Multiple victories by junior Delaney Wickman and senior Danielle Hale, record performances by the girls 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams and top three finishes by senior Khayri Denny paced South Lakes High School to victories in the Liberty Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 20-21 at SLHS.
The South Lakes girls finished with 168 points followed by Washington-Lee (127), McLean (64.50), James Madison (55), Fairfax (46), Langley (34.50), Hayfield (17) and Yorktown (15). SLHS boys scored 175 points, out pacing McLean and James Madison, who tied for second with 80 points. Langley scored 65 followed by Washington-Lee (62), Hayfield (28), Fairfax (24) and Yorktown (13).
The top six finishers in the individual events and the top three team in the relays qualify for the Northern Region Championship May 29-30 at Robinson Secondary School.
Wickman won the 100 meters (12.35), 200 meters (25.61) and 400 meters (58.67). She set a meet record in the 200 with a 25.42 in the preliminaries and has qualified for the region and state championships in all three events.
Danielle Hale won the discus (104-11) and the triple jump (37-05.50). She finished fourth in the shot (31-05.00), third in the long jump (16-09.00), teammed with freshman Nikayla Hoyte, juniors Comfort Reed and Jordan Lozama for second in the 4×100 (49.66) and was sixth in the 200 meters (27.10). Hale has qualified for the region championship in all those events as well as the high jump.
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South Lakes High School seniors will matriculate at more than 100 different colleges and universities next fall.
While more than 300 students in the Class of 2014 are headed to colleges and universities in Virginia, the list contains a widespread group of higher education institutions from Shanghai to Miami.
Overall, close to 75 percent of the class of 2014 is heading to post secondary education.
SLHS seniors will graduate on June 18 at George Mason University’s Patriot Center.
Click through to see the entire list of schools.
South Lakes High School students and the Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR) on Thursday unveiled a temporary art installation that turns the Lake Thoreau spillway into a colorful pyramid.
“Pyramid of Light” will remain in place for about eight weeks, said IPAR executive director Anne Delaney.
The project was created by SLHS art students Sammy Nazam, Gabriella Rando, Margaret Lashley, and Tehmeena Salahin, with guidance from SLHS art teacher Marco Rando. The students designed the work, built a model, created the plexiglass panels, and had to go through the same process as any other artist to get their work approved by Reston Association’s Design Review Board.
Turning the spillway into public art was the idea of James Pan, a Reston resident who suggested the concrete square that can be seen from South Lakes Drive would be a great space for art. He offered financial support if the students would work on a project, says Delaney.
Pan was at the dedication on Thursday, along with the students and teacher, RA representatives, IPAR members and Reston founder Bob Simon.
In his remarks, RA board president Ken Knueven pointed out that public art is one of the founding principles of the community.
South Lakes High School will induct eight new members into its Sports Hall of Fame.
The hall of fame was established in 2006 to honor those people whose contributions helped create and sustain Seahawk pride and sportsmanship, the school says.
The 2014 inductees include:
- Mike Dixon, Athlete
- Becky Hayter Slaight, Athlete
- Greg Long, Athlete
- Adam Orton, Athlete
- Marc Severin, Athlete
- Richard Smith, Athlete
- John Sullivan, Athlete
- Thomas Fleeter, M.D., Community Member
The Inductees will be honored at a banquet to be held at Hidden Creek Country Club on June 6 at 6 p.m.
The Induction Banquet is open to the public. Proceeds will go to the SLHS Hall of Fame Scholarship Program.
For ticket info, contacts: Irvin Greene, Chairperson 703/715-4548, [email protected] or Elizabeth Knapp, Co-Chairperson, 703/715-4500, [email protected].
Visit South Lakes’ Athletics website to see the hall of fame’s full membership list.
South Lakes High School art students are teaming with the Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR) for a temporary art installation at the Lake Thoreau spillway.
The project stemmed from a request from a Lake Thoreau resident in 2011. The man, who wishes to remain unnamed, said the concrete spillway that can be seen from South Lakes Drive could use some improvement — and if the community could get together on a student project, he would offer a scholarship, said IPAR executive director Anne Delaney.
Delaney said she wanted the students to have a real life artist experience, from proposal to preliminary sketches to approvals and installation.
“What was important to IPAR, Reston Association and SLHS was to provide students with a real life experience that any professional artist would go through in the development of a public art project in Reston,” Delaney said.
“We wanted to make the project relevant to students and give them a unique experience.”
