The year of 2005 was a very significent year in the state of Virginia\'s high school and college running community with many big stories filling out the 12 months. From the terrible losses with an unusually high number of deaths by young student-athletes in the sport to the stories of championship glory, MileStat.com counts down the 10 biggest news stories of the year. While there were many important events throughout the year, these 10 come to mind as some of ones that really stood out among the rest as attention grabbers.

Athletes gathered over winter break in between the Christmas and New Year\'s Holidays to compete in the annual track and field clinic invitational held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Several solid performances were turned in throughout the meet.

Bethel senior Francena McCorory broke three meet records at the F.I.T. Invitational with three state leading times in the 55 (7.09), 300 (38.79), and 500 (1:17.59) meter dashes to highlight the performances from the meet held at Prince George County\'s Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland. Bethel teammate Russell Williams also posted a state best of 1:06.32 in the 500 meter dash. Thomas Jefferson senior Stephanie Reaves in the 1000 (3:03.31) and Westfield boys 4x400 meter relay (3:31.70) also ran the state\'s fastest times to date. Angela Jenkins of Buffalo Gap pulled another double win in the jumps with first place finishes in the long jump (18-4.25) and triple jump (38-9.50). Group AAA state individual runners-up this past fall in cross country, Mike Spooner of West Springfield and Sarah Haidiji of W.T. Woodson, both won their 3200 meter races with times of 9:39.49 and 11:37.76 respectively.

Ah! Christmas break. I

Performance list for the 2005 F.I.T. Invitational to be held at the Prince George County\' Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland on Tuesday, December 27th.

The 11th Annual Friends of Indoor Track Invitational appears to have brought together, once again, many of the top athletes from around the area as they continue their hoped for improvement heading into the new year. The meet was held for quite a few years as a relay only meet at George Mason University with very good success; but has now evolved into a regular track and field championship event format at the extremely nice venue at the Prince George\'s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland with the same continued success. Approximately 1,150 athletes representing forty six high schools will partake on the 200 meter unbanked six lane track in the hopes of eliciting some post Christmas cheer as they try to build up some momentum before heading into the brunt of the indoor schedule.

These rankings were calculated by scoring the elite performances rankings list 8-deep. 1st place received 8 points for their team, on down to 1 point for 8th place.

These rankings were calculated by scoring the elite performances rankings list 8-deep. 1st place received 8 points for their team, on down to 1 point for 8th place

After reading the Runners World article on Alisa Harvey\'s upcoming assult on the US Masters records in the 800, 1500 and Mile I dug back in the files to find the best distance runners to run in Virginia AAA High Schools. Here are my four...Linda Portasik (Fort Hunt), Alisa Harvey (Thomas Jefferson - Alexandria), Erin Keogh (Langley), and Meghan McCarthy (Robinson).

University of Richmond sophomore Ryan Jobes died on Tuesday in a car accident in Pennsylvania. Jobes was a graduate of Williamstown High School in West Virginia where he won several state titles and at U of R, he posted a time of 1:55 in the 800 as a freshmen. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, coaches, and fellow athletes.

That agonizing stretch of school after Thanksgiving and before Winter break has come to a close, so it\'s time for another Jois Report. Of course, we\'ll need to wait a few more weeks for Indoor to get serious, and we missed out on a few potentially high quality meets due to rough weather, including the Episcopal Relays and a FUMA meet. Nevertheless, some athletes have already put forth noteworthy performances this indoor season.

The 2006 VMI Classic High School Invitational scheduled for May 6th has been cancelled to track and stadium improvements at VMI. We anticipate hosting the 2007 invitational at VMI on Saturday May 5th 2007.

