MileStat Elite Track Classic Recap: Two US #1's & 6 Meet Records!

Despite the 2014 edition of the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic facing a major obstacle created by Mother Nature on Friday with severe storms in the Richmond area forcing all of Friday's events to be postponed and rescheduled to Saturday, the meet was able to fit in all of the new events for day two and still finish only an hour beyond the original projected finish for day two. A long and jam-packed day of high school track & field action for Virginia's largest high school outdoor track & field invitational at Sports Backers Stadium saw a total of 77 MileSplit US national elite performances and a total of 6 meet records broken in the sixth annual event including two US #1's.

• Meet Page
• Complete Results
• National Elite Performances (77)
• Archived Race Videos + Race Commentary by Sean Leyh
• Photo Gallery by Tom Veazey (to be uploaded late Sunday night/Monday morning) - Includes most of field events and bulk of Saturday's mid-day running events.
• Photo Gallery by Mary Ann Magnant (3,139 photos) - Includes discus and bulk of Saturday's morning running events
• Photo Gallery by Scott Reid (1,046 photos) - Includes bulk of Saturday's evening running events

 

At the 2014 MileStat.com Elite Track Classic, a grand total of six new meet records were set in the varsity elite races including two of which are national leaderboard worthy. Prince George senior John Warren owned the runway every time that he charged down it at Sports Backers Stadium with a US #1 all-conditions leap of 50'8.50" in the triple jump, while Rachel Bartolomeo ran the nation's fastest in the girls 2K steeplechase with an impressive race and time of 7:08.95 after making the trip up to Richmond from Raleigh, North Carolina with her Cardina Gibbons squad.

In one of the more highly anticipated races of day lived up to the hype in the fast section of boys 800 meter run with top seed and favorite Stanley Davis of Glen Allen able to recover from nearly falling after being passed by Fork Union's Alex Lomong on the backstretch and roar back for a VA #3 time of 1:53.11 to break the old meet record in his victory. Three of the state's top 6 fastest times in the event this spring came out of the race with Clover Hill's Josh Willard (2nd, 1:54.33) and Hermitage's Devin Barnes (3rd, 1:54.55) able to get past Lomong in the final strides who finished 4th just off his VA #7 ranked season best time from the Gus Lacy Track Classic. 

State leading marks came out of the meet for both boys and girls in the triple jump with Warren's performance being a nation's best, while Henrico junior LaChyna Roe moved up to a US top 15 ranking with her jump of 40'7" eclipsing her old all-time best mark of 40'1" from the Dogwood Track Classic last May. A good sign for Roe as she aims to add to her 5A state indoor triple jump title with an outdoor title in 6 more weeks. 

The Patrick Henry girls had a pair of athletes who were double winners on Saturday between thrower Shania Williams and sprinter Tiffany Harris. The senior Williams set a new meet record in the shot put with her mark of 42'8.75", while also throwing for a season best in the discus with a first place throw of 123'5". Windy conditions prevented the sophomore Harris from running as fast as times as she would have liked at Sports Backers Stadium, but she still looked very strong and closed well in victories in both the 400 (56.41 season best) and 200 (25.58) meter dashes from the VHSL Group 5A state indoor 300 meter champion.

This year's meet was fortunate to have two Foot Locker finalists from this past fall compete in the between local girl Molly Breidenbaugh of Trinity Episcopal and Tai Dinger from St. Albans School in DC.

Breidenbaugh nearly became the 7th meet record breaker of the day to start the day in the 3200 meter run as she brought the seeded girls 3200 field through a hot first 1600 meter pace and eventually pulling away from the challengers with a new personal best time of 10:44. She was joined under 11 minutes by two first-time sub 11 performers in Molly McKenna of Peninsula Catholic in second place at 10:48 and Erin Saunders of Jefferson Forest in third place at 10:51. It has been a remarkable senior year jump in improvements for McKenna as she ran a 12 second PR on Saturday morning in the 3200, but was nowhere near a sub 11 and possibly not even a sub 12 runner a spring ago. 

Later in the day, Breidenbaugh was in contention for a second win in the fast section of the girls 1600. The winds had really picked up to 15 miles per hour sustained at that point of the day, which slowed down the field a bit in pursuit of sub 5 minute times. However, 8 girls were still able to run under 5:10 including a thrilling finish for the top 3 places between private school state champion Libby Parrish of St. Catherine's and a Cardinal Gibbons (NC) duo of Mary Grace Doggett and Sophie Ebihara. Parrish, Doggett, and Ebihara were able to break away from Breidenbaugh for the final 200. Then Parrish was able to have just slightly better close than the two from Cardinal Gibbons in a slight decision in her favor as the 5:02.20 winner, while Doggett and Ebihara also ran times of 5:02.

In the top race for the boys 1600, Tai Dinger had no problem cutting the wind along with Millbrook sophomore Tyler Cox-Philyaw. They forced the issue early into the race that they were not going to be settling for any slow times. Dinger had run under 4:20 numerous times last year as a junior which fed into a cross country season that ended with a 27th place finish at Balboa Park in San Diego against the nation's elite distance runners in the Foot Locker Nationals. Meanwhile, Cox-Philyaw came into Saturday's 1600 race at the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic which much less proven credentials but plenty of promise having run 4:27 as a freshmen in the 1600 and 4:29 best during this past indoor season. However, little indication that Cox-Philyaw would do what he did on Saturday in mixing it up with a Foot Locker finalist and ultimately finishing with an incredible PR for a 10th grader at 4:16.02 as runner-up to Dinger.

