The first annual St. Christopher\'s Mid-Atlantic Track Clash will be getting underway this Saturday at 11:00 PM at St. Christopher\'s School in their brand new 200 meter indoor track facility in Richmond. The meet is attempting to do something fairly unique from regular weekend meets in bringing high school, college, and post-collegiate athletes all together for a more inclusive, yet exclusive event with one section only finals. In only its first year, the Clash already has plenty to get track enthusiasts excited about.
There is a possibility for two national records to be set this weekend out of the college/open events and neither athlete is a college athlete and both are separated by many years of age.
Aurora Scott, the 17 year old homeschooled star distance runner from Portsmouth, will be looking to break the national high school 5K record indoors of 16:43.02. The record was set in 2004 by New Jersey\'s Brianna Jackucewicz. While Scott, the Footlocker Nationals runner-up this past fall, is more focused on qualifying for the World Juniors team next weekend in Boulder, Colorado at the USA Cross Country Nationals, a national record would be a nice confidence booster leading into next weekend. She has already ran faster in the past for 5K in a road race as well as cross country. Scott ran her 16:26 5K best in a Footlocker South course record breaking win by 19 seconds this past November.
Her limited experience in racing on an indoor track was absent two weeks ago at the Asics Invite at Liberty University in which she ran the nation\'s fastest time this season for 3200 meters with a 10:29 clocking. With her training geared towards the 6K junior women\'s distance that she will be racing at the US Cross Country Championships, she will feel a bit more comfortable and fitter racing at 5000 meters over 3200 meters.
Meanwhile, also present and competing at the Clash will be one of Virginia\'s top female high school distance runners all-time in Alisa Harvey. Harvey, a 1983 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, had prep bests of 4:42.6 for the mile and 2:06.63 for 800 meters. Her 1983 state outdoor championship for 1600 meters at 4:50 has stood the test of time as the state meet record in the event, despite the many great runners that have competed in the 24 year span.
Harvey went onto the University of Tennessee and won a national championship for 1500 meters as a junior and earned countless All-American honors while in Knoxville. Harvey continued her successful running career as a post-collegiate professional in which she ran personal best times of 1:59.72 for 200 meters and 4:29.65 for the mile.
At the age of 41 and only one year away from being 25 years removed from her high school graduation,Harvey as a mother of two, is still tearing up on the track and showing perserverance pays off now competing in the masters division. Harvey has set several American and World masters records and currently comes into this weekend with the World and American masters indoor record of 4:50.95 in the mile and American masters indoor record of 2:07.23 for 800 meters. At the St. Christopher\'s Track Clash, Harvey will be looking to break her own record in the 800 meter run, while attempting to double back in the mile later on.
It well worth the price of admission alone to watch the two of the greatest female distance runners ever produced in Virginia competing in the same meet, despite being separated by 24 years of age. Regardless if any national records are set by either Scott or Harvey, it will be a privilege for all in attendance to see both competing at the same venue.
There is certainly more to the meet than just Scott and Harvey though as out of the 18 running events in the high school division, 10 of the events will feature a current state leader.
Hampton senior Tierra Brown leads the state of Virginia in the 55 meter hurdles with her 8.01 season best. Brown has not competed since her state leading performance at CNU on January 11th, so it will be exciting to see what she has stored up for this weekend with the possibility of Brown breaking 8 seconds for the first time ever. Currently Brown is ranked 7th in the nation for the 55 meter hurdles.
The boys\' 55 meter hurdles will also feature the state\'s best in Aramis Massenburg as the Matoaca senior will finally get to enjoy competing in spikes after posting his state best time of 7.48 without spikes at the Fork Union Invite as well as his second best performance of the season in a 7.52 win in his last meet at the East Coast Invitational .
Meanwhile, Matoaca teammate Shanneka Claiborne likewise has had no problem rolling out a fast time without spikeas her state leading performance of 7.09 also came at Fork Union. It will be very exciting to see if Claiborne can join Francena McCorory\'s 2006 best time of 6.86 to be one of the only Virginians to run under 7 seconds for 55 meters in recent history.
