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FORK UNION, VA -- Three state leading performances and four meet records were set in the 2006 edition of the Gus Lacy Track Classic as the select size of the meet was able to push the meet along quickly and with a little luck, avoid any impediments from inclement weather. The sole indoor event that was taken indoors to the Estes Athletic Center in the pole vault saw fireworks in the form of Western Albemarle senior Ashley Early as the story of the meet was not witnessed by most of the meet spectators as she cleared a personal best height of 12\'9\" in the pole vault. A mark that should easily rank her well up on the early national leaderboard. Fork Union\'s Axel Mostrag, Prince Edward County\'s Deangelo Wilson, and E.C. Glass\' Mike Zajac also set new meet marks with Mostrag and Zajac also posting state bests.
Fork Union junior Axel Mostrag competed in the 1600 meter run and broke a mark set by another Fork Union distance great in Kippy Keino, who now stars at Villanove University. Mostrag had some help in the race in the form of E.C. Glass senior Patterson Wilhelm as Wilhelm lead the Fork Union All-American through roughly 1100 meters. At the start of the homestretch heading into the bell, Mostrag seized the lead and then closed quickly on his final lap with a 59 second last 400 meters to finish in a personal best time of 4:14.71. His time bettered Keino\'s old meet record of 4:15.66 set in 2003. Wilhelm meanwhile held onto second after doing the hard early pace work for a time of 4:22.92. Group AA state champion Griff Graves was stuck in no man\'s land for much of the race to finish in third place at a time of 4:26.54.
A familar battle was raged between Group AA\'s two great sprinters in Deangelo Wilson of Prince Edward County and Rashad Kelso of Appomattox County. In a similar result from the Group AA State Indoor Meet, the two athletes split wins against one another. In the 100 meter dash, Wilson ran a swift clocking of 10.96 to better the old meet record by two tenths of a second with Kelso in second at 11.18.
Kelso reversed the order in the 200 meter dash as he posted a sub 20 clocking of 21.96 to win the event over second place Wilson (22.45).
Despite wet conditions and a slippery throwing surface, E.C. Glass senior Mike Zajac certainly proved just why he is considered by many as the state\'s top thrower by posting an early state leading mark of 56\'2.50\". Saturday was Zajac\'s first throw in the shot put for the season as he had taken off from the event after Nike Indoor Nationals as he competed there with a sprained rest suffered from the state meet. Zajac won his second throwing event of the meet with a solid throw of 174\'10\" in the discus during probably one of the more steady rainfall periods of the meet.
The Fork Union boys were once again meet champions at another home invite. while they are friendly as meet hosts, they are not so accommodating in allowing any team to come in and take a team title from them at either the Gus Lacy Track Classic or the Fork Union Indoor Invitational. The boys from Fork Union were runaway winners on Saturday as they compiled a team score of 132 points to finish well ahead of Appomattox County with 74 points.
The 38 point difference between Appomattox County and Fork Union was created virtually alone by Brandon Caleb as he earned 40 individually with four first places finishes. Caleb cleaned up in the jumps and hurdles as he garnered wins in the long jump (22\'1\") and triple jump (44\'5.50\") despite a slick runway. He also finished ahead of the rest in the 110 (14.90) and 300 (41.32) meter hurdles as Appomattox County\'s TK Kelson was a second place finisher in both events to Caleb.
Iron man award of the day goes to Fork Union\'s Jamie Reichlen as he took second (51.64) to Albemarle\'s Christopher Best (51.38) in the 400 meter dash and then in a short time frame came back for another second place finish in the 800 meter run (2:01.48) as Forest Park\'s Zack Williams had an outstanding run to win the race in a time of 1:59.65. Reichlen was also a member of the winning 4x400 meter relay (3:32.28) to put the icing on the cake for Fork Union.
Appomattox was led by the Kelso boys with Rashad scoring 18 points in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and TK picking up 16 points with his two runner-up performances in hurdles, but also had a first place finish in the 4x100 meter relay with a solid 43.29 clocking.
