Osbourn’s Villalta gets 2 seconds, 1 first-place finish

By Robert Daski

Published: May 10, 2008

Melvin Villalta was bored. So the Osbourn senior passed the time before Saturday's Victor Cahoon Track Classic by painting the nails on his thumb and middle fingers.

Not a typical male ritual, but it did not hinder his performance. Villalta won the 300-meter hurdles (40.21) and finished second in the high jump (6-03) and 110-meter hurdles (a personal-best 15.06).

Villalta clearly has momentum heading into the Cedar Run District meet, which takes place Tues-day and Wednesday.

He awaits the competitors who will challenge him for district high jump and hurdles supremacy. One is Osbourn Park's Paul DeVito, who beat Villalta in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.64. The other is Damien Thigpen, who won the 300-meter hurdles at the Southern Track Classic on Friday (37.78).

"Hopefully there will be some good competition over there," Villalta said. "There are always a lot of good runners. It's going to take a lot of practice to get faster."

Osbourn Park's girls' team certainly is entering the postseason on a high note. The Yellow Jackets won the team title on their home track with 72 points.

Osbourn Park received wins from Bethany Hyter in the 200-meter dash (25.23), Brittany Hyter in the 100-meter hurdles and a second place from Amanda Nocera in the 100-meter dash (12.83).

Bethany Hyter helped the Yellow Jackets win the 400-relay (49.63) and 1600-relay (4:01.94), passing two runners on the anchor leg of the latter, after taking the baton with her team in third place.

"This is our track, so we got to win on our track," Bethany Hyter said. "That's exactly what we did."

Brentsville also made good use of its athletes. Andre Wanzer won the boys' 200 in a meet-record 22.09 and 400-meter dash in 50.07. Danyelle Kent-Robinson took second in the high jump (5-04) and Mariama Bello gave the Tigers a fifth in the shot put (35-01.00) and third in the discus (114-04 1/2).

"Going against Triple-A schools can make us go faster when we [compete against the Dou-ble-A] schools," Wanzer said. "So we're not [intimidated] by bigger competi-tion. We always go against Triple-A schools in every invitational we go to."

Early rain forced a tweak in the schedule. The 200 ran in the morning instead of 4 p.m. as origi-nally planned and the boys' and girls' long jump and triple jump were cancelled.

The inclement weather forced the meet to go as quickly as possible and announcements were made far in advance to have athletes at the start line for their events.

"By the time I was getting ready to warm up or stretch, they were already calling peo-ple," Hylton's Noah Hagos said.

Hagos did not miss the 1500-meter run. Good thing too. He won it in 4:07.88 and received the award winners get for the event, which is named after the late Dr. Edward Kelly, a former superin-tendent of Prince William County Schools.

"Receiving the award was a special part," said Hagos, who will give it to his mother as a Mother's Day gift. "I've heard about the meet and the folks who've won those awards. I'm going into the books with those guys. It's an honor."

Osbourn Park won the boys' 3200-relay (8:12.21). OP's Nolan Compton placed second in the boys' 1500 (4:08.03) and Gar-Field's Derrick Sakyi was second in the 800 (2:00.92).

Hylton senior Erin Jones threw 35-01 to finish fourth in the shot put.

PARKER QUALIFIES FOR NATIONALS

Battlefield senior Rex Parker has qualified for Nike Outdoor Nationals by triple jumping 47-10.00 at the Southern Track Classic.

Parker's teammate Eric Hoepker won the 800-meter run at the meet in 1:53.76 and Poto-mac's Pearl Bickersteth won the high jump (5-08).

Woodbridge won the girls' 1600-sprint medley (4:14.57) and boys' 1600 sprint med-ley (3:36.24).

Battlefield's girls' team won the Louisa Last Chance Invitational on Friday night with 128 points. Battlefield's Genevieve Johnson won the 100-meter dash (12.66), Rachel Satterwhite won the 1600 (5:39.27) and Diana Budreika won the 3200 (11:40.18).

Senior Kim Blaylock took second in the 100 (12.28) at the Southern Track Classic.