Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo by Ben Beitzel

HOSCHTON -- After the first day of competition at the 2010 Gwinnett County Track and Field Championships, one team championship streak seemed to be safe, while the other was very much in jeopardy.

And Parkview was at the heart of both team scenarios, with the boys looking in good position for its third straight team title and the Panther girls poised to end Collins Hill's domination after Saturday's action at Mill Creek Community Stadium.

Buoyed by 1-4 finish by Indiah Bell and Denise Winters in the long jump, Parkview broke a tie with Peachtree Ridge to take the lead in the girls team competition with 50 points, 11 points ahead of the Lions' 39-point total.

"We're competing pretty well right now," Parkview coach Matt Henson said of both his teams. "Our (girls) love to compete. Pressure doesn't seem to bother them and fight to score as high as they can."

That leaves the Panthers in prime position to end Collins Hill's run of eight straight titles.

The Eagles stand sixth with 23 points, most of which came on Nicky Akande's first-place finish in the day's only running-event final -- the 1,600 meters.

And they have several teams to climb over -- including Brookwood (30 points), Greater Atlanta Christian (29) and Mill Creek (28) just to get to the leaders.

But while coach Andrew Hudson knows his team has a big task in front of it in Monday's running-event finals, he was pleased with his team's effort Saturday.

"We qualified a lot of people (for Monday), but then again, so did (Parkview)," Hudson said. "They have a significant lead. They'll be tough to catch. Plus, Peachtree Ridge is also right there with them.

"We have too much inexperience in the field events, but we knew that coming in. And there were some (events) where we were competing and doing a good job. I'm very pleased."

As Hudson mentioned, Peachtree Ridge remains within striking distance of Parkview due to a 1-2 finish by Shioban Frasier (5 feet, 0 inches) and Camille Smith (4-10) in the high jump.

And Lions coach Tomy Sitton is optimistic of his team's chances for its first team title after finishing as runner-up last year.

"It's going to be close," Siton said. "It'll all boil down to whoever has the best day Monday -- whoever gets some breaks. We had a good day (Saturday). It was big plus to go 1-2 in the high jump."

On the boys side, Julian Vann's two field event championship paced a huge day by Parkview, which stands atop the team standings heading into Monday with 551/2 points -- a comfortable 151/2 points ahead of second-place Mill Creek.

"I knew (the boys would) get some pretty good field points," Henson said. "What we wanted was to get enough points (Saturday) to help offset some of the points Brookwood will likely get in the running events.

"We were very excited about the 1,600. We made up a little there."

Indeed, the Panthers took advantage of the absence of defending champion Kirubel Erassa of Grayson, who is being held out of the meet to rest some injuries, plus Brookwood's Carter Hewitt and Tyler Anyan, who are running in other events.

Still, it looked like the Broncos were in good shape with Sean Brennan and Jackson Wearn leading most of the race.

But Parkview's Steven Spevacek and Alec Klassen ran past the Brookwood duo to take first and second respectively, leaving the Broncos to settle for fourth and fifth behind Norcross' Daniel Winters.

However, Vann was the big story on the day for the Panthers. Nursing a sore leg, the senior was pulled out of one of his top running events -- the 100-meter dash -- and inserted into the long jump.

And he responded, outdueling teammate Kmau Brown to win the event with a leap of 21-4, which, combined with this victory in the triple jump at 46-10, marked a 20-point day for Vann.

"I (competed in the long jump) in the first meet of the year, but I don't regularly do it," Vann said. "I was surprised (to win it), but ... when it came down between me and (Brown), we were just competing for fun at that point."

Among the other top individual performances Saturday were Creeann Perkins of Shiloh, who won the girls shot put and took second in the discus, and GAC's Jessica Tuggle, who won the triple jump and was runner-up in the long jump.

Eli Mahaley also posted a first- and second-place showing on the boys side, winning the shot put and taking the runner-up spot in the discus.

Other individual event winners on the day included Carson Simpson of Mill Creek (pole vault) and Emily Brewer of Brookwood (discus) for the girls and Michael Kopanski of Mill Creek (pole vault), Carson Sears of Peachtree Ridge (discus) and Brandon Stanley of Peachtree Ridge (high jump) for the boys.