LANDOVER, MD -- The location has changed and the format has changed, but it looks like the Friends of Indoor Track (F.I.T.) Relays will once again provide some great quality competition as we usher out year 2003 and springboard towards the 2004 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.
Close to forty schools representing Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Delaware are scheduled to be on hand at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex to compete at their excellent facility.
The F.I.T. meet, almost exlusively in a relay mode in recent years when it was held at the GMU Fieldhouse, is scheduled this year to be competed on the same schedule with the same events as the Virginia High School League Indoor state meet format except for the inclusion of the girls and boys distance medley relays installed as the very first event.
There will be one major difference in the F.I.T. meet and many major invitationals for that matter, in that seed times in many instances are coach-projected and not the result of qualifications through various district, regional and county championships.
Relying on honest entry procedures, many of the top seeded field event flights and running event sections will bring about the top individuals and teams. However, it is also important to keep an eye on many of the other "lesser" seeded events which will contain numerous medalists. Theyalso bear watching for much of the same desire as the top seeded flight and sections and in many cases, contain personal best improvements.
Girls:
The field events at the P.G. Complex are very spectator friendly with all the action contained right within the infield area.
In the girls horizontal jumps, the top seeded jumper in both the long and triple jumps is Maureen LaFate of Glasgow (DE). LaFate was fifth in the long jump at the Delaware Division One state outdoor meet and Glasgow, the defending DIAA state indoor girls team
champions, looks to have another strong squad again this year.
The high jump has Lake Braddock junior Ashley Haislip as the top seed. Haislip went 5 feet, four inches in her first meet this season and cleared 5-6 last week as she continues to climb the ladder towards being one of the top girl high jumpers on the East Coast.
The shot put has Edison's Georgina Owino as the favorite after she popped a 35 foot plus throw last week and the pole vault has a clear favorite in Middletown's Allison Jarkey, the Maryland 2A state outdoor champ last year at a height of 10-0.
The 4x800 meter relay has Eleanor Roosevelt, the Maryland 4A team state champs on numerous occasions, coming in with the fastest projected seed time with their main competition possibly coming from Robinson and a Ballou squad featuring Andria Smallwood.
The 55 hurdles, which like the 55 dash and all other events will not have trial heats; but will be run as a finals only, looks to have one of the deepest fields. Good Counsel's Katie Rogus comes in as the fastest seed with other top seeds including Glasgow's Jernail Hayes, Middletown's Amanda Spickler, who was fifth last year at indoor state meet; Lee's Latavia Lewis, last year's Va. Northern Region outdoor champ in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles and Eleanor Roosevelt's Bever-Leigh Holloway, who was sixth outdoors in the 100 hurdles at the Md. 4A state meet.
The 55 dash features Hayes of Glasgow and Roosevelt's Holloway along with defending Northern Region champ Carmen Meade of Westfield and Lake Braddock's Jessica Preko.
The 4x200 relay, with good baton passing a prerequisite and the ability to get out to a lead on the opening leg especially important indoors, has perennial area power Eleanor Roosevelt looking once again like the team to beat. Other teams capable of going under 1:50 on the 200 meter unbanked surface include H.D. Woodson, Lake Braddock, Westfield and Chantilly with Jenny Geldermann, Sara Kanamine and Adeola Abisogun slated as legs for the Chargers.
Kelsey Snowden of Lake Braddock comes in with the fastest entry time for the 1,600 run followed by Jessica Sadler of Baltimore Poly and Washington-Lee's much improved Ellen Childress while the 500 dash features many of the area's top long sprinters led by Eleanor Roosevelt's Carliesa Meakes, Sheena Willis of Woodrow Wilson, Robinson's Susan Brooks, sophomore Nakeisha Wineglass of Hayfield, Good Counsel's Katie Rogus and Tara Markey of South Lakes.
