2008 in Review

Part 2, May-August

Staff

Published Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Nansemond River’s James Taylor won the long jump competition at the 114th Annual Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Taylor beat Jamaica’s national champion Tarik Batchelor by a half-inch with a jump of 23’ 10.75”.

Taylor started competing in the long jump only a few months before during the 2007-08 indoor track season.

At the Eastern Region Track and Field Championships, Lakeland’s Chris Copeland won the high jump, King’s Fork’s Allen Kelly won the pole vault and KF’s Keith Ricks won the 200-meter dash.

At states, Copeland, who cleared 7-feet during the indoor season, won his fourth state championship (indoor and outdoor) in the high jump. Copeland is now on the track team at St. Augustine’s College.

Kelly won the pole vault with a vault of 14-feet-9. Kelly, now a senior at KF, topped 15-feet-2.75 at a national meet in June. Ricks, now on the track team at Virginia Tech, finished second in the state in the 100 and 200 meters.

Nansemond River’s 4x100 relay team added to its 4x200 relay state title in the indoor season.

Nansemond-Suffolk’s Brittany Wilkins completed another all-conference and all-state level softball season in her senior year with the Lady Saints. Wilkins hit a state-high 14 home runs, leading NSA to second place in the Tidewater Conference and the quarterfinals of the state tournament.

Wilkins was NSA’s starting catcher from the eighth grade on. She’s now at Boston College and has a softball scholarship at BC.

It was a successful summer for softball and baseball teams from Suffolk Youth Athletic Association and Bennett’s Creek Little League.

BC’s Minor League (9-10 years old) softball team won its district tournament, beating Western Branch 12-7 in the final game.

BC National beat BC American in the district championship of Minor League baseball. BC National won 9-3 to go on to the state tournament.

BC’s Big League softball team won the district with two straight wins against Western Branch to take the tournament.

SYAA’s Pinto (8-and-under) softball team won a PONY National Qualifying Tournament in Holland.

SYAA Nationals Bronco League (11-12 years old) baseball squad won districts and regionals to go to the Pony East Zone Tournament in Connecticut. The SYAA Nationals went 4-0 through regionals, beating Pittsylvania 9-6 in the final.

Nansemond-Suffolk alum Lauren Doughtie was a state champion in the VSGA (Virginia State Golf Association) Women’s Amateur Championship and the first South Hampton Roads amateur golfer in 27 years to reach the U.S. Women’s Open.

Doughtie won the five-day VSGA Championship at Virginia Beach’s Bayville Golf Club. Doughtie, an N.C. State student and golfer, defeated long-time friend and rival Virginia Beach’s Kristen Simpson, 5 and 3, in the final match.

At the U.S. Women’s Open in Edina, Minn., Doughtie shot rounds of 78 and 87, missing the cut. Earlier in the week, Doughtie played a practice round with LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam.

Doughtie’s busy summer included becoming the first N.C. State women’s golfer to reach the NCAA Tournament, finishing in the quarterfinals of the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship and reaching the match play bracket of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Portsmouth native and Suffolk resident LaShawn Merritt was one of the American heroes of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Merritt won gold in the 400-meter dash, setting a personal best in the finals at 43.75 seconds, in front of 90,000-plus spectators at Beijing’s Bird Nest.

Merritt defeated fellow American, but rival, Jeremy Warriner by what was the largest margin between first and second places in an Olympic 400-meter final. Merritt and Warriner combined as teammates to bring home gold in the 4x400-meter relay.

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