West Springfield senior Mike Spooner is set to compete in a high caliber field of some of the East Coast's best prep milers on Saturday at the 12th annual New Balance Games held at the Armory in New York City. Spooner ran 4:16 for 1600 meters and 4:17 for a full mile last spring as a junior. He is coming off a strong cross country season, which included a state championship and appearance at Footlocker Nationals in San Diego.

Spooner is really looking forward to his first trip to the New York Armory this weekend. "It's going to be tough. It looks like there could be eight guys that deserve to go to Millrose from that field," said Spooner. The race will feature Steve Murdock from Shenendehowa High School in New York, who posted a mile time of 4:16 last year indoors and won the championship race at Nike Team Nationals and took third at Footlocker Nationals. Joining Murdock and Spooner as a fellow Footlocker Nationals qualifier in the field is Brandon Jarrett from New Jersey. Saturday's race winner will be given an automatic invitation to compete in the elite high school mile field for the 100th annual Millrose Games to be held in three weeks at Madison Square Garden.

Always keeping an interest in the state of Virginia as a whole, Spooner hopes to represent the state well and also have a strong race for the state's top miler Axel Mostrag from Fork Union, who will not be even invited to Millrose Games due to sanctioning conflicts with Fork Union. "I would like to represent the state and also Mostrag because he should have the same shot that I do if I make it to Millrose. A lot of it is for him."

Spooner is coming off a solid season debut for 3200 meters at the Montgomery Invitational this past weekend in Landover, Maryland as he clocked an indoor personal best of 9:18, while finishing just a second off his outdoor best of 9:17. Despite his time, Spooner ended up third in the race behind a sophomore in Graham Bazzelle from Atholton High School in Maryland and Jason Weller from Boertown High School in Pennsylvania. Spooner does not appear to be that phased from the early season loss or mind taking his lumps early in the season. "I mean its all part of our coaches' plan. After seeing how Thomas Porter finished his cross country season, I've realized that the most important race is the last race you run and I know that I'm nowhere near where I hope to be in the future."

With his cross country season ending late on December 9th, Spooner got a later start in getting back into the groove of things. "I just look at it as I'm two weeks back and ran a 9:18. A lot of doors have opened and I want to get in the fast heat at NIN (Nike Indoor Nationals)."

Complete lists of the high school mile fields is found below and visit the official meet website at http://www.armorytrack.com/index.php?p=nbgames for more information.

New Balance Games HS Mile Fields

12th Annual New Balance Games
Saturday, January 20th, 2007