Andria Smallwood of Ballou comes in as the favorite in the 1,000 run with Glasgow's Latoya Murray also entered with a very fast projected time. The 300 dash has Glasgow's Jernail Hayes, who was second in the 400 and fourth in the 200 at last year's Delaware state outdoor meet as the fastest seeded entrant. Eleanor Roosevelt should also post some quick times and Virginia's Northern Region is strongly represented with Meade of Westfield, Hayfield's Wineglass, Lewis of Lee, Preko from Lake Braddock, Westfield's Karen Woolley, Geldermann of Chantilly and Jacqueline Hargrove of George C. Marshall.
A time of 11:30 or better will be the goal of many of the top competitors in the 3,200 run with the Northern Region expected to dominate the event with Chantilly's Kristy Trevino, Erin Klein of Lake Braddock, Oakton's Danielle Light, Ellen Childress of Washington-Lee and Hayfield's Morgan Phelan.
Teams which bear watching in the 4x400 relay include Eleanor Roosevelt, Ballou, Robinson, Lake Braddock, Good Counsel and Westfield while in the DMR, Washington-Lee comes in with the top seeded time led by Emily Gousen.
Boys:
In the field events one of the top entrants surely looks to be Boris Roslov of Middletown. Roslov is the top entry in the high jump, an event in which he was the Maryland 2A outdoor champ last year at 6-6 and Roslov is also expected to fare well in the long jump, in which he was also the 2A champ outdoors last year with a distance of 21-8.
Other top competitors in the horizontal jumps include Woodlawn's Ronald Bias, who was fifth outdoors at the Md. 4A state meet in the long jump and Jeremy Beal of West Potomac, the Northern Region leader thus far this season in both the long jump and triple jump.
The shot put does not have a clear favorite as a multitude of the big boys will look to get the 12 pound ball close to or beyond the 50 foot mark. The pole vault does have a clear favorite in Westfield senior David Lewis, who seems to have almost completely shaken off some nagging injuries from the fall as evidenced by his clearance of 13-6 last week.
The 4x800 relay has Lake Braddock as the top seed with the Bruins looking to go well under 8 minutes and 15 seconds followed by Bishop McNamara, Ballou led by Richard Ogunsiakan and Hayfield featuring Brian Fussell.
Ogunsiakan of Ballou apparently will also try and come back and compete well in the 55 hurdles with Westfield twins Phillipe Tondereau and Alvin Tondereau among the top challengers.
The 55 dash has Dominic Berger of DeMatha as one of the top area names entered with Berger's DeMatha squad also one of the favorites in the 4x200 relay along with Eleanor Roosevelt, Reggie Lewis, Ballou, Woodlawn and Edison with Northern Region 400 meter outdoor champ Roy Coles.
Working on personal bests and continual peaking towards the season ending meets appears to be the goal for most of the 1,600 run competitors with just five runners coming in with seed times under 4:40 with the 500 dash then picking up the pace with Woodlawn's Samuel Henry, Ballou's Andre Tillman and Chis Courson of Westfield all looking to get below 1:10.
The 1,000 run will have a decided Northern Region flavor in the fastest seeded section with future William and Mary teammates David Groff of Westfield and Jefferson's Christo Landry looking to go under 2:40 along with Fussell of Hayfield and Centreville's James Heiner.
The 300 dash has the H.D. Woodson duo of David Washington and Antewan Geter coming in with very fast seed times and they will probably need to equate those projections if they are to finish ahead of both Randy Lee of Archbishop Carroll and DeMatha's Anthony Wiseman, two of the top area sprinters in the last indoor campaign.
Chantilly sophomore Brad Siragusa will try to get back into the sync which made him one of the top freshman distance runners from anywhere last season and should get all he can handle from the likes of Chris Mocko of Jefferson, Lake Braddock's Brad Clark and Dawit Legesse of Lee.
In the 4x400 relay, Woodlawn and Carroll come in with some very enthusiastic looking seed times but should still get some solid challenges from Roosevelt, DeMatha and Edison while the DMR has Herndon with far and away the fastest seed time with senior Shane Young the possible anchor for the Hornets.