LYNCHBURG — Imani Moore had just completed her work in the long jump Saturday when she stepped onto the track for the state finals of the 100-meter dash. 

“My legs were dead,” she said. 

They suddenly sprang to life. 

Moore, a freshman standout from Varina High School, blazed to the finish, looking cool and calm the entire way at the Virginia High School League’s Class 4 championships, held in conjunction with the Class 3 event at Liberty University.

She clocked a time of 11.67 in the 100, impressed with victories in the 200-meter dash and the long jump and helped Varina’s 4x100 relay team to the state title, too, in what amounted to another remarkable showing from the 15-year-old who broke onto the high school scene by winning four events at the indoor championships in March. 

If her legs were tired, it didn’t show. Moore’s 100 and 200 times were the fastest in the state Saturday, better than any other girl who competed across the league’s six classifications. 

During prelims, she bested the Class 4 mark of 11.63 set in 2022 by Madison Whyte of Heritage (Newport News). Whyte went on to star at the University of Southern California, claimed gold medals at the 2022 World Junior Championships and 2023 Pan American U20 Championships, and is a member of Team USA. 

And to think, she’s only a freshman. 

“I don’t think she has a ceiling,” her mother and co-coach, LaKeasha Moore, said after Imani’s 100 victory. “It’s really untapped. We haven’t even gotten into weight lifting, we haven’t even done any hill work. Each year I’m progressing her, doing a little bit more at a time so she’s not tapped out at such a young age.”

Moore has now won seven track and field state titles in four months’ time. At the indoor championships, she celebrated titles in the 55 and 300 dashes and long jump. She repeated her state championship in the long jump Saturday, leaping to 19 feet, 9 1/4 inches to eclipse the meet record of 19-01 1/2 set by Atlee’s Josie Rempe in 2024. 

“It means a lot to me, actually,” Moore said of that meet record. “And I’ve still got a ways to go. I’ve still got three more years.”

Varina also won the state 4x100 relay title behind Rayanah Johnson, Moore, Kya Ingram and Jalynn Seward. The Blue Devils finished third behind champion Blacksburg and runner-up Halifax County in the same event at last year’s outdoor championships. 

But something about this year felt special. Felt almost predetermined, like nothing could keep them from the crown. 

“We believed in ourselves,” Johnson, a sophomore, said after she and her teammates combined for a time of 47.58. “We said we can do it. We felt like it was already ordained for us to win it, and we just put it all out on the track.”

They won by more than a second over runner-up Halifax, avenging last year’s loss. 

“We really wanted it last year,” Seward said. “We worked hard for it, and now we won it this year. I feel like we got what we deserved.”

It was a sweet ending to a season that had rocky patches. As Varina’s sprint relay team tried to perfect its craft, there were moments when it didn’t feel like things would come together enough to seriously contend for a state title. 

“This year, I can say, has been one of the most revealing years and also one of the hardest,” Seward said. “When I say hardest, there have been times when I feel like I was down, times when races weren’t OK, even times when the relay wasn’t great. And we just had to come back from that and show that we could overcome the obstacles in front of us.”

Asked about Varina’s star freshman, Seward and Johnson smiled. “That’s my baby girl,” Seward said. 

In her final event of the day, the 200 dash, Moore headed to the finish line with that same composed demeanor, looking as calm and within herself as when the day began. 

“What more can she do, folks?” the PA announcer asked the crowd. 

She’d done enough. Factoring in points earned from the relay, Moore was responsible for 40 points. Varina placed third in the team standings with 45 total points and finished behind champion Blacksburg (88.33), which won its fifth straight Class 4 title, and runner-up Phoebus (51).

And all that output from a girl who was still going strong when her day was winding down. 

“She is a go-getter,” LaKeasha Moore said. “Even in practice, if I'm telling her we’re gonna go 70% today, she will go all out. It’s hard to reel her in. She’s so determined, she’s so focused. She works extremely hard, even with her nutrition. She is just very meticulous with how she competes. She doesn’t like to lose, so she’s very hard on herself when she feels like she doesn’t do too well, and that motivates her to do even better. She's very, very special, I will say that.”

Imani Moore has found sudden success on the track. Her main goal, though, is to remain consistent. She was all that, and more, on Saturday. 

“You know, some people say freshman flop,” Moore said, a reference to a first-year phenom who subsequently fails to live up to the hype. “I don’t want to be a freshman who flops. I want to keep progressing.”

On the boys side, Varina junior Xavier Curry won the pole vault and set a new meet record with a vault of 16 feet, 4 3/4 inches. He won by nearly a foot and a half and eclipsed the 16-foot Class 4 mark set by Blacksburg’s Leighton McGee (William & Mary) in 2025. 

The Atlee boys placed third in the team standings (41 points) behind Churchland (68 points) and Charlottesville 52). Jamestown (39) was fourth and Varina (34) placed fifth.

This article has been updated to note Moore’s record time came in a preliminary race.