Four SLHS students rose to the challenge. Sammy Nazam, Gabriella Rando, Margaret Lashley, and Tehmeena Salahin worked to create the work titled “Pyramid of Light.” The final design includes multicolors plexiglass panels in a pyramid shape that will move with the wind.
The students made three presentations to the IPAR and the RA Design Review Board over the last six months, Delaney said. The final concept was approved by the DRB in March.
The project will have a test run in Lake Audubon this weekend. The real installation should be either May 2 or May 5, said SLHS art teacher Marco Rando, an advisor to the students.
Photos courtesy of IPAR
The South Lakes Theatre Arts Department’s production of Legally Blonde opens Thursday. Now is time time to get your tickets.
Legally Blonde is a musical version of the Legally Blonde movie that starred Reese Witherspoon. It tells the story of sorority girl Elle Woods, who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. When her boyfriend dumps her for someone “serious,” Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and sets out to go where no Delta Nu has gone before: Harvard Law School. Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style.
Leads in the show include senior Megan Desisti,who plays Elle Woods, and senior Stanley Payne, who plays her love interest, Emmett Forrest. The play is directed by SLHS Performing Arts Chair Maria Harris.
The show runs this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as well as May 1,2,3 at SLHS at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $8, students and seniors ($10 at the door); $10, adults ($12 at the door)
To purchase tickets online, visit the South Lakes Theatre Arts Department website.
Photo Courtesy of Sahana Arkalgud
Suli Dainkeh, a former South Lakes High School soccer standout, has been named to the U.S. Men’s Under 20 National Team for a major tournament in Dallas next week.
Dainkeh, a defender, played his first season at University of Maryland last fall. The Terps made it to the national championship game, where they lost to Notre Dame.
Dainkeh also formerly played for D.C. United’s Youth Academy.
Dainkeh, who will start for the U.S. at the Dallas Cup, played midfield for the Seahawks. He was named 2103 Gatorade State Player of the Year in Virginia and was a First Team All-Met, All-Region and Liberty District selection. He helped lead the Seahawks to a 12-1 regular-season record last spring.
Read more about Dainkeh’s journey from Sierra Leone to Reston.
All Fairfax County Public Schools High Schools made the Washington Post’s annual list of the nation’s top high schools.
Education reporter Jay Mathews analyzes data and issues the list, which this year included 1,900 schools.
Mathews’ Challenge Index measures schools’ ability to challenge their students. A school’s ranking is determined by dividing the number of college-level tests given by a school to all its students by the number of graduates for that year. The index is designed to identify schools that challenge average students. Factors such as students living in poverty are included in the formula.
Nationally, Herndon High School was No. 254 and South Lakes High School was No. 407.
Among D.C.-area schools, Herndon was No. 29, rising two spots from No. 31 the last two years. South Lakes was No. 47, falling seven spots from 2013. See the entire local list.
Oakton was ranked the top FCPS High School, coming in at No. 12 in local ratings and 144th nationally. Thomas Jefferson’s High School for Science and Technology is not included on the list because of its status as a magnet school with extremely high SAT scores and and a high concentration of select students, Mathews says.
Read about how Mathews determines the rankings in The Washington Post.
How do you feel about your local high school? Tell us in the comments.
Paced by five first-place finishes at the Northern Virginia Invitational, the South Lakes High School outdoor track team has already qualified 33 athletes for either the Class 6A conference, region and/or state championships.
Thirty-one teams from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia participated in the meet last weekend at James Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, VA. SLHS started the season with the Centreville Invitational March 22 and followed with the Wildcat Invitational in Stafford the following weekend.
Junior Delaney Wickman won the NVI 400 meters in a state-qualifying time of 57.95. She then anchored the girls 4×400 meter relay team of senior Grace Gillen, junior Claire Nieusma and sophomore Golden Kumi-Darfour in winning the event in 3:59.91, another state qualifying time.
Claire Nieusma won the 300 meter hurdles in a region qualifying time of 47.42 while senior Danielle Hale jumped 17-01.50 to win the long jump and a spot in the region championships. Hale teamed with juniors Ozioma Chinaka, Jordan Lozama and freshman Nikayla Hoyte to win girls 4×100 meter relay in a region qualifying time of 50.64.
The team will send squads to the Arcadia (CA) Invitational and the Lake Braddock Hall of Fame Invitational this weekend. Read More
Marvin Wooten, South Lakes High School football coach the last three seasons, has stepped down from the job.
