While there will be large assemblies of Virginian teams at the St. Christopher's Invitational and Virginia Tech Invitational, a decent size smaller group of squads will also be heading down to the University of North Carolina this weekend for the Eastern High School Challenge. The Landstown girls will be bringing their top sprint crew, the Oakton boys will take to Chapel Hill their deep distance squad, and Green Run will have their two individual stars in hurdler Charisse Bryant and sprinter Dejor Simmons competing against some of North Carolina's best.

Photo by John Herzog

It would have been exciting to see what kind of times that the Landstown girls could have put down in the 4x200 and 4x400 meter relays on a banked track at Virginia Tech, but nonetheless, they should continue to impress this weekend at UNC's Eddie Smith Fieldhouse.  The 4x200 is not contested in North Carolina, so the Landstown girls should put their eggs all in one basket in the 4x400 as they are the top seed in the event by 11 seconds at 3:56. They have not broken 4 minutes this season, but certainly are a team ready to as the group is made up of a team which went 3:49 last outdoor season. 

The Landstown girls should fair well individually also with Marlena Wesh in the 55 and 300 meter dash and a pair in Cierra McGee and Kelnesha Hinnant in the 500 meter dash. Wesh will test herself in the short sprints in the 55 meter dash and certainly has explosive sprint speed with a 11.91 100 meter best, but she should really shine in the 300 meter dash as she is Virginia's current state leader at 40.85. It should be a great race between Wesh and South Central NC's Kelsey McCorkle who is coming off a 40.91 win at the Asics Invite in Lynchburg. With Wesh and McCorkle in the same race, the winning time could end up being of the nation's fastest flat track times recorded in the event. Also in the race will be Brandy Swann of Jacksonville NC, who is coming off a US top 10 performance in the 500 meter dash of 1:16.76 at the Asics Invite. Wesh has an all-time best of 40.11, so a potential sub 40 second run could be in the cards for this weekend for her.

Photo by John Herzog

Swann will be in the 500 meter dash earlier with the Landstown pair of McGee and Hinnant as a fast race can be expected. McGee is ranked right behind US #8 Swann with a US #9 time of 1:17.38 from her win at the CNU Showcase on January 12th. Hinnant was right behind her teammate in that race with a second place time of 1:18.12. McGee will attempt to match or beat her all-time best of 1:16.27 from a year ago and may have to in order to win after Swann's 1:16 performance last weekend in Lynchburg. 

Photo by John Herzog

Green Run's Charisse Bryant, Virginia's state leader in the 55 meter hurdles with a US #6 clocking of 8.16, will have her hands full this weekend and plenty of competition to pull her along to a faster time with All-American hurdler Jasmine Stowers from Pendleton SC. Stowers recently defeated one of the nation's top hurdlers in Jackie Cowart of Tennessee in a 60 meter hurdles race last weekend at East Tennessee State University in a US #6 performance of 8.65. Only a sophomore, Stowers has ran 13.52 in the 100 meter hurdles outdoors. Bryant has been performing like a state champion caliber hurdler thus far this season, but will see now how she measures up against one of the nation's best in Stowers. Ashley Bethune from Harding University NC is also a great hurdler as her season best of 8.17 ranks Bethune right behind Bryant nationally in the 55 meter hurdles at a US #8.

Photo by Jesse Hutcheson

Three of the top four entrants in the girls' shot put are From Virginia with Denbigh's Brandy Peat and the Deep Creek duo of Jasmine Walton and Myrisha Mullen. Walton won the CNU Showcase earlier this month with a personal best throw of 36'9.50". Walton should be able to pull in a second place finish behind Butler NC's Aslynn Halvorsen, who will be a heavy favorite after throwing over 42 feet twice already this season.

Oakton's Hallie Eilerts and Becca Kassabian might not be able to hang with two of North Carolina's better distance runners in Adrianne Soo of Durham Academy (10:56 3200 PR) and Andie Cozzarelli (11:02 PR) of Apex in Saturday's 3200 meter run as the third and fourth seeds, but both have been well as of late. Kassabian has had a string of PR races in the 1000 (3:10), 1600 (5:19), and 3200 (11:43) to follow up her great cross country season in which she helped lead Oakton to a state runner-up finish. Eilerts has been right there with Kassabian this winter with even faster PR runs in the 1000 (3:05), 1600 (5:18), and 3200 (11:39). Look for both to make runs at their first sub 11:30 performances this weekend.

Photo by Ted Plunkett

Meanwhile, Oakton's Joe Lorusso will attempt to try and pull off the 1600 and 1000 meter double at UNC as he is the top seed in both races with a 4:16 and 2:32 bests in the events respectively. Lorusso's top competition in both races may or may not be there as Kellam's Bobby Peavey in the 1600 and New Bern's Andrew Hendrix  in the 1000 are both entered in events at Virginia Tech this weekend and physically cannot be at both races. Peavey has ran 4:25 for 1600 meters, while Hendrix ran against Lorusso last weekend at Liberty with a fourth place finish of 2:36. Lorusso's runner-up time last Saturday of 2:32.67 ranks him fifth nationally in the 1000 meter run, while his 4:17.83 mile time from the Montgomery Invite puts him in the US top 10 as well.

 
Photo by Jesse Hutcheson

Dejor Simmons will be looking to give a reminder to the rest in the state that he still is one of the state's top returning sprinters after being somewhat forgotten since he has not competed in an invitational since early December. The Green Run sophomore is entered in the 55 and 300 meter dash at UNC. Do not be fooled by his seeds back in the field as the 15th seed in the 55 meter dash and 37th seed in the 300 meter dash. North Carolina is good in the sprints, but not that good as there are plenty of fibs in the entry and correctly seeded sprinters such as Simmons will show the liars up. Simmons would like to try and match the 6.37 state best posted by both Keith Ricks and Tory Womack already this season.