With two events left in last week’s Capital District track and field championships, the young and inexperienced Lee-Davis boys held a surprising 131-128 point advantage over the deep, veteran Atlee team. Unfortunately for the Confederates, one of the remaining events was the two-mile; a race that the Raiders were expected to dominate. And dominate they did. Not only did Atlee’s Ben Dejarnette set a new district record with a time of 9:29.06 but he was followed across the finish line by teammates Andrew Cantanese, Wes Steenburgh and Andy Hesse to give the Raiders the top four spots in the race. Atlee’s Josh Bland then picked up points with a seventh place finish allowing the Raiders to outscore Lee-Davis 31-4 in the race alone and claim an overall lead they would not relinquish.

  “Our boys performed well and we generally do when we need to at the district meet,” said Atlee coach Jim Triemplar. “We were about even at the end of the 200 but I knew we were pretty top heavy and strong in the 3200. The same group of boys that kind of put the regional away in indoors kind of did the same for district in outdoors.”

  A second place finish in the 4x400 only padded Atlee’s margin to take the district title 167-139 over Lee-Davis. Varina was a close third with 114 points while Hanover came in seventh.

  Though his team failed to pull out the win, Lee-Davis head coach Neil Matthews was happy with the outcome. “That was a big surprise to me, because I thought Atlee, their depth is just so tremendous,” he said. “I thought they were the class and I also thought Varina was a little bit better than us. Their field events and their sprints were so strong.”

  What added to Matthews excitement over the second place finish was the fact that we was competing without three of his best athletes, Travis Dawson, Michael Hoy and Brad Davis who were out with injury. “The boys really showed me that when there’s people that’s not there, there’s others who will step in,” Matthews said. “All is not lost when a guy goes down.”

  While Atlee utilized the strength of their distance runners to take command at the end it was the supporting cast that built the foundation upon which the Raiders claimed the title. Likewise it was a solid performance across the board that kept the Confederates in the running.

  Atlee senior Isaiah Woodson started things off early by taking the triple jump with a distance of 44-10.25, to beat out second place finisher TJ Harvey of Lee-Davis by nearly three feet. C-fed Caleb Wyatt took sixth in the event. Wyatt picked up a second place finish in the long jump with 20-10.25 and Woodson came in fifth.

  Lee-Davis picked up a surprising win in the discus when first year competitor, senior Phillip Berry, threw for 140-00 to take the title over Atlee’s Hunter Brooks. The C-feds Wes Tuck and Brandon Robinson took fourth and fifth while Atlee freshman Cole Stout came in sixth. “Anytime a freshman can score in a district meet… that’s pretty special,” Triemplar said.

  In the shot put, Lee-Davis’ Tuck and Jacob Brent finished third and fourth, Atlee’s Brooks fifth and Tre Facison of Hanover sixth.

  The thin Hanover squad picked up a big win in the high jump when Facison cleared 6-01.00 to beat out Highland Springs’ Quentin Moore. Altee sophomores Marques and Michael Atkinson took third and sixth.

  Another event that the Raiders dominated was the pole vault where sophomore Chris Pillow won by clearing 14-01. Teammates Scott Elwood, Austin Whitener, Matt Thompson and Trey Rydel took third through sixth. Lee-Davis’ Eric Spott took second with a vault of 13-00.

  Atlee teammates Charles Gowan and Taylor Jones claimed third and sixth in the 110 hurdles while Lee-Davis’ Spott and Tyrell Eaton came in fourth and fifth. In the 300 hurdles Eaton came in fourth and Gowan sixth.

  Lee-Davis’ Greg Bennett defended his 100 meter dash title, beating out Varina’s Louis Johnson 11.57 to 11.75. Atlee’s Jaired Epps came in sixth.
  In the 200, Bennett claimed third and Atlee’s Marques Atkinson sixth. Atlee’s Daniel Owecke took a sixth place finish in the 400.

  In the 800, Lee-Davis sophomore Cody Snyder took second while teammate Ryan Brown came in sixth. Atlee’s Justin Yepes claimed fifth.

  Dejarnette broke his second record of the day when he ran away with the 1600, finishing with a time of 4:18.61. “Those records have been around for a while, so that’s was pretty impressive,” Triemplar said. Lee-Davis’ Snyder came in second at 4:23.55. The Raiders’ Catanese claimed third but the best finish of the day was between Atlee’s Heese and Lee-Davis’ Kyle Jordan. The two were neck and neck in a sprint down the stretch with Hesse getting the lean at the finish to beat out Jordan by :00.02 to take fourth.

“Andy isn’t necessarily comfortable trying to go real fast,” Triemplar said. “He’s a true distance runner. But every race has the potential to turn into a foot race and that one certainly did.” Hanover’s Michael Goolsby took sixth.

  The Raiders’ 4x800 squad of Yepes, Steenburgh, Logan O’Day and Dejarnette picked up a win while Lee-Davis and Hanover took the three and four slots.
  In the 4x100 relay, Lee-Davis’ Wyatt, Emmit Atkins, Bryan Purcell and Bennett took third while Atlee came in sixth.

  The top six finishers in each event advance to this week’s Central Region Championships which will be held at Sports Backers’ Stadium, May 22-23.

  In the Colonial District championships, which ran concurrently with the Capital District meet, The Patrick Henry boys’ team came in fourth. The Patriots’ BJ Moss and Minh Phan picked up a one-two finish in the long jump. Aaron Harris won the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.93.