RICHMOND — On a sweltering afternoon for day one of the VHSL (Virginia High School League) Group AAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Lakeland and King’s Fork athletes turned in excellent performances on the track and the field at Sports Backers Stadium.

Lakeland’s top hurdlers, junior JaQuan Demiel and senior Johniqua Porter, each advanced through to Saturday afternoon’s final in their respective races.

Demiel, two weeks after sweeping the two hurdle events at the Eastern Region Championships, won his heat in the 110-meter hurdles. Demiel was the top seed, with a state-best time of 37.92 seconds from his regional title, going into the 300 hurdles preliminaries which were set to go later Friday evening.

Porter clocked in at 15.04 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles for the sixth-best time in the field. The 100- and 110-meter hurdle finals lead off the running events Saturday at 12 p.m. Field events start at 9:30 a.m.

Among Friday afternoon’s field events, the Cavaliers and Bulldogs each had one top finish.

KF senior Ian Copeland placed ninth in the discus, only one spot out of making the final round. Copeland’s best throw was 145-feet-6.

Lakeland sophomore Anaquan Peterson started the state meet as the 13-seeded long jumper in the field. Peterson made it to the final round thanks to his first attempt of the day and finished sixth in the state with his best jump being 22-feet-6.5.