The state of Virginia has produced many of the nation's best high school track & field athletes including indoor and outdoor mile national record holder Alan Webb (pictured left) and indoor 1000 meter national record holder Sarah Bowman (pictured right). Webb and Bowman are both featured in MileStat.com's recent update of the Virginia High School Indoor Track & Field All-Time Top 25 Lists.

No snow fell during the entire duration on Friday's portion of the St. Christopher's Invitational and many teams returned home without encountering any precipation either. In a normal big weekend for track & field in Virginia which has been ruined due to an incoming winter storm, at least some athletes and teams were able to make the trip to Richmond and turn in some quality times and marks at St. Christopher's School's state of the art indoor track & field facility.

Anthony Kostelac faired well in the Millrose Games high school mile on Friday night. Maybe not the win that some were predicting, but still a strong runner-up showing in his first mile race of the season with a state leading time of 4:16.75, which converts to close to a 4:15 flat 1600 for the Albemarle senior. Kostelac's finish ranks among the best finishes and fastest times in Millrose history by a Virginian in the high school mile race. Only Fork Union's Ibrahim Aden (1992) and Lafayette's Seneca Lassiter (1995) have ever won the race from Virginia with Aden's 4:14.13 runner-up performance in 1991 as the fastest all-time by a Virginian prep. Winning this year's race was current national mile leader Pat Schellberg from New Jersey in a time of 4:14.84.

We will be running the scheduled events for this evening and going with a running schedule. We should get ahead of time. Events for Saturday Jan. 29th are rescheduled for Saturday Feb. 6th.

The announcement went out this morning at 9:15 AM that this year's Virginia Tech High School Invitational will be canceled. The call was made after new weather forecasts this morning called for more snow (6-10 inches) in the Blacksburg area as well as the likelihood meet officials would be unable to travel to and from the meet in the forecasted weather conditions. There are no plans for the meet to made up, but the meet will be held again in 2011. Additionally, the meet will now be offering refunds to all entered teams in the meet.

Albemarle senior Anthony Kostelac will be racing Friday night at the historic Millrose Games high school mile in a field featuring 10 of the best milers on the East Coast so far this indoor season. Kostelac was given a rare exemption from having to actually run a mile race prior to Millrose, which is usually necessary in order to be selected for the race. Kostelac is a worthy exemption though as his 4:10.73 performance last year as a runner-up in the Group AAA State Indoor Championships makes him the fastest returning runner in the nation at the 1600 meter distance from the 2009-2010 indoor season.  

MileStat.com's Athletes of the Week from a very light schedule of meets from this past weekend.

Entry list for this weekend's St. Christopher's Invitational to be held in Richmond, Va.

Mills Godwin senior Grant Pollock recently turned in a sensational 1000 meter performance of 2:29.37 this past weekend, which would rank him as the 10th fastest all-time in the event in Virginia high school indoor history. However, he will have to achieve the time again on an indoor track to be listed on the all-time list which includes only performances from meets held indoors. Pollock ran his time in an outdoor polar bear meet at Douglas Freeman High School, which is certainly allowed in qualifying him for district, regional, and state competition in the event but cannot be listed among an all-time indoor list.

  Top 10 Boys indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 25th, 2010. Mills Godwin's Grant Pollock (pictured above by Ryan Kelly) posted the 10th fastest 1000 meter performance all-time in Virginia high school history with his time of 2:29.37 at the Douglas Freeman Polar Bear Meet this past weekend.

Top 10 girls indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 25th, 2010. The girls 1600 meter run this past weekend at St. Christopher's  had three VA top 10 performances with Madalyn Nuckols and Courtney Dobbs of Deep Run and Midlothian freshmen Marie Johnston.

  Another breakthrough jump and flirting with a 20 footer on a runway at Virginia Tech's Rector Fieldhouse which has treated high school prep jumpers well in the past would make the intense competitor on the track, yet social and friendly off the track Nunn more than happy this weekend, but that is not her main focus for this season. Nikki Nunn's top priorities are making sure that she is close to 100 perecent health and ready for the state and national championship meets, so she can showcase her full potential and claim her first state title and earn All-American honors individually.

