There were lots of great finishes at the 2018 Tri-Cities Track Classic. Those include a few athletes from Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
But we'll start with a Tennessee team who made a major move over the final leg of the boys 4x800 meter relay. Signal Mountain made a huge charge down the stretch to finish second, right behind North Carolina's North Henderson.
Even though Signal didn't win the race, they still had a pretty deadly kick over the final lap.
Congrats to those guys...that was an impressive finish.
We stay on the distance side of the meet for our next big race. North Henderson's Hunter White has one of the best steeplechase times in the country after his win at Tri-Cities. And it was his debut in the event. That's pretty remarkable considering how unique and challenging that race is.
White won in a meet record time as well, breaking Alex Crigger's mark from last year. Here's the entire race.
White went out fairly conservatively. That was a good plan given the fact that White had never run this race before. But you saw some fantastic closing speed there at the end. White also has a 4:23 1600 personal best, which was very apparent toward the final portion of the steeplechase on Friday night.
But it was also a cold, windy night. If there were better conditions up in Johnson City over the weekend, White likely would've won the top time in the country. I'm sure he'll absolutely take the US No. 3 mark in his debut at the 2k steeplechase.
On the girls side of the meet, Taylor Robertson scored the most points in the Tri-Cities Track Classic. She won the girls MVP with wins in the 100m hurdles and triple jump. She also finished second in the pole vault and long jump.
Robertson had a dominant win in the 100m hurdles. She broke away from the field right at the start in both her prelim and final races.
Wayne High School from Huber Heights, Ohio was the team of the meet. They won both the boys and girls competitions.
A big reason why they dominated on the guys side -- Zarik Brown. He broke the meet record in the 100 and the 200, only to have his 100 meet record broken by Cole Beck in the final. But in the 200, no one could touch him in the prelim or the final.
Both boys sprint finals were fantastic.
Brown and Beck were two of the stars of the meet, dominating the boys sprint events.
Sasha Neglia's record in the Coughenour 2 Mile was also a major highlight of the competition. She won the race on Friday night in 10:41, which was her first time sub-11 on the track in high school. We weren't able to get a video of that race, but it was certainly one of the top performances of the weekend.
Tanalya Gordon was also one of the stars of the Tri-Cities classic. We can't talk about this meet without mentioning her. Gordon swept both the 100 and 200 on Saturday afternoon.