NR girls win 2nd indoor state title
Published 9:58 pm Tuesday, March 1, 2016
![Nansemond River High School senior Brandeé Johnson leads the pack in the girls’ 500-meter dash during the 2016 VHSL Group 5A state indoor track and field championships on Saturday in Hampton. She won the 500 and three other individual events to help the Lady Warriors win the state team title. (Photo by Mary Ann Magnant/MileStat.com)](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2016/03/use-1MAM3245.jpg)
Nansemond River High School senior Brandeé Johnson leads the pack in the girls’ 500-meter dash during the 2016 VHSL Group 5A state indoor track and field championships on Saturday in Hampton. She won the 500 and three other individual events to help the Lady Warriors win the state team title. (Photo by Mary Ann Magnant/MileStat.com)
The Nansemond River High School girls’ indoor track and field team followed up its first indoor team state championship from last year with another one on Saturday.
Led by senior Brandeé Johnson, the Lady Warriors were undaunted by the move up to the Virginia High School League’s Group 5A classification this season, finishing with a 115-66 edge over runner-up Maury High School in the 5A indoor track and field state championships in Hampton.
![Nansemond River High School senior Brandeé Johnson flies through the air while competing in the long jump during the 2016 VHSL Group 5A state indoor track and field championships on Saturday in Hampton. She led the Lady Warriors to their second indoor team state title. (Photo by Mary Ann Magnant/MileStat.com)](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2016/03/use-1MAM1754.jpg)
Nansemond River High School senior Brandeé Johnson flies through the air while competing in the long jump during the 2016 VHSL Group 5A state indoor track and field championships on Saturday in Hampton. She led the Lady Warriors to their second indoor team state title. (Photo by Mary Ann Magnant/MileStat.com)
Nansemond River coach Justin Byron said he is “always blessed and excited and honored to win.”
Though he noted his athletes did not generate as many personal bests as he would have liked, he took some of the blame for it as a coach and was pleased to see the team was good enough to compete quite well even on a sub-par day.
“I think some of the training and travel kind of caught up to the kids,” he said.
But what helped overcome any issues was Brandeé Johnson and the depth of the squad this season.
“I’ve just never coached a team with this many talented athletes,” Byron said.
Johnson is cementing her status as one of the greatest to come through the program. She won four individual state championships on Saturday, including three within 20 minutes. She also took second in the triple jump on Friday with a personal record leap of 39 feet and three inches.
She personally accounted for 48 of the Lady Warriors’ 115 points. By herself, Johnson would have tied Deep Run High School for third place out of 30 teams that scored.
In less than 20 minutes, Johnson finished competing in the long jump, which she won with a personal record 18-foot 9.75-inch leap, went and won the 55-meter hurdles with a 7.83-second time and then finished in 7.07 seconds to win the 55-meter dash.
Her time in the 55 hurdles was a Boo Williams Sportsplex facility record, and she established a new personal record in the 55 dash during prelims when she finished in 7.05 seconds, tying the meet record set in 2014.
Later in the day, Johnson ran in the 500-meter dash and won with a time of 1:16.77.
Byron said it was against his better judgment to let Johnson compete in all of those events, but he knew she had a goal to claim titles in events she had never won before at states.
“I just wanted to let her be able to accomplish all of her goals and dreams,” Byron said. “I wouldn’t unleash her all year because she told me that her goal was to accumulate these titles.”
She was a first-time indoor state champion in the 55 dash, the 500 and the long jump.
“She literally has an indoor state title in every sprint event,” Byron said.
Johnson now has won 15 state titles in her career.
“It’s a blessing, honestly, to be able to say that I’ve won states 15 times, in multiple events,” Johnson said. “But I know that I was capable of doing it.”
Freshman Tre’breh Scott-McKoy took third in the 55 hurdles with a time of 8.26 seconds.
“She’s currently the No. 1 freshman in the nation at 55-meter hurdles,” Byron said.
The Lady Warriors got six points from their 4×800-meter relay team, which took third with a time of 9:47.61.
Byron said that in Nansemond River history, it was the “first time a girls’ 4×800 has ever scored at the state meet.”
“Every girl on the team had the fastest split of their life,” he added. The team featured freshman Sarah Rhiel, junior Christina Banks, junior Casey Williams and senior Amirah Jones.
The Lady Warriors’ 4×200 relay team won with a meet record time of 1:43.14. The team featured sophomore Asia Crocker, freshman Kori Carter, senior Monae Bynum and senior Morgan Towe.
“This is all of their first state rings,” Byron said.
“I’m happy that we were able to pull it all together,” Monae Bynum said. “We don’t normally run together, so it was pretty impressive that we were able to pull it off.”
Bynum also took sixth in the 55 dash with a personal record time of 7.31 seconds.
The girls’ 4×400-meter relay team of sophomore Skylar Parks, Scott-McKoy, senior Kiara Price and junior Syaira Richardson took second with a time of 4:01.29.
Byron said when Richardson grabbed the baton to run the anchor leg, the Lady Warriors were about 20 meters off the lead, and they ended up losing by only one one-hundredth of a second.
Richardson also took second in the 300-meter dash (40.46 seconds) and fourth in the 55 dash (7.24 seconds).