Saturday was a big day for Virginia at the Nike Outdoor Nationals with three national championship honors and quite a few national runner-up and All-American performances.
Charles Clark was the performer of the meet for the state as he added onto his All-American third place finish in the 100 meter dash on Friday night with his second national title in the 200 meter dash with a sizzling 20.92 clocking (-0.2 lega wind) and also anchored home a national championship in the 800 meter sprint medley on the 400 meter leg with a final time of 1:29.86.
Meanwhile, Eastern Region gained its third national championship of the day with Mike Morrison adding to his USATF Junior Nationals and National Scholastic Indoor Championships national title with a 17\'3\" meet record clearance in the pole vault.
Marlon Woods of Booker T. Washington joined Charles Clark as a multiple All-American honoree at the meet as he finished third in the long jump with a mark of 23\'7.50\" and took fifth in the high jump with a clearance of 6\'8.25\".
Park View sophomore Natalie Baird became a national runner-up in the discus throw as she nearly matched her personal best throw of 157\'7\" with a toss of 155\'6\" in Greensboro.
A pair of Peninsula District athletes earned All-American honors in the girls\' 400 meter hurdles as Menchville\'s Nicole Saunders ran a time of 59.50 to become a national runner-up in the event, while Hampton\'s Tierra Brown won her section with a time of 1:00.45 to finish fifth overall.
In the girls\' long jump, two other Virginians had All-American performances with Bethel\'s Shakia Forbes leaping to a mark of 19\'4.75\" for third place, while Brooke Point\'s April Sinkler qualified for the finals out of the first flight of three to finish sixth out of the finals with a mark of 18\'9\".
Mountain View freshmen Thomas Porter had his second consecutive close and heartbreaking loss as he was nipped right at the line in the freshmen mile by less than two tenths of a second with a final time of 4:25.25 after a gutsy effort in the race.
E.C. Glass senior Mike Zajac defieid the odds once again in the earning All-American honors for the second time in an event not contested by Virginia high schools as his personal best throw of 208\'08\" in the hammer throw placed him third overall against athletes that compete in the event all season long.
After just missing All-American honors in the two mile last night in seventh place, Northside junior Catherine White ran a personal best time of 4:53.09 to win section two of three in the girls\' mile run to slip into the final All-American spot of sixth.
Potomac Senior edged out fellow Virginia squad Manchester for sixth place in the finals of the 4x100 meter relay by two hundredths of a second with their sixth place time of 42.34.
The Hampton girls managed to finish fifth out one of the slower sections of the 4x400 meter relay to earn All-American status with a season best time of 3:50.58.
Herndon closed out the meet for Virginia posting one of the fastest DMR\'s in Virginia high school history with a time of 10:08.54 to finish sixth and the relay included a 3:02 1200 split from Abe Daganchew and 4:14 1600 split from Ermin Mujezinovic.
Plenty of photo and video coverage to come from all three days of competition. This will most likely be the most footage and pictures that I have posted from any meet thus far.