05.16.10
By Brett Honeycutt
The Charlotte Observer
Charlotte Latin earned a sweep of boys' and girls' state track and field titles and Providence Day's Varonica Johnson became the first girl to sweep the three sprint events in nearly 30 years at the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 3A championships on Saturday at Cary Academy.
For Charlotte Latin, it was the fifth consecutive girls' title and second in three years for the boys, who also helped complete the sweep in 2008.
"Both of them were not definite until very late in the meet," Charlotte Latin boys' and girls' coach Larry McNulty said. "It was gut-wrenching ... It was a very emotional and intense day. We just kept plugging."
Charlotte Latin's girls solidified their title on the last event of the day, the 1,600-meter relay, and edged Raleigh Ravenscroft for the team title, 144-140. The boys' team outdistanced runner-up Cary Academy, 128.5-112.
"I was surprised (that the girls won) because we heard such great things about Ravenscroft's team," McNulty said. "When we started the year, about 40 percent of our girls' team was new or freshmen. When you have that, you don't expect to be that good. The boys' team was experienced. We had depth. We had numbers."
Charlotte Latin won three boys' events: Jalen Ross (triple jump, 42-2.75); Austin Davis (high jump, 6-2); 800-meter relay (Chase Cisne, David Caldwell, Tyler Miess, Davis); 1,600-meter relay (Cisne, Miess, Michael Grace, Alex Wilson, 3:27.92).
Charlotte Latin's girls bettered that total by winning one individual event (Sarah Whitmore, 300 hurdles, 47.78) and three relays: 400-meter relay of Andrea Gray, Amanda Onwukwe, Mary Kate McAlister and Stephanie Coma (51.36); the 800-meter relay of Gray, McAlister, Farrell Murphy and Coma (1:49.04); and the 3,200-meter relay of Laura Gill, Haylee Dawe, Kameron Spence and Murphy (9:54.32).
Individually, though, the meet belonged to Johnson, who set a state meet record in the 100 (12.28), and won the 200 (25.68) and 400 (59.19) to become the first girl since Durham Academy's Betsy Wilkins swept all three in 1980 and 1981 and only the third person since Charlotte Country Day's Lee Ballenger first accomplished it in 1976.
Click here to view the article on The Charlotte Observer Web site.