It was the spring of 1988, and Rustburg had a chance to bring home a state title for the first time in a decade. 

But gold wasn’t in the cards of the Red Devils that day. Instead, the boys track and field team lost a heartbreaker to William Byrd, which garnered 38 points. Rustburg finished with 35. 

Three measly points, yes, but they can be enough to haunt some people for decades. Gerald Mosley never forgot what it felt like to lose that track title. He was a Rustburg senior that spring, and it hurt so bad he made a decision.

One day, he promised himself. One day he’d bring a state track and field title home to his corner of Campbell County, where they bleed red and white. 

Thirty-six years later, Mosley’s wish was finally granted. The coach guided his Rustburg boys to the Class 3 title Saturday at Liberty University, and the Red Devils won in dominant fashion, stockpiling 80½ points to Western Albemarle’s 57½. 

For Mosley, it was a championship 36 years in the making. For Rustburg, it was even longer. The Red Devils captured their first state track and field title since 1978, 46 years ago, when the boys team defeated Sussex Central by six points. 

In ’88, Mosley said, the Red Devils led by 28 points before William Byrd closed the gap and won on the final event of the day.

RHS also was snubbed this season at the indoor championships, when it led the field by six points heading into the final event, the 4×400 relays. Western Albemarle posted a runner-up finish in the relays and won the team title by two points. More heartbreak. 

But all that disappointment floated away on a late-spring day in Lynchburg. 

“I just knew I had to bring a title back to Rustburg,” Mosley said, recalling the events of 1988. “That was my lifetime achievement in sports was to bring a title back to Rustburg, because we let that one go my senior year and I wanted it so bad for the track program at Rustburg. And we did it today.”

They did it with two victories from speedster Elijah Sherard, who claimed the 200-meter dash and the 400 dash; from Jamier Flemming, whose surprise victory in the 100 dash sent vibrations through the stands; from the savvy 4×100 relay team, which set a new meet record, breaking a mark it already owned; and by several top six finishes in the sprint and field events. 

“The last month we’ve been through a lot as a track program, with injuries and just issues that we had,” Mosley said, “and this has made it so much more worth the wait, to do what we did with the athletes we had here today. I’m just ecstatic. I’m just overwhelmed-happy.”

Rustburg already owned the third-fastest time in the state, among all classifications, in the 4×100 — so that victory came as no shock. Still, it netted the team 10 points, and the time of 42.12 run by Ashton Dixon, Flemming, Alex Dunn and Kaydon Taylor, shattered the meet record Rustburg set last spring (42.47). By the time he glided to the finish line in the anchor leg, Taylor wore a broad smile. He flashed up three fingers to the crowd to signify a W. 

Sherard watched the whole thing. He had been pulled from the 4×100 so he could compete later and be fresh for the 400 dash.

The plan worked, and then some, because Sherard went on to claim the 200 (21.73) and then set a new meet record in the 400 with a time of 48.68. 

“Our handoffs went smooth, they got it all the way back to me, and I just had to reel it back in,” Taylor said. “I just know that if they get the baton to me ahead of everybody, all I’ve got to do is get to the finish line before everybody else. 

“The excitement of crossing the finish line, and being able to do it again is just overwhelming.”

Taylor called Sherard “my old third leg.”

“We took him out and put him in the 400 so we could get this team ring,” Taylor said. “Just him being there, supporting still, even after he got taken out, is great.”

Flemming won the 100 in a talented field that included Sherard, the favorite, and LCA’s Jeb Moon, who had taken the 200 dash title last week at the Region 3C championships. Flemming notched a come-from-behind victory at the wire with a 10.76. Sherard was second at 10.79, and the teammates embraced. 

“Jamier just snuck up and won it,” Mosley said. “We can go seven deep in the 100 and 4×1, but Jamier did it. And the best thing about it, after Jamier won it, Elijah turned around and gave him a hug and told him how proud of him he was. And that’s just the kind of team comradery that I love, that we’ve been trying to work on with the guys, and they did it.”

Heritage’s Marquis White finished second in the triple jump and also was fourth in the long jump. 

On the Class 3 girls side, Heritage celebrated its fourth outdoor state title since 2019 and its seventh overall in the last 10 state meets (indoor and outdoor combined). The Pioneers posted 79 points to Western Albemarle’s 59. 

Senior standout Akera Molette accounted for 39 of those points herself, winning three events: the 100 hurdles, high jump and triple jump. She also was runner-up in the 300 hurdles and placed eighth in the long jump. 

It was the perfect way to end a high school career. Molette has eight individual state titles to her credit, and she won three of those at the indoor state meet in February. 

“It’s good knowing that I was coming through today,” she said. “Based on my performances this season, I wasn’t really favored to win anything but the hurdles, so it was a really good takeaway for me, and I’m glad I could do in my senior year, to leave the team where it is right now.”

Heritage also took third place in the 4×100 relay, aided by a raucous finish in that event. Brentsville District had a comfortable lead heading to the finish line, but the lead runner tripped and took a tumble. Heritage’s Taylor Porter kicked it into high gear and the Pioneers placed third, instead of finishing in a likely fourth or fifth. 

An additional 19 points came for Heritage in the long jump, with Porter finishing second, Briyonna Tune third, Ayonna Hayden fourth and Molette eighth. 

“Indoor [championships in February] we should have won,” Molette said. “We didn’t do what we were supposed to do. But today, especially in the long jump, all of us make it to the finals. So to actually do something this season was really good.”

In Class 4, Jefferson Forest’s Zoie Lamanna ran a new personal best in the 3,200, finishing with a 10:15.70 and winning by more than 21 seconds. Later in the day, the cross country standout returned to the track for the grueling 800. 

Lamanna led on the second lap of that race when she felt Charlottesville’s Elaina Pierce breathing down her neck. 

“Once one of the girls came up on my shoulder, then I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got to respond or get dropped,'” Lamanna said. 

She responded, speeding away and stretching out her lead to win by more than three seconds, with a 2:12.78. 

The 3,200 and 800 are, of course, totally different events requiring contrasting strategies, but Lamanna made the challenge look effortless. 

“I think the point of the day was just put me in an uncomfortable spot and see how I respond,” she said. “And I feel like I responded pretty well.”

The Jefferson Forest boys placed fourth overall (Atlee won the boys side in Class 4 and Blacksburg the girls side). 

The JF boys were aided by Mobu Nwakor, who was runner-up in the triple jump and third in the high jump; by a third-place finish in the 4×800 relay; and by Alex Jordan, who placed second in the 3,200. 

Amherst’s AJ Thomas was runner-up in the pole vault at 15 feet. 

Overall, the day belonged to Rustburg — not simply because of the talent, but because of the end of a drought. 

“I’m gonna relax,” Mosley said when asked about celebrations, “simply because it’s draining. He counted off a list of things the Red Devils did right and breaks they received throughout the meet. “The momentum kept building and building,” he added, “and here we are, state champs.”