Coming into the Capital District track championships, Lee-Davis coach Neil Matthews was hoping for a quality performance from both his boys and girls team. What Matthews got was a Golden exhibition, not only by and outstanding freshman but by both teams to complete a sweep of the boys’ and girls’ district titles.

  Though winning the district meet was a goal for both teams prior to the season, in light of the tough competition they would face Matthews really did not know how realistic that dream was. “I thought some of the other teams, particularly Atlee’s boys and Henrico’s girls… I just thought that they were really tough, very deep teams,” said Matthews who was named coach of the year for both boys’ and girls’ teams. “We would have to have some luck and perform to our potential to have a chance.”

  It is questionable how much luck was involved, but it was clear that Matthews’ teams lived up to their potential, taking both meets both by a 41 point margin.

  “It was very exciting to have both teams excel on the same day,” Matthews said. “I’ve been here three years and I’ve never had both teams do it on the same day and get the job done.”

  An even bigger surprise to Matthews was the performance of freshman Montasia Golden. In her first district outdoor meet, Golden lived up to her name taking the titles in the 100, 200, 400 and triple jump while taking fifth in the long jump.

  “Wow, she’s an amazing talent,” Matthews said. “It was pretty much a speechless performance for a freshman to come in and run like that.”

  Though her goal was to win, for Golden the enjoyment came from just being able to compete. “From the prelims I knew I was seeded pretty high, but I wasn’t expected to win, so I just went out there and tried to be my best.”

  Matthews, had no questions as to whether Golden possessed the potential to win. His only question was if she was too inexperienced to win in the strenuous district schedule. “We just weren’t sure if she was ready yet as a freshman and had the mental toughness to be able to go through the trials in all three and the field events she was doing on back to back days,” he said. “But she handled it very well and showed that she’s maturing as an athlete.”

  Happy with her titles, even Golden seemed surprised by her accomplishments which earned her the title of the Capital District’s outstanding female runner. “I normally try to be the best freshman,” she said. “But I never thought about being the actual best.”

  Though she raked in numerous points for the Confederates, Golden did not carry the team alone. Surprisingly, Lee-Davis won despite coming into the meet short-handed. Middle-distance runner Amanda Lineberry was out with a stress fracture and sprinter Kiera Gaines missed the meet because of an ankle injury. Even some of those who competed were not in top form. Despite fighting through an illness, Regina Davis managed to claim the title in the 100 hurdles.

  “I didn’t think she was going to be able to run but she mustered the strength to be able to get on the line and run,” Matthews said. “She was definitely nauseous but she was able to pull herself together.”

  For the Lee-Davis boys team, the victory came on the shoulders of its seniors in the field. Antonio Puller was dominating in his events, winning the triple jump, high jump and long jump, earning him the title of the district’s outstanding male field athlete.

  “Oh man, Antonio, he just got the job done,” Matthews said.

  For a repeat winner such as Puller, the district meet was less about winning and more about getting in stride for the state championship. “He’s more gearing up for two weeks from now,” Matthews said. “When we’re getting to the state meet is where he wants to peak.”

  While Puller was making quick work of the leaping events, Adam Taylor was doing the same in throwing. Taylor not only repeated as district discus champion as expected but due to the fact that he has been fighting through an injury, picked up an unexpected win in the shot put.

  “It was very nice to see Adam bounce back in the shot put,” Matthews said. “He’s been injured and kind of lost his confidence in that event since the end of the winter season… As you almost hope a senior would, that has all of the experience that he has, he got to his last district meet and found whatever it took to win the shot put then be able to come back the next day and win the discus.”

  Even though a freshman dominated, an ill hurdler and an injured shot putter won, Matthews said there were more memorable moments that made his day.

  Following last year’s district meet, hurdler Brad Davis made Matthews a vow. “He looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to win the 300 hurdles next year’,” Matthews said. “I just looked at him and said, ‘okay, go for it.’”

  This year, Davis edged out Highland Springs’ Deon Miller by .05 seconds to reach his goal.

  Matthews said Davis’ reaction to the win was priceless. “He was jumping around, up and down, ran across the field and I said, ‘You’re supposed to be tired after running something like that,’ but he was actually so excited to achieve his goal. That was very exciting to watch.”

  The boys also boasted a superb performance by freshman Cody Snyder who claimed the 3200 by nearly a four second margin. Senior Robert Reynolds reached his goal of winning the 800 and the boys’ 4x800 team of Snyder, Michael Hoy, Travis Dawson, Reynolds picked up a big win. The Confederates also took the 4x100 with a team of BJ Jones, Greg Bennett, Josh Rogodzinski and Puller.

  The Atlee boys team took third and the Lady Raiders fourth while Hanover’s girls took third place.

  Atlee got its usual strong performances from the Dejarnette siblings, Ben cruising to a four-plus second win in the 1600 and Emma taking the pole vault with a height of 12-6. Dillon McGhee won the girls’ discus for the Raiders and Chris Colvin won the boys’ pole vault.

  For Hanover, Lauren Hopper ran away with nearly a nine second win in the girls’ 3200 while Taylor Clevinger took the 800.

  In the Colonial District championships the Patriots took fourth place in both the boys’ and girls’ competition. Deep Run won the girls’ meet while Douglas Freeman took the boys’ championship.

  Winners for Patrick Henry included, Lizzie Powell in the pole vault, Christianna Moss in the shot put and discus. In boys’ competition, Theo Duncan won the shot put and B.J. Moss won the 100 Meter Dash.