James Robinson girls 4x200 at the Suffolk Stars Invite last weekend in Hampton. (Photo by Nicoll Knudsen)   Three Northern Region schools in James Robinson, Lake Braddock, and West Springfield ventured north to the New York Armory for the New Balance Games and put their best relays on the fast 200 meter banked track. The results were two state leading performances and additional swift times clocked by other relays.

  With many schools shut out from finding a nearby indoor invitational to compete in this weekend, teams went outside this weekend in polar bears across the state including at Douglas Freeman High School in Richmond with 13 area high schools competing. With a sunny day and temperatures staying into the 40s for the majority of the day, conditions were decent enough for some quality times to be run on the 400 meter outdoor track. Many district and regional qualifiers occurred at the meet as well as several state automatic qualifying and national caliber performances including 1:05 500 meter performances from Atlee's Atkinson twins (both pictured above by Brandon Miles).

 

Friday evening's Mid Area Track Classic held at Liberty University's Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg saw a US #3 time in the boys' 3200 meter run, a state leading 4x800 performance,  and the Blacksburg distance runners continuing to roll through the indoor season.

Group AAA state rankings as of January 22nd including a leaderboard list and in-depth event rankings.

Group AA state rankings as of January 22nd including a leaderboard list and in-depth event rankings.

Private school state rankings as of January 22nd including a leaderboard list and in-depth event rankings. Liberty Christian's Demitri Knowles has the top mark in the boys' long jump at 21'3.75" and fastest clocking in the 55 meter dash at 6.42. Meanwhile, three girls lead the private school ranks in two events including Taylor Clevinger of St. Catherine's in the 1600 and 1000, Emmy Fraenk of Hampton Roads Academy in the 500 and 300, and Shantell Bingham of Episcopal in the 55 meter hurdles and dash.

Performance list for Saturday's Douglas Freeman Polar Bear Meet in Richmond, Va.

It should be a very light weekend of meets as no major high school indoor invitationals have been scheduled for Saturday in any of Virginia's top indoor track & field facilities. The closest thing to a major meet this weekend will be Friday with the Mid Area Track Classic in Lynchburg with approximiately 40 schools entered in the one day meet. St. Christopher's School almost weekly hosts a mini invitational each week including around 6 schools and this Saturday's meet will be one of its most competitive among the meet series featuring some of the top schools in the Central Region with Deep Run, Lee-Davis, Manchester, and Midlothian competing. Other teams are filling the void of a lack of indoor meets this meet by taking it outdoors with polar bear meets being held at Douglas Freeman and Osbourn Park on Saturday.

MileStat.com effectively today will begin enforcement and punishment of any site subscribers caught sharing their accounts with non-immediate family members. The abuse of subscription sharing is getting out of hand with athletes from multiple schools sharing the same account.

Performance list for the Mid Area Track Classic to be held Friday, January 22nd at the Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg, Va.

Bassett's Quentin Parker (pictured above by John Herzog) has emerged as a potential double state champion in Group AA for the 500 and 300 meter dash after winning both events at the Liberty Flames Invitational last weekend. Parker bested the time of Group AA defending 400 meter state champ Chris Williams of Robert E. Lee in the 500 meter dash.

Performance list for the Virginia Tech Invitational to be held January 29th-30th at Virginia Tech's Rector Fieldhouse in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Top 10 boys indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 19th, 2010. Joel Coleman (pictured above by Nicoll Knudsen) has started out quick in his transition to a new school as the sophomore now at Oscar Smith High School in Cheseapeake with a US leading time of 6.36 in the 55 meter dash and most recently winning the 500 meter dash at the Suffolk Stars Invitational in a US #5 time of 1:05.98.

Top 10 girls indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 19th, 2010. James Robinson sophomore Genamarie McCant added a quick 300 meter time to her state leading 500 time (1:15.88) with a VA #3 time of 40.67 against Eastern Region competition at the Suffolk Stars Invitational in Hampton.

