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Handy isn’t perfect: He settles for 3 wins,
2 state bests

The Hampton senior is the top local performer at the Peninsula Relays track and field meet.

By LYNN BURKE | lburke@dailypress.com | 247-4961

HAMPTON — Lavell Handy wasn’t happy with his final race, a second-place finish behind Bethel’s Sherrard Marrow in the 300-meter hurdles. But the Hampton senior has no complaints about how his first three events turned out in Saturday’s Peninsula Relays.

Handy won those three events and turned in state-best performances in two of them.
That was the individual hightlight of the relays, which avoided bad weather until the final event was being run. Then lightning and heavy rains forced the 1,600-meter relay to be cancelled.

Handy won the 100 hurdles in 14.49 seconds and equalled his personal best by winning the long jump with an effort of 23 feet, 5 inches.

Then he won the triple jump, an event he’ll compete in at the Penn Relays in two weeks, at 46-7.

“It’s the event I’m most consistent in,” Handy said. “I’m usually around 47 (feet). I’m up and down in the long jump. Today I was up.”

He had gone 23-5 in a dual meet, but this was his best in weekend competition.

“That’s a great jump for this time of the year,” said Hampton coach Fred Hamilton.
Handy’s chance to make it four victories ended when he couldn’t catch up to Marrow, who won the 300-meter hurdles in 38.86. Handy ran 39.40 and both times easily exceeded the state’s best so far this spring.

“I thought I could catch him down the stretch, but I had to stutter-step (over a hurdle) and he didn’t,” Handy said.

FAST TRACK

Virginia athletes competed in a dozen other invitational meets Saturday around the state and around the country, so not all of these times will hold up once all the results are compiled. But based on the statewide list on milestat.com, runners and jumpers at Darling Stadium on Saturday exceeded the previous state best in 10 events, six on the boys side and four on the girls.

From the Peninsula area, besides Marrow and Handy, Lafayette’s Damien Brown won the boys shot put at 51-11 ½ and Heritage’s Ruth Hunt won the girls 100 meters in 12.14.

Brown’s distance was the first time this year, combining indoor and outdoor track, that a shot-putter from the Peninsula reached 50 feet.

STATE CHAMPS

During the indoor track season, Western Branch’s boys nearly doubled the second-place finishers points in the state meet and the Bruin girls narrowly finished second.

They gave evidence Saturday that they’ll be just as strong in outdoor track. Between the two teams, they won a meet-high five events and had 16 top-three finishes. No team scores were kept.

Blake Theroux had two victories, winning the boys 1,600 and 3,200. Daniel Nix won the boys 400 and Western Branch won the girls 400 and 3,200 relays.

TOP PERFORMANCES

Green Run’s Dejor Simmons was the days’ best sprinter. He won the boys 100 and 200 and ran a leg on the winning 400 relay. ... Heritage’s Ruth Hunt just missed sweeping those two races on the girls side. In the 200, Booker T. Washington’s Raven Wilson won by six-hundredths of a second. ... Churchland’s Tiffany Harris swept the girls 400 and long jump. ... Grafton’s David Gunnerson ran a leg on the winning 3,200 relay, then won the open 800.