The William Byrd boys were sixth in Class 3 and the girls were 19th at the
Virginia High School League state track meet in Lynchburg last weekend. Liberty
University hosted the Class 3 & 4 meets on Friday and Saturday.
The Rustburg boys and Heritage of Lynchburg girls won state Class 3
championships at Liberty. Western Albemarle was the runner-up in both, as the Heritage
girls scored 79 points to 59 for Western Albemarle and the Rustburg boys had 80.5 to
57.5 for the Warriors.
After the top two boys’ teams, it was close. Fauquier was third with 34 points,
Abingdon had 32, Pulaski County had 26 and Byrd was sixth with 28, just six points out
of third.
DeShawn Austin was the top scorer for the Byrd boys’ team, earning individual
all-state honors in three events. Austin was second in the 300 meter hurdles with a time
of 38.52, third in the triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 45’7.5” and fourth in the
110 high hurdles in 15.13.
Austin also ran on the 4 x 400 relay team that scored points for Byrd with a seventh
place finish and all-state honors. Also running on that team were Brady Reachy, Wyatte
Bailey, and Isaiah Board, as they ran a time of 3:27.26.
Bailey and Ethan Haston both cleared 13’6” in the pole vault for all-state honors.
With number of misses as the criteria Bailey was fourth in the state and Haston was
seventh.
Others who competed included Donald Mullins with 11th place in the 800, Haston
with 15th place in both the long and triple jump and Titus Beatty with a 16th place in the
shot put.
Jerrett Shepherd competed in the 100m dash, Landon Martin and Michael Goins
competed in the 110m hurdles, Israel Hairston and Cooper Minnix competed in the 100m
and 200m dash and the 4x100m relay of Reachy, Lane Shoemaker, Minnix and Hairston
finished 20th .
The Byrd girls scored 12 points. That tied them with Kettle Run and Heritage of
Newport News for 19th overall, just four points behind 14th place James Monroe.
Emma Kageals led the Terriers with a fourth place finish in the 100 hurdles,
earning all-state honors. Grace Onwi was fifth in the 400 with a season’s best time of
58.87, good for all-state and a new school record.
Lily Perez scored in the triple jump with a leap of 35’5.25” and ran on the eighth
place 4×400 relay team with Kageals, Onwi and Emma Matthews. Their time of 4:08.69
was good for all-state honors and bettered the school record they set a few weeks ago.
Also competing were Grace Mick with a 12th in the pole vault and Olivia
Bustamante who finished 15th in the high jump.
“The William Byrd outdoor track and field team and coaches would like to thank
the community for all of the support during both the indoor and outdoor track and field
season,” said Byrd coach James Pannell.
