WAR brings home another state title

Published 9:33 pm Tuesday, June 5, 2018

It was business as usual over the weekend for Team WAR, as they won another outdoor state title.

The Nansemond River High School track and field team continued its dominance last weekend at Todd Stadium, winning its fifth consecutive outdoor state championship. The girls’ team turned in another team state title performance, while the boys’ continued to add its share of standout performances as well.

Junior Kori Carter led the way for the girls’ team, winning two state titles in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles while also finishing as runner-up in the long jump. Carter had a personal record in the 300 hurdles with a time of 41.28. Tre’Breh Scott-McKoy had five top-five finishes last weekend. She finished second in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the long jump to go along with a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash and a fifth-place finish in the high jump. Skylar Parks finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles, giving NRHS three of the top five finishes in that event.

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Both the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams took first place for Nansemond River. Parks, Asia Crocker, Lauryn Freeman and Brene’ Donaldson ran a time of 46.72 to win the 4×100. Donaldson, Carter, Tea’ Foster and Scott-McKoy ran the first place 4×400 team. The girls’ team totaled 93 points, 30 more than the second-place team.

For the boys’ team, Daiqwaun Faircloth won two state titles in the 110-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles. He ran the 110 with a time of 13.78 and the 300 with a time of 37.26, both of which were personal and school records. Kevin Johnson finished fourth in the 200-meter dash. Jacari Jennings finished sixth in the 800-meter and ran the second-fastest time in school history with a time of 1:57.79. Even though the boys’ team was dealing with a couple of injuries, it was able to place ninth.

“This was an extremely quality meet,” coach Justin Byron said. “Everyone was firing on all cylinders. We maxed out everywhere we could. Because of the lack of depth, it was different from other years. Everyone stepped out accordingly, and we had some great performances.”

The senior class did a good job for Nansemond River, scoring points in the events that they all competed in. Byron felt this championship was different from the previous two the Warriors won because of the margin of error they had in the last two.

“To have our seniors step up the way they did, I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Byron said. “The type of performances they had, I’ll never take them for granted. Asia, Skylar, Tea’, Jacari, the whole senior class really stepped up.”

Next for Nansemond River will be the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina. At the indoor national meet, Nansemond River had multiple All-Americans and is looking to make some noise again in the outdoor.

“We have to put in the work to reach our personal best, but all of us want to win a national title,” Scott-McKoy said.