The highly anticipated invite opener for the new Grassfield High School in Chesapeake came this past weekend at the F.I.T. Invite in Maryland. Grassfield inherited many of the key members of last year's Deep Creek girls state champion outdoor squad. Their 4x200 meter relay put up an impressive state best time of 1:44.20, while another state leader was produced by a Grassfield athlete in Curtis Campbell as he turned in a time of 1:06.20 in the boys' 500 meter dash.
Other state bests at F.I.T. Invite:
Girls 4x400 - Osbourn Park 3:57.49
Girls 1600 - Tasia Potasinski (Westfield) 5:08.06
Girls Long Jump - Tynita Butts (T.C. Williams) 18-5.50
Boys High Jump - Jordan Hill (Albemarle) 6-6 *Ties state best*
F.I.T. Invitational Complete Results
F.I.T. Invitational Photo Gallery by Ted Plunkett - 819 total photos
With a handful of All-State caliber sprinters, Grassfield looks to quickly become a force on the state scene as it was apparent at the F.I.T. Invitational held at the Prince George County's Sports & Learning Center in Landover, Maryland. Their 4x200 meter relay battled it out with Osbourn Park (3rd, 1:45.62) and Bishop McNamara (2nd, 1:45.44) as they were pressed to run the nation's fastest time currently in the event on a flat track at 1:44.20. The Grassfield girls had the 55 meter hurdles winner in Chantal Luedeke as it came down to a photo finish between Luedeke and Lake Braddock senior Melanie Akwule with both being timed at 8.53.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
Curtis Campbell was also a member of a state champion Deep Creek squad last spring, but was the lone Deep Creek boy to end up at Grassfield as most of the top athletes on last year's Deep Creek had graduated. Campbell's seed time did not get him in the fast section of the 500 meter dash at F.I.T., but that did not stop him from putting up a US #1 and state leading time of 1:06.20 to beat the best times from the seeded section. Campbell will be a strong contender for the state title in the event as he put up a best of 1:04.99 last year as a sophomore at Deep Creek.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
Centreville's Chrissy Sane scored a major upset victory in the 3200 meter run as she defeated two of the state's better distance runners in Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park (2nd, 11:21.99) and Lia DiValentin of Chantilly (3rd, 11:23.39) with a final time of 11:21.99 as all three automatically qualified for state competition in the event. Sane has had a great start to the indoor season as she also won last weekend at PG in the 1600 meter run at the Metro Run & Walk Holiday Invite.
Westfield had a pair of individual winners in the girls' distance events with Tasia Potasinski taking the 1600 meter run with ease in a state best time of 5:08.06, while Kerry Hartman kicked in for a 3:05.83 victory as Erin Landy of Lake Braddock was a close second at 3:06.41. Potasinski and teammate Brittany Sevachko showed off some wheels in the 500 meter dash after Potasinski's win as both broke 1:20 with Sevachko fourth overall at 1:18.74 and Potasinski sixth overall at 1:19.68. Grassfield's Keshia Rudolph finished in between the two Westfield distance gals defeating Potasinski in her section in 1:19.06 for fifth overall in the event.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
While the Grassfield girls won the battle in the 4x200, Osbourn Park came out on top in the final event of the 4x400 meter relay as the defending AAA state indoor 4x400 champions became the first team to break four minutes this season with an outstanding time of 3:57.49 to defeat Eleanor Roosevelt.
The T.C. Williams girls had two top performers in the field events as Tynita Butts leaped to a state best of 18'5.50" in the long jump, while finishing second in the high jump clearing a height of 5'6". Butts could emerge as possible new state title contender in the jumping events from the Northern Region joining the returning two-time state indoor long jump champion Brittni Finch of Centreville, who only participated in running events at F.I.T.
Eva Baker of T.C. Williams became the first Northern Region pole vaulter to clear a height to put her well up into state rankings with a 10'6" win at F.I.T. as she joins five others in the state who have cleared over 10 feet this season.
Yorktown senior Jaclyn Smith improved by a foot from her previous best in the triple jump as she won for a second consecutive week at PG in the event by leaping to state's third best mark of 37'6".
Another repeat winner from the Holiday Invite to the F.I.T. Invite was James Robinson thrower Jessie Echard as she launched a personal best mark of 37'3", which happens to be the best mark this season so far by a Group AAA female.
Photo by Ted Plunkett
The Degfae twins of Thomas Edison and Bradshaw Kenimer of T.C. Williams all had solid doubles in the distance races. Kenimer battled it out with the twins in the 1600 meter run with Leoule Degfae pulling out the narrow victory over Kenimer (2nd, 4:24.04) in 4:23.98, while Tihut Degfae was close behind in third at 4:25. The twins came back in the 1000 meter run as both were nearly inseparable again as they had to settle for second and third behind Eleanor Roosevelt's Daniel Edmond, but both were able to get under 2:40 with Leoule at 2:39.46 and Tihut at 2:39.92.
Kenimer had a bit less company in the 3200 meter run later on as the T.C. Williams senior ended up pulling away for a 17 second margin of victory as well an automatic state qualifier at 9:40.42.
Albemarle's Jordan Hill nearly became the only athlete in the meet to win three events as Hill tied the state best height in the high jump with a 6'6" winning clearance, posted the best mark in the long jump at 21'2.75", and placed second in the 55 meter dash at 6.70.