Wooten, 29, had a 9-21 record in his first head coaching job.
“I helped grow the football program, but I felt I did everything I can do here,” said Wooten, who also teaches physical education at the school. “I need to pursue some other options.”
Wooten is finishing a Masters Degree in administration and also has a young child at home, both of which need his attention, he said.
The Seahawks have hired Trey Taylor, defensive coordinator at South County High School, as the new head coach.
Taylor has held several coaching jobs in the county. He was the head coach at Robinson Secondary School for two seasons. Taylor was fired in 2012 with a 9-13 record.
Wooten, who played at South Lakes, took over after Andy Hill coached the team to a winning season in 2010. Hill surprisingly resigned in the spring of 2011 to return to his hometown in Minnesota. The job was given to Wooten, who made his coaching debut just days after his mother was killed in a car accident.
The team had an up-and-down performance (1-9 in 2011 and 3-7 in 2012) , but returned to the playoffs with a 5-5 record under Wooten last fall.
“I think we have a lot to be proud of,” said Wooten. “We were definitely happy to improve each year and make it to the playoffs. The team has good potential.”
South Lakes High School’s DECA marketing and management students earned two first-place titles and qualified 25 students for international competition in May at last weekend’s Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference in Virginia Beach.
The 36 SLHS students tested their skills in role-play events, rebranding plans, entrepreneurship and defended marketing research and public relations campaigns.
- Individual Role Play Events: Food Marketing Top 20 — Vikky Batra; Restaurant & Food Service Management –- Finalist Gabe Davis; Social Media Top 16 — Molly Sheets.
- Team Decision Making: Travel & Tourism Marketing Team Decision — Top 20 — Cole Palley and Micky Kumbi
- Written Events: Sports & Entertainment Research Top 16 — Angela Barrale, Henning Baussus and Nik Baussus; Business Services Research Finalist — Rachel Heatherly, Paige Barlow and Ted Madden; Buying and Merchandising Research First Place Finalist — Allison LeMair, Hans Baussus and Joe Li; Entrepreneurship Written Finalist — Mallika Suri, Chance Konnor and David Logan; Entrepreneurship Written Finalist — Jasmine Shuey, Katie Wolfe and Matthew Crump; Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan Finalist — Shannon Meehan, Lindsey Cohen and Joshua Forrest; Entrepreneurship Innovation Finalist — Sneha Kuchipudi, Sweetlove Reyes and Brentan Walters.
- Chapter Events: Chapter competition requires group participation of DECA members. The event involves planning and execution of a public relation campaign and a creative marketing research project held in the business community.
- Public Relations Project: Capitol Hill campaign lobbying for campus fire safety, “Contain The Flame” — State Finalist — Kelly Carney, Virginia Bulger and Gavin Brown.
- Creative Marketing Research: Study to determine how and why residents keep their porch lights on, “Light’s ON, Crime Off”– First Place State Finalist — Tad Mich, Dania Rivas and Nicky Kandola.
- Advisor Virginia Bulger was elected to lead 14,000 Virginia DECA Members for the 2014-15 school year.
Herndon’s Mainor a future medical leader — Seara Minor, a sophomore at Herndon High, recently attended the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Washington, D.C. This honors-only program is designed for exceptional high school students who want to become physicians or go into medical research, and is sponsored by the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists. Mainor represented Virginia at the conference, and was nominated based on her academic achievement, leadership potential, and determination to serve humanity in the field of medicine.
Hughes Student Wins NOAA Art Contest — Elizabeth Shaw, a student at Langston Hughes Middle, has been named winner of the 2014 Marine Debris Art Contest, sponsored by NOAA. Shaw’s drawing of marine debris was selected from over 400 entries across the U.S. and will appear on NOAA’s 2015 Marine Debris Planner, an annual planner used for marine debris education and outreach.
Have some Reston-area school news? Send it to [email protected].
Senior Daniel Johnsen earned all-state honors in one individual event and two relays for South Lakes High School at the Virginia High School League 6A Indoor Track and Field Championships Feb. 27-March 1 at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton.
The girls team finished 12th; the boys were 10th out of 52 schools represented.
Johnsen ran a personal best time of 1:06.33 to finish third in the 500 meters. He teamed with seniors Michael Kerr, Khayri Denny and Luis Rivas for the fourth in the 4×400 meter relay (3:28.23). Johnsen, Kerr, Rivas and junior Andrew McCool ran 8:06.12 for sixth in the 4×800 meter relay.
