Downstate strong in state track

By Sonny Amato, Staff writer

FELTON - Just a couple weeks ago, Jessica Mohr couldn't have imagined winning a state championship.

But as the saying goes, timing is everything.

And the Sussex Tech senior's couldn't have been better.

Not only did she go six inches beyond her personal best to win the Division I State title at 9-foot-9 inches Friday, she broke the meet record in the process.

"I hadn't even cleared 9-foot-3 for the first time until last week," Mohr said. "Today is just unbelievable."

Mohr's win was somewhat of an upset because she was competing against A.I. duPont's Kim Rusk, who set the state record with a vault of 10-foot-6 inches just last week.

But when Rusk failed to clear her nine-foot attempt, Mohr didn't settle for just winning the gold.

After pushing the bar up to 9-foot-9 inches, she cleared it to set the new meet record.

"That one was really close," Mohr said with a laugh, after brushing the bar on the way over. "I really thought it was going to fall.

"I've always seen that happen to other vaulters, but never me. That was a nice time for it."

Mohr's was the last of 16 events completed at the 2002 State Track and Field Championships at Lake Forest Friday.

Mohr is also Sussex Tech's "Beyond the Books" correspondent in the Delaware State News.

The event continues today at 10:30 a.m.

In all, Henlopen Conference teams took first place in 10 of the 16 events on Friday, which consisted mostly of field events.

On the girls side, Division I Caesar Rodney and Division II Cape Henlopen both won two events.

The Vikings' Katherine Devilbiss won the pole vault with a jump of 8-foot-9 inches, and barely missed setting a division record.

Devilbiss hopes a strong first day will help propel her team to compete for the title today.

"It feels great to win a state championship," said Devilbiss, who competes in several other events today. "I think have a really strong team."

Charli Tabler of Cape also won the Division II discus with a toss of 125-feet-5 inches.

Caesar Rodney's 3,200-relay team of Jenay Friend, Jill Jajec, Kasheka Codner and Kashante Codner got the Riders off to a strong start with a first-place time of 9:56.79.

April Jackson also struck gold for the Riders with a leap of 14-feet-63/4 inches in the long jump.

Polytech's Paula Green won the Division II long jump.

On the boys side, the Cape Henlopen boys won golds in both the 3,200-meter relay (Andrew Freeman, Nick Adams, Vince Lewis and Matt Jackson) and Antonio Alford won the Division II long jump with a 22-foot-63/4 inch jump.

Seaford's Charles Brittingham won the high jump at 6-foot- 2 inches.

And Smyrna's Shawn Thomas won the shot put with a throw of 52-feet-8 inches.

Thomas, a senior who finished fourth last year and second the year before, still thinks he can improve.

Throwing nearly 60 feet in warmups, Thomas is eyeing Tuesday's Meet of Champions to show what he can do.

"I feel like I've still got more in my body," he said. "It felt good to finally get a state title, but I can do even more."

Sonny Amato can be reached at 741-8231.