Had 8 quarters the other day, and felt like I had a little extra pep in my step. This past weekend I was trying to get my self back in building a base, and went on hour run Saturday and only 30 mins on Sunday to recover for the workout on Monday. Today after yesterday

In order to keep our goal of providing an organized and timely meet we are currently, December 20th, putting teams on a waiting list. All those schools that have already responded to attending our meet thank you and we ask that you get your entry fee in before the due date Friday, January 6th. Thank you for your interest in our meet and I would like to wish you all a Happy Holidays and good luck with your season. Questions should be directed to Zach Scott at scottdz@vmi.edu

This is a table with the top VIS Indoor marks, to the best of my knowledge, up to 12/21/05. If any marks are missing, you haven\'t been sending in your results.

This week was very uneventful. Running wise it was a very bland week, just regular training, nothing special. We got off of school on Thursday and Friday, so we had a 4 day weekend! Exams were today, and there are some every day until Friday, when we start Christmas break.

Video clips from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, Decemer 17th.

38 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the girls field events from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, December 17th.

97 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the girls distance races from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, December 17th.

40 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the boys sprints from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, December 17th.

44 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the boys field events from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, December 17th.

61 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the boys distance races (varsity mile, JV 1000, 4x800) from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virgina on Saturday, December 17th.

The Liberty Christmas Invitational turned out to be the meet of the weekend as seven state best performances were found at the first annual meet. The Blacksburg girls (90 pts) and Hermitage boys (55 pts) won team titles as the Blackburg girls blew out the field with their dominance in the distance events and relays, while the Hermitage boys barely squeaked out the win over three other teams in the hunt.

Many of the Central Region\'s best teams and athletes gathered to compete at the Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. The meet serves as a final meet for most teams before winter break. One state best and several other solid performances were posted on the spikeless 145.45 meter track surface.

89 photos taken by Brandon Miles of the girls sprints from the 2005 Green Dragon Relays held at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, December 17th.

Legendary track & field coach and University of Richmond Hall Of Fame member, Fred Hardy passed away Friday afternoon at the Windsor Nursing Home in Richmond at the age of 89. Hardy coached track & field and cross country for 35 years (1950-1985) at the University of Richmond and established an elite program that succeeded on the collegiate and international level. He was known by his student-athletes as a great teacher that elevated every athlete beyond their initial potential.

Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa was kind enough to keep a journal of his Foot Locker Nationals experience this past weekend in San Diego. Very in-depth journal that gives site visitors a good feel for what it feels like to be a part of a Foot Locker Nationals meet.

Still images taken by Brandon Miles of the boys 4x800 meter relay from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th. 35 photos total.

Still images taken by Brandon Miles of the girls 4x800 meter relay from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virgina on Tuesday, December 13th. 46 photos total.

This year\'s second Tuesday night meet at Fork Union\'s Estes Athletic Center turned into the first and a much larger one as the first scheduled Tuesday meet was cancelled due to inclement winter weather last week. With 20 teams on hand for the meet, the Estes Athleti Center was packed for great competition. The Hardy Invitational is named after long-time retired head track coach at Fred Hardy Jr. Later in the week on Friday afternoon, Hardy\'s father, long-time University of Richmond coach Fred Hardy Sr. passed away. Our condolences go out to the Hardy family.

Video clips from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held Tuesday, December 13th at Fork Union Military Academy\'s Estes Athletic Center.

19 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the hurdle races from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

33 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the girls sprints (500, 300) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

69 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the girls relays (4x200, 4x400) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

47 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the girls field events (pole vault, high jump, shot put) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

56 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the girls distance races (1600, 1000, 3200) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

43 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the boys sprints (55 dash, 300, 500) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virgina on Tuesday, December 13th.

34 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the boys relays (4x200, 4x400) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

21 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the boys field events from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Tuesday, December 13th.

61 still images taken by Brandon Miles of the boys distance races (1600, 1000, 3200) from the 2005 Hardy Invitational held at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Virginia on Saturday, December 13th.

Video clip taken by Mike Zajac of Ashley Early successfully clearing a height at the Wally Gilbert Invitational held at Liberty University\'s Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg on Saturday, December 10th.