A new #1 ranked boys' team in Virginia with Ocean Lakes moving into the top spot and previous #1 Western Branch slipping to #3 behind Stafford. Ocean Lakes team is a pretty much two man show with jumper Justin Hunter and distance runner Drew Paisley. Hunter is capable of winning all three jumping events at the AAA State Meet, while Paisley figures to contend in any distance race which he competes in. These rankings were calculated by scoring the rankings as a meet. We took the individual rankings and relay rankings and scored them as a normal meet: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Grassfield girls (4x400 pictured above by Nicoll Knudsen) along with defending Group AAA state indoor champions Bethel figure to be the two teams who are most capable to challenge top state ranked Western Branch. Grassfield has two strong relays in the 4x200 and 4x400 meter relays along with Amanda Smith in the 500 and Jazmen Townsend in the long jump as two of the state's best in their respective individual events. The Virginia high school indoor track & field depth team rankings as of January 19th. We scored 20 deep for individuals and 20 deep for relays. For example, for individuals 1st place received 20 points for their team, on down to 1 point for 20th place.

The Stevens dominated the weekend at Liberty University's Flames High School Invitational with the nation's fastest two 1600 and 1000 meters, while Joanna Stevens completed her weekend with a 4:53 1600 and 2:55 1000 on her legs with a 10:29 3200 meter "cool down". There was no question who were the two biggest stars of Virginia's largest high school indoor invitational of the year. However, the huge meet also had many other includes completing some impressive triples including Prince George senior Desi Scott who won the 300 and 500 meter dashes along with winning her section of the 1000 meter run.

He's baaaaaaaaack! Anthony Kostelac, who ran sensational anchor legs last year for Albemarle's national record breaking 4x800 meter relays, appears back to his top level of fitness. After suffering a season ending stress fracture to his femur in the outdoor season and battling mono for the tail end of the cross country season, the Albemarle senior was back to his old tricks on Friday in the 4x800 meter relay at the Suffolk Stars Invitational: running down the anchor legs of other teams. Grassfield's 4x800 relay had a 13 second advantage on Kostelac (6:09 to 6:22) when he took the baton as his team's anchor leg. In an even split race which got the entire crowd at Boo Williams Sportsplex up on their feet and going wild, Kostelac was able to bring back his team from behind for the victory with his 1:53.3 split over Grassfield. Kostelac runs the 3200 meter run tomorrow in a duel with one of the Eastern Region's best distance runners in Drew Paisley.

The Stevens twins did it again. Kathleen and Joanna Stevens had the high school track & field world's jaw-dropping back in early December fresh off their top 10 performance at NXN when they dropped two of the fastest 3200 indoor performances all-time in Virginia high school history with a 10:26 run at Liberty University. Back on the same track in the middle of January for Liberty's Flames High School Invitational on Saturday, it was the 1600 meter run which the twin duo etched their name further as two of the all-time greats in Virginia high school history posting times of 4:53 respectively with the fastest unconverted 1600 meter performances times in the nation and fastest unbanked track time including converted mile races.

Brief preview for some of the top meets this weekend in Virginia at Liberty University, Boo Williams Sportsplex, and Fork Union Military Academy. This weekend will mark the return of Lizzie Powell back to competition after the defending Group AAA state champion and meet record holder learned she had cancer following last year's state outdoor meet. If you had to choose one athlete to root for this year, the Patrick Henry senior Powell has to be the one after being dealt such life-changing news following her outdoor state title in the pole vault. Powell will be competing on Friday in the pole vault at the Liberty Flames High School Invitational in Lynchburg.

  Coach Ray Pollard at Heritage High School in Newport News is arguably one of the state's best high school coaches in the hurdles. Now that Coach Pollard has one of the top rising athletes in the hurdles with junior Daniel McFadden, the coach and athlete duo could go far in the next two years. McFadden most recently clocked a US top 10 and state leading time in the 55 meter hurdles with his 7.58 clocking at CNU. McFadden was a blip in the map as a sophomore making an early exit in the prelims at the state indoor meet last February and failed to qualify for the state outdoor meet, but made great strides during the summer in AAU competition including a 14.44 personal best 110 meter hurdles performance at the AAU Nationals. The Heritage junior is by no means the clear cut top hurdler in the state right now as shown with his photo finish at CNU, but with four seasons of high school track remaining, McFadden has the time to become Virginia's best especially under Coach Pollard's guidance.