Dinger ran a new PR of 4:14.69, which is the second fastest 1600 meter time among all DC metro runners (DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia) this outdoor season behind only Penn Relays 3K champ Drew Hunter of Loudoun Valley (4:14.60 at CNU Captains Classic). Dinger is looking to make it two major wins at Sports Backers Stadium as he plans to return to race the mile at the Southern Track Classic in two weeks. 

Another winner from Saturday at the MileStat.com meet who is likely to be returning to Sports Backers Stadium for the Southern Track Classic in two weeks will be Battlefield middle distance runner Ellison Grove. Last year's Group AAA state 800 meter champion Grove had to do all the work out front in the fast section of the girls 800 in fierce winds and when Group 1A/2A state indoor 1600 and 1000 meter champ Emma Call of Maggie Walker attempted to creep up on her for the final 200 meters, Grove found another gear to win easily by 5 seconds with a final time of 2:15.09. 

The boys 3200 seeded race had a Group 5A flavor for its top 5 finishers as they all come from the classification. 5A South cross country regional champion (and also two-time Central Region XC champ) Nathaniel Hall of Atlee withstood a late challenge and pass by Hickory's Andrew Eason to win in a 3200 season debut time of 9:21.72 for the University of Nebraska bound senior. Eason easily ran a lifetime best to hold onto second place in 9:24.24, while PR's were achieved as well by next finishers Zach Gentry (3rd, 9:29.87) of Albemarle, and Jonathan Lomogda (4th, 9:31.38) of Cox. Lomogda is only a sophomore and adds to great crop of athletes in that class of 2016 found in Virginia with Drew Hunter's 8:17 national class record Penn Relays 3K win in mind.

If they didn't look forward to competing each other before, Preston Richardson of Broadwater Academy and Tyler Powell of Cosby are now. The two went to war in the throws for both the shot and discus to push each to record big marks to finish top two in both events. Powell won the shot put with the second best mark in meet history at 57'11.25" which was a big 3 foot PR for him and ranks him #1 in Virginia currently, while Richardson also had a strong throw of 57'3" for second in the shot. Richardson came back to win his specialty in the discus over Powell with a mark of 164'6". Richardson has been very consistent this season with a string of meets throwing over 160 feet in all of them for the reigning private school state champion.

DaJuan Harding of Prince George nearly dipped under 49 seconds for the first time in the open 400 with a 49.01 win the fast section for boys to hold off Varina's Desmond Dowling (2nd, 49.14) and Woodrow Wilson's Acey Calhoun (3rd, 49.16). Defeating a sub 48 second 400 sprinter in Dowling and sub 22 second 200 sprinter Calhoun is a good indication that Harding is ready to go much faster later this season.

Cameron Francis of Veritas School had a senior year prom and a date waiting on him, but he still had his priorities straight to get a steeplechase race in on Saturday in the final hour of the 2014 MileStat.com Elite Track Classic. After running a 4:21 1600 PR earlier in the day, Francis continued his progression from a 6:46 time as a sophomore at the MileStat.com Track Classic and last year running 6:30 to win this year's 2K steeple in a new personal best of 6:22.50. 

Despite a long Saturday at the track, the Hermitage boys still found the energy to run an outstanding 4x400 meter relay time of 3:22.55 from the 5A state indoor 4x400 champs. Their relay featured 5A indoor state 500 champ Devin Barnes and also the 200 meter dash at the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic in Dallas Carter (22.01).

The Fork Union boys successfully repeated as team champions in their second trip to the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic. Coach Winston Brown annually puts together a state powerhouse program at FUMA and this year is no exception. One of their top performances of the day came in a 4x100 meter relay victory pulling away with their 42.94 clocking.

The Battle of Mechanicsville and not the Midway Lounge was found in a fitting tie for second place among the Atlee boys and Lee-Davis boys. Lee Warren helped led the charge for Lee-Davis as he swept the hurdles races with times of 14.52 in the 110 meter hurdles and 39.80 in the 300 meter hurdles for the New Balance Indoor All-American in the 60 hurdles. The Atlee boys had Nathaniel Hall as the 3200 winner and also got 10 points from a personal best clearance of 14'7" by junior Bryce Simpson for first in the boys pole vault.

The Atlee girls finished 22 points ahead of the runners-up from Patrick Henry, while the Woodrow Wilson squad from DC coached by former Eleanor Roosevelt High School and University of Maryland distance coach Desmond Dunham scored a third place trophy in their first time down to Richmond for the MileStat.com Elite Track Classic. Leading the Lady Raiders to the team title in the state's largest invite for Coach Jim Triemplar was India Lowe, who won the 300 meter hurdles in a time of 45.56 and their 4x800 meter relay team also added 10 poins near meet's end (after being rescheduled from Friday night). 

Next year's 7th annual MileStat.com Elite Track Classic is tentatively scheduled for April 24th & 25th, 2015 at Sports Backers Stadium. Next year, we are hoping for no Friday storms, a major meet sponsor, bigger numbers, stronger competition, and even better meet experience for all! 

 

6 new meet records at 2014 MileStat.com Elite Track Classic!

Boys Triple Jump - John Warren (Prince George) US #1 50'8.50"

 

Girls 2K Steeplechase - Rachel Bartolomeo (Cardinal Gibbons NC) US #1 7:08.95

 

Boys 800 - Stanley Davis (Glen Allen) 1:53.11

 

Boys 1600 - Tai Dinger (St. Albans DC) 4:14.69

 

Girls Triple Jump - LaChyna Roe (Henrico) 40'7"

 

Girls Shot Put - Shania Williams (Patrick Henry-Ashland) 42'8.75"

 

 

MileStat.com Elite Track Classic