Mathews High School came home from last weekend’s VHSL Class 1/2 Outdoor Track State Championships at James Madison University in Harrisonburg with not one, but two individual state champions.
Senior Donovan Forrest claimed his third state track title by placing first in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing the event in a blazing 15.16 seconds, more than 8/10ths of a second ahead of his nearest competitor. Forrest can add that gold medal to the gold medals he won in the same event at last year’s outdoor meet and the 55-meter hurdles he won in March in the state indoor track meet.
Fellow senior Gavin Dustin won the other individual gold medal for Mathews, winning the 800-meter run with a time of 2:00.89. As a junior, Dustin placed sixth in the event. However, Saturday wasn’t his first state medal—in 2024, he was a member of the boys’ 4×800-meter relay team that took silver.
In addition to winning gold in the 110m hurdles, Forrest just missed out on winning a medal in the 100-meter dash, placing fourth with a time of 11.24 seconds. He took seventh place in the 200-meter dash (23.15 seconds).
The boys’ 4×400 relay also performed well, finishing fourth overall, with Jerrell Johnson, Seth James, Dustin and Keith Taylor posting a time of 3:35.82. The 4×800 relay (James, Adam Greve, Taylor and Dustin) came in eighth in 8:41.76.
Taylor performed well in two individual events, coming in fifth in the triple jump (42’ 6.5”) and seventh in the long jump (20’ 8.5”).
Other members of the MHS boys’ team competing this weekend included Adam Dustin (13th place in the 300-meter hurdles, 45.5 seconds) and Chance Higginbotham and Jon Jenkins (17th and 21st, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run, with times of 10:42.9 and 11:25.34).
MHS girls
Nora Suthard was the highest placing Lady Devil this past weekend, placing fourth in the triple jump (35’ 2”). She also came in 11th in the long jump (15’ 7”) and 16th in the 300-meter hurdles (54.75 seconds).
Elizabeth Moore placed fifth in the 3,200-meter run, with a time of 12:46.46 and came in ninth in the 1,600-meter run (5:55.77). Jordan Sadeg placed 13th in the 100-meter hurdles, with a time of 20.02 seconds.
The girls’ 4×400 relay team of Sadeg, Dynasty Young, Lorena Carballo and Suthard placed ninth with a time of 4:38.57.
“I am extremely proud of all of the state participants,” head coach Tony Forrest said. “Their hard work and dedication has been very rewarding to see. It has been a great season.”