Had a nice run today, 40 mins so not long but it felt good. My longer runs have been feeling pretty good lately, hope I

Well. Indoor has officially started for the fledgling Clarke County Indoor team. We are going to Montgomery, Keydet, Green Dragon, and the Nelson Invite. I don\'t know about the rest of Virginia, but Clarke County got snowed on, and we missed school on Friday.

The final set, set 7 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virgina on Saturday, December 10th.

Virginia sent its largest delegation to Foot Locker Nationals Saturday since 2001 when three Virginian boys qualified in Bobby Lockhart, Fleet Hower, and Matt Keally. This year\'s Virginia delegation of three included Oaktree Academy sophomore Aurora Scott, Northside junior Catherine White, and Chantilly senior Brad Siragusa. Just like in Virginia\'s group of three in 2001, two Virginians earned All-American honors as Scott (9th, 17:49) and White (11th, 17:53) finished in the top 14 places, while Siragusa struggled with a 38th place performance of 16:43. Scott and White were also the top two finishers for the South region after finishing third and sixth respectively at the regional meet in Charlotte two weeks ago. While a disappointing finish for Siragusa after running two of the best races of his high school career at the state meet and Foot Locker South, the Northern Arizona University bound senior can not hang his head low on what has been a great final season of high school cross country. Fellow MileSplit Network webmaster Don Rich of penntrackxc.com was on-site with coverage at Foot Locker Nationals and has provided photos of the Virginians in action and also will be providing interviews conducted with White and Scott hopefully in the next day or two.

Set 6 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia on Saturday, December 10th. One more set of images to be posted soon!

Will Jacobs won the National Wendy

17 teams gathered at \"The Pit\", Virginia Military Institute\'s indoor track facility for the running of the Walt Cormack Relays. Two meet records were broken in the boys\' paul vault and boys\' freshmen mile, while many great performances were found at the meet that were not that far from setting new meet marks. The Buffalo Gap girls (64 pts) with two member wrecking crew of the Jenkins sisters, Angela and Alisha, were able to score enough points in the field events to hold off the distance heavy Midlothian girls (60 pts) to win the team title, while the Manchester boys flat out ran away with the team (106 pts) with three relay victories and several individuals coming up with key performances.

The track gods have blessed the high school athletes and coaches of the Lynchburg area with a brand spanking new 200 meter indoor track facility at Liberty University. While the Lynchburg College Fieldhouse and Heritage High School indoor track facilities have served their purpose in providing venues for high school indoor track competition over years, the area coaches and athletes gladly welcome the new 200 meter track which should give them a facility conducive for fast times and great performances. The Wally Gilbert Invitational held Saturday at Liberty University\'s Tolsma Track Center, moved from their traditional venue at Heritage High School and the difference was shown in faster times than usual at the meet. 29 boys teams and 26 girls teams were present at this year\'s meet.

Our first of many new great features to come for our loyal MileStat.com subscribers and supporters...video clips of meets! Yes we may incur a lot of extra bandwidth charges due to this feature, but hey thats just one of many great things these subscription funds are being used to make MileStat.com one of the best state running site in the United States! 37 minutes and 50 seconds total of track and field action from the Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia. Enjoy!

Christopher Newport University hosted its first of two high school indoor track meets this season at the Freeman Center and recently dedicated Vince Brown Track with the CNU Winter Frolic. There were some expected results as well as suprising finishes from the meet. The Lake Braddock girls are year in and year out one of the state\'s top track programs and did not disprove that fact to start off this season as they earned the team title at CNU with a team score of 97 points. Meanwhile, the boys\' team title was awarded to suprising squad in the Denbigh boys (77.50 pts) as they finished ahead of the state\'s premier track program over the years in Deep Creek (2nd, 63 pts).