Both Denny and senior Danielle Hale finished third in their respective divisions of the long jump. Denny had a jump of 22-03.00 while Hale jumped 17-08.25.
Junior Delaney Wickman had a personal best time of 1:16.65 in the 500 meters for sixth. She teamed with senior Grace Gillen, junior Claire Nieusma and sophomore Golden Kumi-Darfour for a season-best time of 4:00.36 and fourth-place in the 4×400 meter relay.
The girls 4×800 team of sophomores Kumi-Darfour, Monica Lannen, and seniors Gillen and Abby Reinhold ran a school-record 9:34.74 for seventh place. The previous mark of 9:39.48 was set in February 2013.
Other performances at the state meet:
- Girls triple jump: Hale, 36-03.00 (8th); junior Comfort Reed, 35-11.50 (9th)
- Girls 55 meter hurdles: freshman Devyn Jones, 8.77 (personal best, 9th)
- Boys 55 meters: Denny, 6.77 (13th)
- Girls 500 meters: Kumi-Darfour, 1:17.79 (9th)
- Boys 4×200 meter relay: seniors Ben O’Connor, Marcus Harrell, Denny and junior Sam Arpee, 1:35.08 (10th)
— Submitted by Valerie Lister
The South Lakes boys basketball team is hitting its stride at a key moment: The Seahawks won their seventh straight game on Tuesday, topping Robinson 55-49 in a Northern Region 6A playoff game at South Lakes.
South Lakes (19-8) was led by Brandon Kamga with 15 points and Zach Pearl with 14.
The victory earns SLHS a place in the Regional Semifinals against Lake Braddock (22-3), which defeated Oakton on Tuesday. The semifinal game is 8 p.m. on Friday at Robinson High School.
Herndon also advanced in the regionals. The Hornets (22-3), paced by Dorian Johnson with 27 points, beat Hayfield 94-83 on Tuesday. In the semis, Herndon will meet W.T. Woodson Friday at 6 p.m. at Robinson.
The playoff run ended Tuesday for the South Lakes girls team. The Seahawks, ranked in the Top 20 by the Washington Post all season, fell to Centreville 64-61 Tuesday. The loss ended a seven-game winning streak for the Seahawks, which end the season 23-4.
South Lakes boys and girls basketball teams, as well as Herndon’s boys team, all advanced in North Regional 6A play on Monday.
Highlights:
Herndon (22-2), ranked No. 13 by The Washington Post, broke the 100-point barrier with a 106-52 win over Patriot. Patriot (4-20), of Prince William County, had won just one game all season before winning three straight to take its conference title.
South Lakes girls, (23-3), ranked No. 12 by the Post, were led by senior Abigail Rendle with 18 points in a 71-43 victory over Lake Braddock.
South Lakes boys (18-8), which has lost only one game since late January, continued its run with a 64-48 victory over West Potomac. Brandon Kamga scored 28 points for the Seahawks.
Regional action continues Tuesday. South Lakes girls host Centreville at 5:45 p.m., followed by the boys against Robinson at 7:30 p.m. Herndon hosts Hayfield at 7:30 p.m.
The Region semifinals and finals are Thursday and Friday at Robinson High School.
South Lakes boys and girls basketball teams both won the Liberty Conference 6 Tournament titles on Saturday, advancing to Northern Regional play.
The boys (17-8, 8-1) held off Hayfield for a 60-59 victory Saturday. Brandon Kamga scored the game-winning layup with 3.6 seconds remaining. Kamga was among four SLHS players in double figures. The win was the fifth in a row for South Lakes, which has gone 11-1 in the last month of the season.
The boys team will play West Potomac at home Monday at 7:30 p.m.
The girls team (22-3, 8-1), ranked in the top 20 by The Washington Post all season, had little trouble with Madison in the Liberty final. The Seahawks defeated the Warhawks 60-42.
Princess Aghayere led the Seahawks with 20 points and 22 rebounds. She was named tournament MVP. Senior Abigail Rendle and Aghayere were all also named to the first-team all conference team, and Rendle was named to the all-tournament team.
The girls will host Lake Braddock at 5:45 p.m. Monday in Northern Region play.
Herndon High’s boys team (21-2, 9-1) also repeated as champions of their conference. They defeated the Robinson Rams, 79-67 for the Concorde Conference 6 title.
Herndon will host Patriot High School (Prince William County) for the first round game of the Region 6A North Tournament on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
