From Coach Jamison Monahan:  

In the final competition of the year, the Woodberry Forest Track team returned to St. Christopher’s for the State Championship.  After posting a second place finish in the Indoor season, the Tigers were looking to close the gap on FUMA and prevent a repeat for last year’s outdoor champion, Liberty Christian.  With several personal and season bests, and scoring in (almost) every event, our boys demonstrated exactly how all the hard work and dedication would pay off in the end.  In addition to outstanding accomplishments today, it is worth noting and remembering that several of our varsity athletes, including Eric Ways, CJ Prosise, Wallace Branche, HT Minor, Ian Edwards, Addison St. John, Saul Shimmin, and Coach Matt Boesen, all performed in three nights of excellent acting in the drama department’s The Outsiders.  

Starting off the day for us was the 4x800m relay.  After posting a remarkable eight second improvement in his leg of the relay the previous week at the Prep League Championship, senior and first time track runner, Jason Hill, lead off Woodberry’s most impressive 4x800 this year.  After a season of solid competition, the decision was made to gamble with the open events of our athletes and attempt to steal a top three position in this event.  Running from the slower section, Jason lead off in a phenomenal 2:01 split that left the competition far behind.  Handing off to junior Roman Pivovarnik, Roman was tasked with racing the clock in order to secure a place on the podium.  Roman ran a solid leg of 2:04 and handed off to fellow junior, Nick Evans, who was sacrificing his legs for the mile in order to run an outstanding 2:01 split and hand off to our anchor leg, sophomore Eric Ways.  Eric blazed through his first lap in a :56 and finished his leg in 2:00 to give our boys a season best time of 8:09.36.  After a tense final section that saw St. Christopher’s shatter the previous state meet record held by the Woodberry Forest School with a time of 7:57.1, our Tigers managed to edge out a 3^rd place finish and earn Honorable Mention All-State Honors for all four boys.

Our next All-State performer was someone who has been familiar with this position over the course of his Woodberry career, senior CJ Prosise.  CJ came into the finals of the 100m dash with the fourth fastest time and posted an 11.05 to finish second place and 2^nd Team All-State.  Junior Ty Abdul-Karim finished in 4^th place in that same race.  In addition to CJ’s second place honors, senior Wallace Branche returned to his familiar triple jump runway to pop a jump of 42’ 7.5” and take second place in the outdoor meet for the second straight year.  This was after Wallace shocked the field and posted a personal best of 15.72 to finish in 4^th place in the 110m High Hurdles.  Of course CJ had more to display on the track along with Ty in the 4x100m relay.  Sophomore Christian Asher, after battling injury for the final weeks of the season, lead off in strong fashion and got the baton to Ty.  Ty blazed down the backstretch to hand off to turn runner and senior, Jon Yellets.  Jon did his best to close the gap on the third leg of the FUMA 4x100 and handed off to CJ in close proximity.  CJ blew the doors off of one final anchor leg and fell just short of another school record and first place to earn his second silver medal of the day and bring three more competitors into All-State honors.

In addition to Wallace’s performance in the field, the Woodberry pole vaulters launched themselves into second place.  With a height of 13’ 6”, senior Harris Coley and sophomore Joseph Seo tied personal bests.  Junior Joe Zweng also matched the height of 13’6” and improved his personal best to match his fellow vaulters.  After all jumps were tallied, the Tigers swept places 2-4 and yet all had taken the same amount of jumps and misses for each height and were locked into a three way tie that earned them all 2^nd Team All-State Honors.


After resting up after his anchor leg performance, Eric Ways returned to the track along with Jon Yellets to compete in the open 400m dash.  Eric came in seeded second in a race where normally he would have fresh legs.  However, the two Liberty Christian athletes proved to have a little more than Eric and Jon as they snagged the top two spots and Eric finished out of second by .2 of a second with a 49.59 and Jon posting a personal best of 49.62 to narrowly miss medaling and a second All-State honor.  Both athletes would return to the track with Roman Pivovarnik and senior Michael Kelley to complete in the day’s final event, the 4x400m relay.

In the previous week, the Tigers relay of the same boys posted a school record time of 3:24.63 which saw them fall in second place behind a very strong FUMA team.  The Tigers were looking to exact revenge while also having to contend with a very strong LCA team.  The final event of the meet did not disappoint in any facet and proved why track and field is such an exhilarating sport.  Leading off for his final time, Jon Yellets blew out of the blocks and buried the FUMA lead off while staying very close behind the LCA runner with a split of 50.07.  Running second was Roman Pivovarnik, who ran an incredibly brilliant leg of 51.15 seconds in which he successfully closed the gap of LCA while preventing FUMA’s Avery Martin from making a pass.  Michael received the baton third and knew that the LCA anchor was the same runner who had bested Eric by over a second in the open 400.  Michael ran his best split of the year in 52.3 after returning just the previous week from hamstring injury.  Michael ran a very gutty and determined race and refused to allow FUMA or LCA to get away from him even though he handed off the stick in third place behind both teams.  Upon receiving the baton in the inside lane, Eric saw an opportunity to make up ground and take the lead by making a bold pass on the inside as LCA and FUMA battled for position.  Senior Phoenix Miller of LCA stayed right on Eric’s shoulder and in the backstretch seized the lead from Eric and nearly tripped him up in the process making his way to the inside before the 200m mark.  A patient runner, Eric regained his stride and stuck right behind Miller.  In the final straightaway, with a slight gap forming, Eric summoned the remainder of his energy for the final 100m of his third race and stormed after the runner who had previously beaten him.  Fans could be heard cheering for both runners as Eric started to do the impossible and close the gap.  With 15m remaining, Eric had pulled even and could see the finish line ahead of him with his teammates gathered cheering him home.  With 10m remaining, Eric took a lead he would not relinquish and set both a State Meet record set in 1966 and school record to win the 4x400 in a time of 3:22.44.  Eric and the relay team were immediately mobbed on the track by teammates who were in awe of what they had just witnessed.

It was a perfect send off for two of our captains and all of our athletes.  It will be a story remembered by all who were there.  Please take the time to congratulate our boys on their success and for finishing again in second place overall in the final standings.
Men - Team Rankings - 17 Events Scored
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    1) Fork Union Military Academ 195.50     2) Woodberry Forest School   101.50
    3) Liberty Christian Academy   51.50     4) St. Christopher's School   49.75
    5) Norfolk Academy             49.25     6) Trinity Episcopal School   43   
    7) Pope John Paul the Great C  22        8) Bishop Sullivan Catholic   20.75
    9) Benedictine College Prep    14        9) Norfolk Christian Schools  14   
    9) Blue Ridge School           14       12) Collegiate School          12.75
   13) Southside Baptist Christia  12       14) Veritas Classical Christi  11   
   15) Broadwater Academy           9       16) Flint Hill School           8   
   16) Episcopal School             8       18) St. Stephen's & St. Agnes   7   
   19) Walsingham Academy           5       20) Eastern Mennonite H.S.      3   
   20) Hampton Roads Academy        3       20) The Potomac School          3   
   23) Peninsula Catholic High Sc   2       23) Greenbrier Christian Acad   2   
   25) Miller School                1      
 
 

 
VISAA State Meet Awards
 
1st place is "All-State"
 
4x400m Relay of Jonathan Yellets, Roman Pivovarnik, Michael Kelley, Eric Ways