some of the coaches, the meet officials
saw no contact or infringement and no disqualification was necessary .
Despite such controversy, Rowdybush was able to hold off the challenge
of Madison County to stay in the second spot behind Manassas going into
the final leg. It was Lashway against Fitchett, the presumptive district
runner of the year and the only runner to finish ahead of Lashway in the
110 hurdles. Fitchett had a 20-meter lead on Lashway, but going into the
last 200 meters of the race, that lead began to shrink, and by the last
100 meters they were neck and neck, both straining to keep the pace. Finally
in literally the last 20 meters of the race, Lashway managed to pull ahead
and win the relay by only one second.
Tell us what you think.
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