A contingent of seven Virginia schools ventured across the Chesapeake Bay to compete in the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Lid-Lifter Invitational on Saturday with Centreville, James Robinson, Lakeland, McLean, Oakton, Western Branch, and Woodside. Three early season state leading performances were turned in at the meet. Centreville sophomore Britni Finch nearly PR\'d by two feet indoors in winning the long jump with a jaw-dropping leap of 19-7.50. Meanwhile, Oakton senior James Phillips got his state qualifier out of the way in his opening race of the season as he won the 3200 meter run in a time of 9:37.13. The James Robinson boys currently have the fastest 4x400 meter relay team in the state after opening at the UMES Invite with a win in the event with a 3:32.24 clocking.

Set 5 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia on Saturday, December 10th.

Set 4 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia on Saturday, December 10th. More sets of images still to come!

Set 3 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia on Saturday, December 10th. 52 images total. More sets to come!

Set 2 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2050 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, Virginia on Saturday, December. More sets of images to come!

Set 1 of still images taken by Brandon Miles from the 2005 Walt Cormack Relays held at VMI in Lexington, VA on Saturday, December 10th. 50 photos taken. Many more sets of photos to come!

Performance list for the 2005 Wally Gilbert Invitational to be held Saturday, December 10th at Liberty University.

Find out which cross country girls from the state of Virginia were selected to this year\'s All-MileStat.com team. Runner of the Year, Coach of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Most Improved Runner of the Year awards were given out as well as the first, second, and third teams consisting of seven runners each.

The selection was very tough as always for the All-MileStat.com Team. As this cross country season like any other, anything can happen. What you expect to happens never seem to does and what happens you never would have expected. One week someone is hot, the next week that person is out of the picture. A star runner goes down, a newcomer comes out of nowhere. There were many deserving athletes to be on this list. Looking at this year\'s group, there are probably a dozen or so runners who are probably in a group of their own and then 3 dozen or more runners who could beat each other on any given day. Some of the runners missing from this list definitely deserve recognition for their fine seasons. Let these All-MileStat.com selections serve as a way to recognize the great accomplishments of the state\'s top athletes this fall, while serving as motivation and providing drive for those left off or returning next fall to strive for greater excellence in the future.

The League of Independent Schools Championship was held on November 4th on the very flat campus of Norfolk Academy.

Performance list for the 2005 CNU Winter Frolic to be held Friday and Saturday, December 9th and 10th at Christopher Newport University\'s Freeman Center in Newport News, Virginia.

I will be attempting to do a weekly report of the college scene in the state of Virginia with a sprinkling of news on former Virginian high school preps competing in college outside of the Commonwealth. Feel free to contact me for any omissions of noteworthy performances, especially those of individuals who compete outside of Virginia collegiately, so we can get them the recognition they deserve. This week was the first week of the college indoor season with several in-state schools getting their feet wet in competition. At the Liberty Kickoff held at Liberty University\'s one-year old Toslma Track Center, the home team Liberty wasted no time in getting individuals qualified for possible NCAA Nationals competition with distance runner Josh McDougal and multi-event star Brandon Hoskins hitting NCAA provisional qualifying marks at their home meet.

After having a tumultuous early cross country season, I seemed to have picked up speed and gained some positive momentum towards the end of the season finishing on a positive note. I feel encouraged and motivated and looking to carry that momentum into the indoor season. Now that cross country is over, I\'m shifting gears into indoor track mode.

It has been so cold this week. What am I thinking it

With the subscription funds I am hoping to raise, I would like to establish a small staff of dedicated staff writers, photographers, and elite performance processors for MileStat.com. Since December of 2000, 99% of the work on this site has been done exclusively by me. However, over the years I have gladly welcomed the assistant of volunteer contributers to the site. Doug McDaniel has been especially been a great help to me over the last few years in probably the most time consuming task of the site in processing and entering high school elite performances. John Herzog and Lee Dick have blessed the state over the past few years as well with their amazing photography skills and equipment. Several others also have contributed to the site through articles and photos. The site has done fairly well and the coverage has been excellent over the years, but I think we can accomplish a whole lot more with hopefully a stronger financial backing. I have set a goal of 1,000 subscribers for this year. If you do the math with the $18 subscription rate, that is $18,000 a year (though actually paypal deducts a 72 cents fee for every transaction, so the total would be lesser than actually $18,000). Some opponents of the subscriber system would like you to believe that I will personally be pocketing the majority of this money. That is not the case. I will do a breakdown of my projected costs for this upcoming year.

