Jordan Hill barely scratched on a 24-foot long jump, but with just one more jump left he had to put it out of his mind fast.
A seasoned competitor who’s been on some of the sports biggest stages, Hill rose to the occasion at the Dogwood Classic Saturday at Lannigan Field, leaping 23 feet, seven inches to snag the long jump title. Hill also won the triple jump by nearly a full foot, took the 100-meter dash by a hundreth of a second, snagged the high jump with a leap of 6-feet-6 and placed second in the 200-meter. As a team, Hill would’ve placed second in the meet’s team competition. As it was, Albemarle finished second to Fork Union in the men’s standings.
“He’s been behind a couple of weeks,” said Albemarle coach Tony Franklin. “He needed a good meet like this to get himself going again, I think he’s getting himself back to where he needs to be.”
What’s more impressive is that Hill, who usually runs on Albemarle’s loaded 4×400 relay, pulled out of that event along with Anthony Kostelac.
Fork Union put together a big-time outing, with Wojciech Czernek winning the 1600-meter, the race where he was the indoor state champ. Josh Morris took the 3200-meter race and the Blue Devils won the 4×100 and 4×400 races too. Joe Branch came up with a third place finish in the high jump, finishing behind only Hill and superstar athlete Anthony Rose, a JMU-bound football player from Amherst.
Akeem Garnett gave FUMA a third-place finish in the triple jump while Jordan Roach nabbed a runner-up spot in the discus.
Hill and the various Blue Devils were far from the only Central Virginia standout at the meet. Hill earned the area’s field event MVP nod while Louisa’s Javanique Burruss earned he girls field MVP award, Orange’s Ashontae Jackson picked up the girls runner honor and the Lions’ Dante Davis took the boys runner award.
Jackson sped her way to decisive victories in the 200 and 400-meter dashes. The indoor 55 and 300-meter champion rolled in the events, a strong building block as she point towards the outdoor Group AA championship meet.
Burruss ran on the 4×200 team for the Lions that finished second, won the long jump and placed second in the triple jump. Davis also did Louisa proud, winning the 110-hurdles, the 300-hurdles while also running on the second place 4×200 squad.
The Louisa girls placed in several relays too to bolster a first place team finish. Raven Robinson finished fourth in discus and fifth in shotput.
Western Albemarle’s girls got relay wins in the 4×400 and distance medley, a 1600-meter individual title from Mattie Webb, two top fives in the hurdles events from Kelsey McClary and a fifth place from Jordan Haws in the 800-meter. The Western boys won the DMR too.
Monticello’s Sherrie Timberlake turned in a solid performance with a third in the long jump and a sixth in the 200-meters.
