Patuxent junior Hayley Jackson skipped competing at the SMAC Championships on Friday in order to compete against high quality fields at the Virginia Tech Invitational. The SMAC meet was originally scheduled for last week, but had to be moved due to the snow storm to be held the same weekend as the high caliber event in Blacksburg, Virginia.
On Friday night, Jackson raced against two All-American cross country runners in Libby Davidson of E.C. Glass High School in Virginia and Elly Henes of Green Hope in North Carolina. She hung tough with both, but ended up finishing third in a time of 10:53.
A reigning 2A state champion for all three seasons, Jackson came back on Saturday to race in the seeded section of the girls 1600 against more top competition from Virginia, North Carolina and it turns out quite a bit from the home state of Maryland. The Maryland girls took four of the top seven places with the Walter Johnson duo of Abbey Green and Emily Murphy along with Paint Branch's Bethlehem Taye all running solid times.
| F 1,600 Meter Run - Finals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Overall | Athlete | Class | Team | Result | Heat | |
| 1 | 1 | Jackson, Hayley | 11 | Patuxent High School | 5:01.02 | 4 | |
| 2 | 2 | Davidson, Libby | 11 | E.C. Glass | 5:01.46 | 4 | |
| 3 | 3 | Lambert, Julia | 11 | Norfolk Academy | 5:03.44 | 4 | |
| 4 | 4 | Blanks, Lindsey | 12 | Tabb | 5:04.93 | 4 | |
| 5 | 5 | Green, Abigail | 10 | Walter Johnson High School | 5:05.33 | 4 | |
| 6 | 6 | Murphy, Emily | 12 | Walter Johnson High School | 5:07.10 | 3 | |
| 7 | 7 | Taye, Bethlehem | 12 | Paint Branch High School | 5:11.16 | 3 | |
Jackson ended up leading the race from wire to wire, but had to hold off a late charge from two-time Foot Locker All-American Libby Davidson on the final straightway for the win in a time of 5:01.02.