The Lynchbug Area Track & Field Club Invitational hosted at the Lynchburg College Fieldhouse kicked off the high school indoor track season in the state of Virginia as the meet served as an icebreaker for many teams as well as a chance to get some of their younger runners some invitational experience. Several athletes qualified for the Group AA State Meet in their debut meet of the season, while three athletes in Atlee\'s Dana Harvey, Buffalo Gap\'s Angela Jenkins, and Heritage\'s Wayne Ferguson garnered three first place finishes. Cave Spring junior Rachel Travitz had one of the performances of the day in breaking a 11 year old meet record in the mile run.

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn\'t stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month. Wow, I love chuck Norris jokes. What a stupid week haha, but it did end on a good note. My day started with carrying a trebuchet through the wonderfully over capacitated halls over Culpeper County High (and for those of you who shared the commonwealth district with us, no we don

For those elite Virginian high school preps and their respective coaches who\'d like to qualify for the prestigious Millrose Games high school mile races. The selection committees for the race just recently released their list of Millrose mile qualifying meets for the 2005-2006 indoor season.

Since December of 2000 when I was a sophomore at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia high school running (and now college running) has been my passion through my maintaining of MileStat.com. It started off as something small created by a little scrawny high schooler with limited website design knowledge into one of the more respected state specific running sites in the nation. As the website has changed over the years and grown, so have I. I have had to deal with some of the toughest years in my life as of late with personal and family issues that have distracted me from doing what I love best and that is giving back to the Virginia running community with this website. To add along with those woes, financial burden and stress has only put me in a deeper hole. I feel if I can ease those financial woes and have a little bit of security, I can give back to the Virginia community the best quality of coverage ever seen from this site. That is why I have joined with fellow MileSplit network sites flrunners.com and penntrackxc.com in converting MileStat.com into a subscription site. It is fairly small fee, but it would go a far way in helping bring some financial security in my life and in turn help me continue to give site visitors the best coverage of high school running in the state of Virginia. Read on for more details.

Welcome, everyone, to the inaugural edition of the Jois Report, the world\'s first attempt at regular, exclusive, and in-depth coverage of Virginia Independent Schools cross country and track. We will be kicking off with a recap of the 2005 cross country season for private schoolers. In the future, you can expect much more frequent, possibly weekly, coverage.

Group A is usually the neglected classification of Virginia high school running. With small school enrollments that see most of their top athletes being gobbled up by the jock sports such as football and basketball, it is hard to field a cross country team and much less have one of the state\'s top teams and individuals with the two-time defending Clarke County boys and their star runner in junior Simon Biddle-Snead. Simon Biddle-Snead and the Eagles are starting a resurgence in Group A running that has not seen since the mid 1990\'s with the Central boys\' state championship dynasty. Biddle-Snead recently won his second Group A state individual and his team won their second state title in a row in a dual meet-type score of 20 points. With only one senior on the squad, the Clarke County boys will be returning a team that could make even a bigger splash against their Group AA and AAA counterparts next fall.

he Virginia Tech track and field program has announced the signing of Queen Harrison to a National Letter of Intent for the 2006-07 year. Harrison, a senior at Hermitage High School in Richmond, Va., earned All-American honors in the triple jump and in the 4x200 meter-relay in 2005. She was the runner-up at the Nike Indoor National Meet in the triple jump and helped her high school to a second-place finish in the 4x200m relay.

The Virginia Tech track and field program has announced the signing of Devin Cornwall to a National Letter of Intent for the 2006-07 year. Cornwall, a native of Culpeper, Va., is a senior at Culpeper County High School and will compete in cross country and track and field at Tech. Earlier this year, he won the Northwest Region cross country championship for cross country as well as the Cedar Run District Championships.