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Local track stars make website’s all-time Top 10

6/5/2015, 8:16 p.m. | Updated on 6/5/2015, 11:10 p.m.
With spring track and field in full gear, let’s call a timeout to reflect on some blasts from the past. ...

With spring track and field in full gear, let’s call a timeout to reflect on some blasts from the past.

Numerous area athletes have popped up on an impressive, recently released list of Virginia’s all-time, outdoor high school track and field performers.

The list was authored by Nolan Jez and was published on MileStat.com, a website with Virginia high school track and field news.

Jez’s list combines all enrollment classifications among public and private schools. In some events, Jez’s lists goes more than 100 deep. The list does not include athletes who competed in the Virginia Interscholastic Association (VIA) prior to its merger with the all-white Virginia High School League in the 1960s.

Jez’s records date to at least 1972, the year Ferguson High School’s Ronnie Ray set a national 400 mark of 45.74 at the state meet.

Ray’s mark has since been eclipsed by Woodrow Wilson’s LaShawn Merritt (45.24) in 2004.

Here are local athletes ranked among the state’s all-time Top 10:

Boys 100 meters: Ben Singleton, John F. Kennedy High School, second, 1994, 10.36

Girls 100: Shanneka Claiborne, Matoaca High School, fourth, 2007, 11.62; Dawn Sowell, Jefferson-Huguenot-Wythe High School, 10th, 1984, 11.7

Girls 200: Sowell, JHW High, second, 1984, 23.50; Denise Cox, Marshall-Walker High School, ninth, 1980, 23.6

Girls 4x100 relay: JHW High, fifth, 1984, 46.36; Hermitage High School, ninth, 2005, 46.54

Boys 110 hurdles: Karl Williams, George Wythe High School, fourth, 1976, 13.4; Valentino Robinson, Thomas Jefferson High School, ninth, 1978, 13.6

Girls 300 hurdles: Queen Harrison, Hermitage High, ninth, 2006, 42.15; Kim Townes, Highland Springs High School, ninth, 1992, 42.18

Girls 800: Megan Moye, Cosby High School, fourth, 2012, 2:07.4

Girls 1,600: Moye, Cosby High, third, 2012, 4:44.22

Boys 1,600: Matt Novak, Deep Run High School, 9th, 2015, 4:06.68

Girls 3,200: Moye, Cosby High, seventh, 2012, 10:21.98

Girls 4x400 relay: Marshall-Walker High, seventh, 1983, 3:14.15

Pole vault: Kevin Brown, Henrico High School, third, 1989, 15-7

Shot put: Robert Lee, TJ High, eighth, 1987, 61-4; Tyler Powell, Cosby High, ninth, 2014, 61-2.5

Girls discus: Kae Watson, Hermitage High, seventh, 1949, 149-0; Sherry Green, JHW, ninth, 1989, 147-3; Theresa Smith, Highland Springs High, 10th 1982, 147-0

Girls long jump: Piper Bressant, JHW High, second 1981, 20-6.5; Tamela Penny, Hermitage High, eighth, 1981, 20-2

Boys triple jump: Cournelious “Bang” Cousins, Hermitage High, eighth, 1979, 50-5

Girls triple jump: Mia Aghaji, Matoaca High, 2007, 40-113/4

Boys high jump: Alexander Coles, Armstrong High, eighth, 1987, 7-1; Mark Banks, JHW High, 1981, 7-03/4

Girls high jump: Tamela Penny, Hermitage High, third, 1980, 5-11

Jefferson-Huguenot-Wythe (JHW) complex was one of three schools between 1980 and 1985 that were athletic mergers, of sorts, of the city’s comprehensive high schools.

Jim Holdren, now coaching at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, was head coach of the Jefferson-Huguenot-Wythe Trojans track.

Former Jefferson-Huguenot-Wythe sprinter Martin Smith is listed on a similar list of indoor performers. Smith holds the 55-meter mark of 6.17 set in 1983.

Other Richmond complex high schools were the Marshall-Walker Cavaliers and the Armstrong-Kennedy Jaguars.