Fort wins another one

With the Southern Valley Track and Field championships barely underway, Fort Defiance girls coach Dave Stewart shook his head. He was being honest. The R.E. Lee girls team, he said, was just too good.

Stewart is no a soothsayer.

Trailing the Lee Ladies up to the 14th event of the day, the Indians got a first-place finish from Whitney Fulk in the 3,200 — worth 10 points — and a fifth-place finish from Annie Everett — worth two — to overtake R.E. Lee. They would never relinquish it en route to a 181-171.5 victory to claim the district team title.

Stewart, holding the championship trophy close after his girls took it for a victory lap around the Waynesboro track, had a hard time putting together a coherent statement after the surprise win.

Finally, he collected himself and was able to express his sentiments as best as he could.

“My cup runneth over,” he said. “That’s, that’s, that’s it. Yeah, I’m speechless.”

He may still be smiling.

With the victory it’s six straight sport seasons that a Stewart-led program at Fort Defiance has won the district championship. Last school year his girls won cross country, indoor and outdoor track. A feat all three teams repeated this school year.

“It’s been a matter of just taking care of business,” he said. “We were 20-point underdogs coming in and they just stepped up in places … just … things like that happened all day long. I’m just blown away.”

The R.E. Lee boys team dominated the Indian boys 210.5-115.5 with Leeman Chris Williams winning gold in 100, 200 and 400. All his wins came by almost one second over the silver medalist.

“We were focused coming into this meet,” Williams said. “We had a goal, and it was to win districts.”

Dae’ Quan Scott took first place in the high (6-02.00) and long jumps (20-10) and then he watched as the Leemen distance runners go to work with Dillon Sowers winning the 1,600 by 15 seconds over teammate Andrew Lightner and beating Waynesboro’s Edward Ennis by eight seconds in the 3,200.

Lightner would get gold in one of the more thrilling events of the day — the 800.

Behind for most of the race, Lightner caught Fort’s Kelvin Vega-Gomez on the final 200 and stretched to cross the finish line a 10th of a second ahead of the Indian runner.

As he leaned forward across the finish line, Lee boys coach David Tibbs screamed, “Yes,” and distance coach Andrew Frye pumped his first in the air.

“That’s nice, I like having that,” Lightner said of the infield celebration.

After second-place Fort, Waynesboro came in third with 99 points, followed by Draft with 29 and Rockbridge with 25.

The Little Giants’ lone gold of the day came from the unexpected — first-year jumper BJ Johnson.

Johnson, who transferred back home after two years attending Handley in Winchester, battled with longtime friend Terrell Thompson with Thompson over taking Johnson on his final jump with a 42-2.

Johnson followed with his last jump of the night, and flew through the air, landing in the sand with a distance of 42-6.5.

Johnson smiled ear-to-ear as he learned of his first district championship.

“It took a lot of practice to get here,” he said. “And I still need a lot of practice to keep my drive going.

“It my last year, senior year, and I’m trying to go out with a blast.”

Stuarts Draft finished third in the girls meet with 88.5, followed by Rockbridge with 23 and Waynesboro’s 17.

The Region III meet is this coming Friday and Saturday at Broadway High School.