The 55 meter dash for the boys should be a barn burner with four of the state\'s top five ranked sprinters in the event. I.C. Norcom\'s Isaiah Gyasi has to be given the slight edge as the favorite with the fastest F.A.T. time in the state at 6.40 as well as a victory over Manchester\'s Anthony Chesson earlier in the season. Meanwhile, Huguenot\'s Donnie Seward is the hottest sprinter coming in after picking up two victories last weekend in the 500 and 300 meter dash at St. Christopher\'s as well as clocking a 6.1 handheld time in a polar bear meet victory over Chesson. Chesson is still a threat to win after finishing third at Virginia Tech this past weekend with a F.A.T. time of 6.45.
Midlothian freshmen Leia Lautzenheiser will be aiming to become the first girl ever to break 11 minutes for 3200 meters in the year old indoor track facility found at St. Christopher\'s School. Lautzenheiser was not far off dipping under the time at CNU last month with a 11:02.49 win. With twin sister Kathleen out recently due to injury, Leia has taken over the spotlight as the top harrier for the Midlothian and showed her speediness last weekend at Tech with a 5:06 anchor leg on their DMR and came back the next day to run a 3:00 in the 1000 meter run.
There are four contenders in the 3200 meter for the boys with Midlothian\'s Jason Witt, Pinecrest\'s Andy Wacker, Robert E. Lee\'s Josef Tessema, and T.C. Williams\' Bradshaw Kenimer.
This will be the Midlothian junior Witt\'s first race at 3200 meters this season after running under 9:20 last spring as a sophomore. He has been working on the shorter events leading up this weekend and last Saturday at Virginia Tech, ran a personal best of 4:23 for 1600 meters converted from his mile race.
Wacker is one of North Carolina\'s best distance runners and last spring ran 9:25 for 3200 meters. However, he showed even more improvement during the cross country season this past fall as he ran a personal best of 15:20 for 5K as well as clocking a 9:19 3200 meter time in a time trial leading up to Footlocker South.
While there performances at Virginia Tech in the 3200 meter with the big three in Peter Dorrell, Mike Spooner, and Griff Graves with Dorrell running a US #1 time of 9:10, Josef Tessema of Robert E. Lee and Bradshaw Kenimer of T.C. Williams ran exceptionally well in Blacksburg. Tessema finished fourth with an indoor best time of 9:27.17, while Kenimer was not far behind fifth at 9:31.01. Axel Mostrag\'s 9:29.93 facility record set a few weeks ago for 3200 meters should certainly go down with this foursome.
State leader Cate Berenato of Blacksburg for 1000 meters with her 3:00.25 best will likely need to better that time and dip under three minutes at St. Christopher\'s to come out as the winner with the likes of Midlothian\'s M.C. Miller and Potomac School\'s Samantha Adelberg. Both Miller and Adelberg have great half miler speed with a 2:14 best for Miller and 2:13 best for Adelberg. Adelberg is a bit of an unkown to many as she did not start to race at distances greater than 400 meters last spring till the very end of the season. She ran her 2:13.67 best for 800 meters in the post-season at the MileStat.com Elite Gala to finish second in the race to Great Bridge\'s Kristy Tobin. Miller has also been pulled through a fast time in a runner-up finish to Tobin with her 4:53 state runner-up finish for 1600 meters last June. Berenato, Miller, and Adelberg will all be hoping to break three minutes for the first time ever on Saturday.
The 1000 meter run for the boys does not feature any true stud in the event, but should make the race itself a bit more exciting and unpredictable. Blacksburg\'s Brian Hencke (2:37.67) and Hermitage\'s Kieran Lee (2:38.07) have the two fastest times this season among entries, but Manchester\'s Andrew Duty is working himself back into shape from a stress fracture in cross country. Duty split a 1:54 on a 4x800 meter relay spring and also ran 2:36 for 1000 meters last year as a junior.
