Penn Relays Day 3 Update: VA boys have seen better days

The lone bright spot for the Virginia boys on Saturday at Penn Relays was E.C. Glass senior Mike Zajac\'s victory in the discus throw with a mark of 178\'6\". Zajac defeated Jamaican national champion Sharif Small (175\'4\") for the Penn Relays hardware. While no Virginian boys qualified for the Championships of America finals in the 4x400 meter relay, Deep Creek posted the fastest time among Virginia schools at 3:18.41 as they were stuck in a loaded Jamaican heat. Meanwhile, Western Branch (3:18.98) and James Robinson (3:18.79) won their heats in dominating style with sub 3:20 clockings. It has been a while since Virginia has had three 4x400 meter relays with times under 3:20. Also Westfield and Huguenot posted respectable and nearly identical times in their heats with times of 3:21.03 (Westfield) and 3:21.04 (Huguenot) respectively. After the Midlothian girls were mauled on their opening leg in Thursday\'s DMR, but were still able to finish the race, the Deep Creek and Manchester boys encountered similar woes of misfortunte in Saturday\'s 4x100 meter relay finals. Both teams DNF\'d with Deep Creek in the Championships of America finals and Manchester in the small school finals. The bad news just got bleaker for Virginia with heavily favored Mike Morrison of Great Bridge, who some had thought would take down the meet record in the pole vault, was unable to successfully clear at his opening height. Booker T. Washington senior Marlon Woods, who boasts a personal best height of 6\'9\" in the high jump, cleared fours inches short of that height at Penn Relays at 6\'5\" to finish sixth overall.