Entry list (alphabetical order, no entry times/marks) for the 2010 Virginia Tech Invitational to be held January 29th and 30th in Blacksburg, Va.

Performance list for the 2010 Fred Hardy Invitational (formerly Fork Union Invitational) to be held Saturday, January 16th at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union, Va.

Performance list below for the Liberty Flames High School Invitational to be held Friday & Saturday, January 15th & 16th at the Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg. A revised time schedule can also be found HERE.

Ariel Karabinus will be playing the wait and see game in the coming week hoping her US #6 5:02 personal best mile victory at the Montgomery Invitational this past weekend will be good enough for her to receive an invitation to the Millrose Games. The Osbourn Park senior is on a mission to make up for disappointing finish to cross country which had saw her elevate in the mid-season to a #1 ranking in the state with a strong track season and potentially her first state title. Catching even herself off guard with the fastest flat track mile time in the country and a near sub 5 effort early in the season, the University of Virginia recruit looks to bid her time for championship season.

The Virginia high school indoor track & field power team rankings as of January 12th. These rankings were calculated by scoring the rankings as a meet. We took the individual rankings and relay rankings and scored them as a normal meet: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

The Virginia high school indoor track & field depth team rankings as of January 12th. We scored 20 deep for individuals and 20 deep for relays. For example, for individuals 1st place received 20 points for their team, on down to 1 point for 20th place.

While the CNU Showcase was happening in Newport News this past weekend, just down the road on I-64 East was a competitive meet at the two year old Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton. On the first day of Southeastern Invitational, two US #1's were produced by Joel Coleman of Oscar Smith in the 55 meter dash and Ricky Blake of Nansemond River in the triple jump. The second day followed up with some more impressive performances, especially on the track from two of the Eastern Region's top female sprinters in Shakeela Saunders of Great Bridge and Monica Williams of Green Run.

While the invitational mile and 500 meter races were expected to be the featured races of the 2010 Montgomery Invitational and certainly did not disappoint with some of fastest times in the US, the top performance may have come from the boys 3200 with Chantilly senior Chris Foley clocking a US #1 9:14 performance. Foley had to shut his season down after the state cross country meet due to illness, but appears to have been training well since then as shown with his performance in Landover. More to come from Montgomery Invitational including photo gallery by Nicoll Knudsen and a full meet summary.

The nation's top two fastest 1000 meter times were produced in both boys and girls races on Saturday at the CNU High School Showcase in Newport News including a great race to finish between Cody Snyder of Lee-Davis (2:31.77) and Blake Theroux of Western Branch (2:32.13). More to come from CNU including race videos, photo galleries, and a full meet summary. Complete results are posted. (Photo by Ryan Kelly)

There was a total of 13 US top 10 performances on the first day of events at the CNU High School held Friday at the Freeman Center's Vince Brown Track in Newport News. The Midlothian girls 4x800 meter relay had the leading performance of the evening with their US #2 and state best time of 9:36.64. Despite nearly missing the race with a late arrival and no time for a warm-up, Midlothian senior Kathleen Lautzenheiser motored a 2:17 split on anchor leg for the Lady Trojans.

Two US #1 performances were recorded on Friday at the first day of competition of the Southeastern Invitational held in Hampton's Boo Williams Sportsplex with Nansemond River's Ricky Blake leaping out to a nation's best mark of 48'2" in the triple jump, while Oscar Smith sophomore Joel Coleman blazed the nation's fastest in the 55 meter dash with his 6.36 clocking. Another super sophomore shined on Friday at Boo Williams in Great Bridge's Shakeela Saunders who went over 39 feet in the triple jump with her US #2 mark, while clocking a US #4 time of 7.06 in a 55 meter dash victory. More to come.