The boys\' 3200 meter run was arguably the most exciting event of the day on the track as Mountain View freshmen Thomas Porter and Clarke County junior Simon Biddle-Snead. With the temperature dropping and winds picking up, Biddle-Snead led Porter and the rest of the field for the majority of the race as the two runners found themselves alone going into the bell. Porter seized the lead then and never looked back in a 9:31.70 win, while Biddle-Snead took second in a time that easily ranks him ahead of any Group A runner at 9:36.64. The Brentsville duo of Adam Henken (9:41.42) and Nick Gehlsen (9:42.24) earned early Group AA state qualifying times as did Skeeter Morris of Nottoway (5th, 9:51.77).
Mountain View finished third as a team as they had two first places finishes from Porter and the 4x800 meter relay (8:17.92), which Porter was a member of. Porter is currently playing varsity for the Mountain View High School soccer team as he splits time between the two sports.
Albemarle\'s Anthony Bryant showed up late for the meet and it gave him little time to prepare for the high jump as it showed with him going out at a height of 6\'2\" as Fork Union\'s Jonathan Foote won the competition in an event named after his older brother and past Fork Union track athlete Bryon Foote with a successful clearance at 6\'4\".
While Early rocked the Estes Athletic Center as cleared a height that no other female Virginia has ever come close to clearing at 12\'9\", the boys\' event generated quite a deal of excitement as well even if the top two athletes were stuck at the same height as the female Early. Daniel Inge of E.C. Glass and Gregory Morris of Albemarle were tied even at 12\'9\". Both athletes went up to a higher height to to try and break the tie, but neither was able to clear. The vaulters went back down to 12\'9\" to clear again on the same attempt, but as they went up to 13 feet, it was Inge that was only athlete to clear successfully to take the win.
Despite having a few of their distance runners missing in action including junior M.C. Miller, the Midlothian girls (88 pts) were still able to take the team title at Gus Lacy over Central Region rival Atlee (70 pts). Their 4x800 meter relay ran a time of 9:44.86 with two \"B\" team members to win easily. The Lady Trojans also closed the day with a relay victory of 4:07.69. Midlothian\'s Paige Johnston was a member of both of those relays as she also won the 800 meter run in 2:22.57.
Midlothian senior Kyra Richardson picked up 26 points individually with a third place finish in the 200 meter dash (26.88), runner-up finish in 100 meter dash (13.20), and win in the 300 meter hurdles (51.16).
Prince Edward County swept the 100 meter dash as Tynesha Sydnor posted a 12.90 clocking to win the girls\' event as Wilson took the boys\' dash.
Second place Atlee had three first places on the track between Dana Harvey in the 200 meter dash (26.14), Mansfield Murph in the 400 meter dash (58.06), and Nisse Chism in the 100 meter hurdles (16.25). Murph had an off day in the jumps as the wet runway affected her as she took second in both the long jump and triple jump. Louisa\'s Shawanda Jackson won the long jump in a mark of 16\'4\", while J.R. Tucker freshmen Jasia Richardson had a top mark of 35\'7\" in the triple jump.
Tucker also had the top thrower of the day in the shot put as K\'Lynne Robinson\'s best throw of 35\'4\" placed her just ahead of Prince Edward\'s Samantha Moseley (35\'2.50\"). Moseley also finished second in the discus throw (93\'3\") as Fluvanna County\'s Rochelle Hill posted an outstanding mark of 115\'1\".
After resting through the indoor season after a grueling fall of pulling double time in soccer and cross country, AAA state cross country champion Rachel Rose of Albemarle made her return to racing action on Saturday in solid form as she won the 1600 meter run in a time of 5:12.57 and the 3200 meter run with a 11:20.51 clocking. Rose won the 1600 meter run by a considerable margin as freshmen teammate Elizabeth Barclay made it a 1-2 finish for Albemarle in a second place finishing time of 5:26.12. However, a fresh Sallie Ford of E.C. Glass gave her a solid challenge in the deuce as she finished not far behind in second at 11:23.33.
