All photos by David Fleenor
FORK UNION, VA -- Several of this past weekend\'s best performances in the state came from the 2007 FUMA Invitational at the Estes Athletic Center. Fork Union\'s Axel Mostrag breaking Seneca Lassiter\'s 1995 meet and facility record of 4:19.96 with one of the country\'s fastest times for 1600 meters at 4:17.76 obviously was the performance of the meet, but there were plenty of noteworthy performances on Saturday at FUMA. The meet featured four state leading performances including Mostrag\'s 4:17 1600.
Two of the state best times came from a pair of Matoaca athletes in Shanneka Claiborne and Aramis Massenburg. Claiborne apparently loves the Estes Athletic Center as her previous personal best in the 55 meter dash came in last year\'s Fork Union Invitational with a 7.13 clocking. After the Bethel pair of Shakia Forbes (7.19) and Crystal Carrington (7.21) had bested Claiborne\'s previous state leading best time in the event this season of 7.23 on Friday night at CNU, Claiborne answered their challenge on Saturday at FUMA. The Matoaca senior reclaimed her spot at the top of the state leaderboard with a personal best clocking of 7.09. Her second state title seems to be a strong possibility after winning the 100 meter dash title last June.
Meanwhile, teammate Massenburg had already been the state leader in the 55 meter hurdles with a 7.52 clocking from a Dinwiddie polar bear meet, but showed he can do it in indoors by clocking a 7.48 inside the Estes Athletic Center to win the hurdle event. Massenburg had a busy day finishing second in the triple jump (43\'5\") and long jump (20\'9.75\"), while finishing fourth in the high jump (6\'2\") to go along with his hurdle victory.
In the long jump, Rashaad Cannon of Highland Springs topped Massenburg by leaping to a state leading mark of 22\'10.25\". Cannon had actually posted a mark of 23\'3\" in an earlier home polar bear meet. Cannon was not finished with the long jump as he swept the horizontal jumps with a leap of 44\'3\" to take first place in the triple jump as well.
Despite Massenburg\'s individual performances on the day and Aaron Hudgins\' 6\'4\" win in the high jump, Matoaca as a team ended up a distance second place to Fork Union with 57 points. Fork Union tallied 90 points with individual event winners in the 500, 1000, and 1600 meter races.
Fork Union\'s Jamie Reichlen put up a solid 500 meter time on the 160 meter track with a 1:08.85 clocking to continue his strong indoor campaign as one of Fork Union\'s several outstanding middle distance runners. Teammate Szymon Rola won the 1000 meter run for the second straight year in a row at the FUMA Invite in a time of 2:35.14 to win by four seconds. It is quite impressive that Fork Union has two 1000 meter runners with times of 2:33 and 2:35 respectively on the 160 meter track this season in Reichlen and Rola and neither is Fork Union\'s top runner Mostrag.
Nansemond River had the top finishers in the 300 meter dash with Darryl Brickhouse (37.02) and James Taylor (37.57). Both Brickhouse and Taylor also ran on the winning 4x400 meter relay (3:31.87) to close out the meet.
Turner Ashby\'s Justin Smith won his second straight invitational in the shot put with another performance over 50 feet with a throw of 50\'6.75\".
Daniel Inge of E.C. Glass cleared 14 feet again in the pole vault to consistently continue as one of the state\'s top vaulters in AAA with a first place finish at FUMA.
Halifax County\'s Patrick Terry should contend for the Northwest Region title in the 55 meter dash and solidified his title as a favorite in the event by clocking a 6.51 in the 55 meter dash to win on Saturday.
Brentsville sophomore Danyelle Kent-Robinson had a stellar meet as the only athlete to win three events. Kent-Robinson cleared a personal best height of 5\'6\" to win the high jump competition. She also ran personal best times of 8.96 and 43.71 to win the 55 meter hurdles and 300 meter dash. Kent-Robinson should be competitive in all three events at the AA State Meet in March.
Kayla Lewis of William Fleming nearly joined Samella Koroma and Allison Jones in the 40 feet club this season in the shot put as she bested top seed K\'Lynne Robinson of J.R. Tucker in a great throwing show with Lewis as the winner at 39\'11\" and Robinson in second at 39\'5\". Lewis is now the top ranked thrower in AA in Virginia.
Tucker sophomore Jasia Richardson nearly pulled in two wins in the long jump (16\'11.50\") and triple jump (36\'7\"), but Matoaca\'s Mia Aghaji stopped her from a first place finish in the triple jump with a top mark of 36\'9.50\".
Aghaji joined teammate Shanneka Claiborne on their 4x200 meter relay as they put up a solid time of 1:52.24 on the short track.
Gloucester nearly swept the distance races if it was not for Albemarle sophomore Liz Barclay\'s 5:14.82 win in the 1600 meter run. Gloucester sophomore Hannah Varnell finished second to Barlcay in the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:24.88 and came back to win the 1000 meter run in 3:10.58. Meanwhile, Gloucester senior Emily Webb won the 3200 meter run by 14 seconds with a time of 12:00.43.
William Fleming senior Brittany Cabbler finally got to compete without Natalie Woodford of Patrick Henry after finishing a close second to the Patrick Henry sophomore in the 500 meter dash at Liberty last month and 300 meter dash at VMI last weekend. Cabbler took it out on the field at Fork Union in the 500 meter dash with a three second win in 1:22.84. Her win helped charge William Fleming (52 pts) to a narrow one point team win over Brentsville (51 pts) as Kent-Robinson\'s three wins helped Brentsville stay in team contention. A second place finish in the 4x400 meter relay from William Fleming and Cabbler helped put the team over the top against Brentsville and Matoaca (3rd, 50 pts).
