MVP League looks to defend title in Sacremento while Pyatt and Beckford mine for gold

Virginia results scoreboard

(23-Jul) The 2019 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships began yesterday in Sacramento, CA with 27 athletes and five (5) relay teams from the Virginia association scheduled to compete at the championships that will run through Sunday.  The competition, expected to draw nearly 7,000 competitors, is taking place at on the campus of Sacramento State University.
 
The Virginia athletes qualified to compete in Sacramento by finishing in the top five in their events at the USATF Region 3 championships held two weeks ago in Landover, MD
 
Athletes finishing in the top eight in their events in Sacramento will receive championship medals and all-American hats during a special awards ceremony approximately 90 minutes after their event has concluded.  
 
Six athletes and three relays from Virginia enter the competition with top eight seeds in their events.  The seeds are based on performances from the 16 regional competitions.  
 
The MVP League girls 17-18 4x400m will look to defend the title they won last year in Greensboro.  They are the #1 seed in Sacramento having run 3:49.83 at the region 3 championships two weeks ago.  The 17-18 team's younger counterparts, the girls 15-16 4x400m relay squad are the #2 seed with a time of 3:51.19.  They only trail the the 3:47.69 run by by Track Houston.
 
The top individual seeds from Virginia are Aaliyah Pyatt (MVP League) who is the #2 seed in the 15-16 girls 200m and Taylor Beckford (unattached) the #3 seed in the boys Triple Jump but his 47-6¾ seed is less than 3 inches behind the #1 seed.  The top six seeds are seperated by only 7¼ inches.  Pyatt will also content for the national title in the 400m where she is the #4 seed but only .67 seconds behind the #1 seed.  
 
Others expected to contend for all-American honors are: 
Samantha Tiong (15-16 girls Triple Jump, #5 seed, Virginia Pride TC),
Anjali Mead (15-16 girls Pole Vault, #5 seed, Xtreme Heights),
Pearl Nagbe (17-18 girls 400m, #6 seed, MVP League),
MVP League (17-18 girls 4x100m Relay, #6 seed),
Gartasia Crawley (17-18 girls 400m Hurdles, #9 seed, MVP League), and
Sabrina Sokol (17-18 girls Heptathlon, #9 seed, MVP League).
 
To track the Virginia performance click here.