Kristy Tobin versus Courtlin LaReau is all you need to know about the girls\' 1600 meter run. Tobin is the two-time AAA state champion in the event, while LaReau has shot onto the state scene as a senior to challenge Tobin and others for the state championship in several events. Tobin will be anxious to get back on the track and race after a disappointing performance in the mile at Virginia Tech. To give Tobin some credit, she was the only competitior in the invite mile race in Blacksburg doubling back from the 1000 meter run earlier. Racing fresh and with something to prove, expect a strong race from Tobin as she has a 4:53 best in the event from last outdoor season.
LaReau would like to join Tobin in the sub five minute club as she has already become a member of sub 11 minute 2 miler crew with her US #3 10:45 performance two weeks ago at Liberty. The Deep Run senior has already put up fast times on St. Christopher\'s track as she ran a 5:04 1600 and 3:00 1000 meter double last month in a quad meet. Her 5:04 time stands as the facility record, which both Lareau and Tobin will be looking to run under.
Hermitage senior John Vial with his 4:22 best for 1600 meters this season finds himself seeded fourth in the event at the Clash. He indeed is correctly seeded with two 4:18 milers in Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg and Dakota Lowery of West Johnston (NC) ahead of him as well as 4:20 miler Eddie Judge of Cox. This will be one of the top high school distance races of the day.
Dorrell is coming off a big weekend at Virginia Tech in which he won the 3200 meter run in a US #1 time of 9:10 and nearly followed up with another win against a tough field in the mile. West Springfield\'s Mike Spooner nipped him at the line, but Dorrell still came away with a big personal best time of 4:16.51 for 1600 meters converted from the mile race in a runner-up effort. Lowery finished third in the same race at Tech (4:19 1600 meters converted) and ran 4:18 for 1600 meters last spring as a junior. Lowery cannot be counted out as he has had past success as a winner in Richmond after winning the mile at the inaugrual MileStat.com Gala last June.
Both Cox\'s Eddie Judge and Hermitage\'s John Vial will also make the race interesting. Judge picked up a big victory at UNC two weekends ago at the Eastern Challenge with 4:20 win, while Vial finished runner-up to Dorrell at the Asics Invite in his 4:22 best performance.
Bethel coach Eddie Williams is bringing his great sprint relays into St. Christopher\'s to run faster as the Bethel athletes will be coming in only relays at the Clash. The Bethel girls have the state\'s fastest 4x200 meter relay at 1:43.49 in a runner-up showing at Virginia Tech behind a US #1 run from Uniondale of New York. They could potentially win both the 4x200 and 4x400 meter relay as they are the top seed in both, but the 4x400 meter relay is less of a guarantee as Manchester at 4:07.56 was not far behind Bethel\'s 4:07.07 at Virginia Tech.
The sprint relays for the boys will be simply great races. The 4x200 meter relay will feature the state\'s top three ranked relays with Highland Springs (1:30.79), Manchester (1:31.10), and Bethel (1:31.17). Manchester was the previous state leader for nearly a month and a half with their 1:31.10 performance at Liberty University in mid-December, but two consecutive bad handoff exchanges in big meets at CNU and Virginia Tech has prevented them from running any faster. Highland Springs took full advantage at Virginia Tech of a Manchester DNF and the fast banked track to run the state\'s fastest time at 1:30.79. Meanwhile, the Bethel boys looked very strong as well in Blacksburg with the state\'s third fastest time at 1:31.17.
The same three relay crews will come back later to finish the meet in the 4x400 meter relay as Bethel owns this event currently after running a US #3 time of 3:21.26 in a second place showing at Virginia Tech this past weekend. Last year\'s AAA state champions outdoors in the event look ready for another state title in the event this indoor season. Manchester has the next fastest time of 3:25.46 among the entrants, but the Bethel boys may be more focused to see if they can beat Western Branch\'s time last weekend at St. Christopher\'s with their facility record clocking of 3:23.21.