Cumberland County High School’s varsity boys outdoor track and field team left no mystery Monday as to which team deserved the title of 2018 Region 1B Champion. The Dukes generated 205 points during the championship meet in Quicksburg, topping their nearest competitor in the field of eight by 123 points to bring home the title.

“They did an excellent job, fantastic,” Cumberland Head Coach Kenneth Jasey said.

Placing second with 82 points was Stonewall Jackson High School, of Quicksburg.

For the girls, Riverheads High School won with 143 points, and Cumberland tied for third with Stonewall Jackson, as the teams produced 60 points apiece.

Jasey said he and the boys team were a little surprised by its dominance, but they were not shocked.

“Respectfully, we knew we were loaded, top to bottom, and so we went in there with the expectation to go in there, execute, try to prepare ourselves for states,” he said. “And our region still has some very good programs, with Stonewall Jackson. They normally pretty much match up with us with very good quarter-milers, but (it was) one of them kind of down years for them, so that was part of it too.”

The Dukes had several standouts leading the way Monday.

“We have probably about six or seven go-to guys that would be ‘the man’ at every other school, but all of them are ‘the man’ here,” Jasey said. “So, the one that came out with a half a point more in individual scoring than the others was Ziahir Berry, which was the Region Athlete of the Year. He edged out Keyshawn Diming and (Muhammad) Fulani as well as Jalen Foster. So those four normally go into a meet competing against one another in all fun.”

Berry, a junior, won the boys 300-meter hurdles, finishing in 42.27 seconds.

Though he did not win any other events, he was consistently among the best in both running and field events. He placed second in the long jump, second in the 200-meter dash, third in the 100-meter dash and third in the high jump.

Fulani, a senior, lit up the track in the short distances. He won the 100 with a time of 11.79 seconds, won the 200 with a time of 23.38 seconds and he won the 400-meter dash with a 51.59-second time.

Diming, a senior, placed first in the high jump with a 5-foot 10-inch leap and first in the long jump with a 21-1/2 mark.

Junior Christian Jackson won both the shot put and the discus throw. He produced a 43-1 3/4 mark in the shot put and a 132-11 mark in the discus throw.

Foster, a junior, was victorious in the triple jump, producing a 42-8 1/4 leap, and he gave Cumberland a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 by placing third.

The Dukes, who earned the indoor Region 2B championship earlier this year, won the outdoor Region 1A East championship last year before the Virginia High School League’s (VHSL) latest realignment.

“Last year was different,” Jasey said. “Last year was a combination of (Region) A and B together. This year, they split A and B, and it’s just B, so we don’t look at that as a repeat. We don’t look at it as we’re defending (the title), because we don’t go in with it in our hand.”

Cumberland’s boys will be looking to continue their winning ways at states, though, after also claiming the James River District title last week.

The VHSL Class 1 state championships begin Friday, June 1, at 5 p.m. at East Rockingham High School in Elkton.