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By Staff
RADFORD -- Allison White and Devae Goins of Galax earned all-state honors last Saturday by placing among the top eight in their respective events at the Group A state track and field championships at Radford University's Cupp Stadium.
White, a sophomore making her second appearance at the state championships, placed sixth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 50.58 seconds. White recorded career-best times in four of her final five races, including her finals run.
White barely missed qualifying for the finals in the 100-meter hurdles after being placed in the fastest preliminary heat. With the top three finishers in each of three qualifying heats advancing to the finals, White placed fourth in Heat 3, which would produce three of the top finishers in the finals.
Goins, a senior, earned an eighth-place finish in the boys' triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 42 feet, 6 and a quarter inches. Goins' eighth-place leap was more than a foot and a half better than his previous career best.
"All of our kids had really great performances," Galax coach Tony Quesenberry said. "I have really enjoyed working with this group of kids. They worked hard all season and were rewarded with both team championships in the district, and capped the season with six competing at state, which was the most we have sent to state since 2000."
Marleigh Durham, Austin Pack, Jacob Ogle and Kemberlea Simmons also competed well at Radford.
Participating in the state meet for the second time, Durham defined the term ‘student-athlete' by taking her SATs in the morning at Radford High School, then hurrying down the hill to R.U. to run a career-best time in the 800.
Durham won her preliminary heat and ran a 2:38.4 in the finals, placing 14th in a field of 25 runners and finishing the season with her best time ever in the event.
Simmons, Pack and Ogle were all making their rookie appearances at state. Simmons threw within an inch of her career best in the shot put, Pack missed his career best by a mere two inches in the high jump and Ogle was with one-one hundredth of a second of his career best in the 110 hurdles, placing fifth in his preliminary heat.
The Mountain Empire District produced one state champion as Savannah Burton of Narrows won the girls' long jump as a sophomore with a leap of 17 feet, 1.5 inches.
Manassas Park edged James River 56-51 for the girls' team championship, with George Mason (38), Clarke County (34) and Appomattox (32) rounding out the top five.
Clarke County easily won the boys' team title with 68 points to Appomattox's 49. They were followed by Floyd County (40), Manassas Park (33) and Lebanon (31).
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