Salem 4x200 Indoor Track Team Wins Nike National Championship!

[Shabutie]

The team consists of Jonathan Vernon (Sr) Josiah Persinger (Soph) DaRon Wilson (Sr) and Peyton Lewis (Jr)

All four were major contributors to last year's football team. Salem also has a B team that were one of the fastest teams in the state Virginia... pretty crazy.

Congrats to these young men! This is a massive accomplishment!

Unfortunately I can't post pictures on here (yes, it's mind-boggling) so if anyone wants to post the Tweets/news below, feel free to help.

 

[mike salem]

 

[Shabutie]

Peyton Lewis just finished 2nd overall in the 60m dash. Not bad for a 6'1 200 pound Junior....

 

[RKE Fan]

Peyton Lewis just finished 2nd overall in the 60m dash. Not bad for a 6'1 200 pound Junior....

Yeah, the guy that beat him was absolutely flying! He was a senior though. Scary to think where Peyton will be at this point next year.

 

[GoBigRED68]

Congrats to them wish they would have chosen to run in Boston for the New Balance Nationals to see what they could have ran against the top teams. The 1:28.40 they ran to win Nike Nationals would have placed 8th in the championship heat in Boston. I do think in that race in Boston they would have gone low 1:27 maybe even sub 1:27.

 

[SFUWO]

Congrats to them wish they would have chosen to run in Boston for the New Balance Nationals to see what they could have ran against the top teams. The 1:28.40 they ran to win Nike Nationals would have placed 8th in the championship heat in Boston. I do think in that race in Boston they would have gone low 1:27 maybe even sub 1:27.

The teams that ran in Boston are private schools and clubs. I don't think I saw any public schools competing. Big difference

 

[GoBigRED68]

Private schools yes but that what high level track is clubs no. They may have entered as club team but that is only because states do not allow you to enter as your high school.

 

[GoBigRED68]

Also does not change that they wouldn’t be able to run with those teams.

 

[Shabutie]

Private schools yes but that what high level track is clubs no. They may have entered as club team but that is only because states do not allow you to enter as your high school.

These are a bunch of football players that also happen to run track at a public school. None of there guys moved to Salem for track or were recruited to come here.

Competing closely with the top private schools, with athletes that specialize only in track, should never be able to happen for a public school of under 1300 students. Yet Salem's track team has amazingly put up pretty competitive times against these private schools.

 

[GoBigRED68]

These are a bunch of football players that also happen to run track at a public school. None of there guys moved to Salem for track or were recruited to come here.

Competing closely with the top private schools, with athletes that specialize only in track, should never be able to happen for a public school of under 1300 students. Yet Salem's track team has amazingly put up pretty competitive times against these private schools.

The original statement was that I wish they had chosen to run at the more competitive nationals to see how low they could have gone. Why there are 3 "Nationals" is an argument for another time which I think is dumb personally. The Salem kids are impressive to watch regardless if they play football or not. I will be curious to see what they can run outdoors. I am calling Lewis 10.42 to get into the top 10 all time and 41.3 4x100.

 

[Shabutie]

The original statement was that I wish they had chosen to run at the more competitive nationals to see how low they could have gone. Why there are 3 "Nationals" is an argument for another time which I think is dumb personally. The Salem kids are impressive to watch regardless if they play football or not. I will be curious to see what they can run outdoors. I am calling Lewis 10.42 to get into the top 10 all time and 41.3 4x100.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see in outdoor. I think it's possibly that Lewis will break into the high 10.3s and Persinger, who was consistently around 11.1 last year should be in the 10.7-10.8 range based on how much he improved in the 55/60 this year. Their individual improvements alone should get Salem at that 41.3 but I also think Wilson and Vernon will shave a few tenths each as well.

The crazy thing is the depth they have too. They could run a 2nd and 3rd 4x1 team at most of their meets and finish 1,2,3 among all the teams present.

 

[GoBigRED68]

Not saying it won't happen but sub 10.4 will be very impressive in the modern era of keeping accurate times for HS track and field only 7 guys have ever gone sup 10.4. I hope he can become the 8th. I think his best chances would be 4/8 down in Durham, 4/22 at the Garfield Invitational, 5/13 at Highland Springs, or at the 4a state meet on LU's track where he has run really well before. I think Persinger will drop to high 10.6 low 10.7. As far as the relay they are very deep with 5-6 kids who can run sub 11. I think they can run in 41.3-41.39 range putting them in or around the top 10 all time in VA.

 

[GoBigRED68]

After running well at the Penn Relays this past Thursday the Salem 4x1 put on a show at Cave Spring running 41.39.

 

[Hoofprint]

41.16 to win state today.

 

[southbottomU]

41.16 to win state today.

Fastest time in state any division

 

[southbottomU]

Lewis runs pedestrian 100 time to win 4a state but runs a blazing 21.16 IN 200 TO WIN Gold

 

[Hoofprint]

Unfortunately he was running into a 4.0 headwind