It appears that Fairfax County is once again considering cutting indoor track & field in their proposed budget plan and cuts in an email from Friends of Indoor Track president Dan Wooley. Wooley presents the case for why indoor track should not be cut and should continue to be offered to the over 3,000 high school student-athletes who currently compete in the sport in Fairfax County.

Performance list to the Bulldog Invitational to be held Saturday, January 9th at the Tolsma Track Center in Lynchburg, Va.

Performance list for the Heritage Invitational to be held Saturday, January 9th at Heritage High School in Lynchburg, Va.

Performance list for the Southeastern Invitational to be held January 8th and 9th at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton.

A favorite feature has returned with the venue records now re-appearing on meet pages. The new venue records page goes top 5 per event all-time (unofficial records based off performances entered in the database during existence of MileStat.com), which also links to 100 deep performances for each event. An example below of Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond, which is the home to the Central Region Championships and districts within the region as well as several invitationals during the indoor season.   Venue Records Page Example - Arthur Ashe Center (Richmond, VA)

MileStat.com's Athletes of the Week award winners for the three weeks of limited action during the high school winter break (December 19th-January 2nd). Matt Hoogland of Lake Braddock (pictured above by Brandon Miles) is currently the state leader in the boys pole vault with a US #3 best of 15'1".

MileStat.com proudly presents its All-Decade Cross Country Team. There have been so many great athletes, teams, and coaches who have been part of this stellar decade of high school cross country in Virginia and it has been a pleasure to have been part of this era. It is crazy to imagine next December will be the 10 year anniversary of MileStat.com!

Performance list for the Montgomery County Invitational to be held Saturday, January 9th at the PG Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland.

Top 10 girls indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 4th, 2010. In her preparation for the Foot Locker Nationals in early December, West Springfield's Paige Kvartunas (pictured above by Nicoll Knudsen) clocked a sub 3 minute 1000 meter time in a small Episcopal School quad meet on December 5th which has stood as the state's fastest performance in the event through the first month of the indoor season.

Top 10 boys indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 4th, 2010. Great Bridge senior Taylor Sykes (pictured above by John Herzog) is the co-national leader in the 55 meter dash (6.37) with George Washington junior DeVaughn Benion Jr., while the state leader at 500 meters is ranked second in the US with his 1:05.83 season best.

Performance list for the 2010 CNU High School Showcase to be held Friday and Saturday, January 8th and 9th at the Freeman Center in Newport News.

MileStat.com was on-site for a portion of the 2010 East Coast Invitational held Saturday, January 2nd at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Some of the top performers included Varina's Anthony Finney (300 winner) and Midlothian's Marie Johnston (3200 winner). Complete results posted with race videos and photo gallery uploaded.

The Currituck County Invitational scheduled for Saturday, January 2nd at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton is canceled.

There have been several inquiries about this weekend’s meet and what we are planning as far as the weather goes. We have been trying to figure out how to handle this for the last few days as we watched the storm track become more and more certain to affect the meet. Here is the plan that we have come up with...

The Peninsula District currently has Virginia's top two hurdlers in the 55 meter hurdles with Daniel McFadden of Heritage (pictured left) and Samantha Scarlett of Bethel (pictured right) posting state leading times this past weekend at Christopher Newport University. Both have been selected as MileStat.com's Athletes of the Week in the hurdles event.

Top 10 boys indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 13th, 2010. Sulaiman Fareed of Highland Springs improved upon his state leading mark in the shot put with his throw of 56'7" at St. Christopher's School this past Saturday.

Top 10 girls indoor track & field performances in Virginia through January 13th, 2010. Cameron Overstreet of Atlee joined another Central Region junior pole vaulter in Stephanie Oleson ontop of the state leaderboard with a 11'6" clearance at the CNU Showcase. Oleson cleared 11'6" for a second time this season on Saturday at St. Christopher's.

Performance list for the Suffolk Stars Invitational to be held Friday and Saturday, January 15th and 16th at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton.

As one of the state's longest running high school indoor invitationals moved into another decade, two local female athletes really excelled at a familar venue for both of them in Orange County's Ashontae Jackson and Louisa County's Javanique Burruss with double wins in their specialty of events.