VISAA Indoor State Championships Photo Gallery by David Fleenor
The Fork Union boys and St. Catherine's girls claimed the first official VISAA Indoor Track & Field Championships as neither was too much of a surprise as returning outdoor VISAA state team champions. St. Catherine's with 142 points was led by two wins (5:19 1600, 10-9 PV) and a runner-up finish (11;39 3200) from Carrie Wortham, while Axel Mostrag stole the spotlight of course from his FUMA buddies with the fastest flat track time in the country for 1600 meters at 4:14.65. Fork Union (183 pts) as a team was 95 points better than second place Woodberry Forest (88 pts). Plenty more to come from the VISAA Championships including meet photos from David Fleenor and full meet smmary.
The Fork Union boys have a long standing streak of VISAA outdoor state championships and look to start another long string of state championships with inaugrual indoor state meet for VISAA. There was little doubt coming in who would be crowned as the first indoor state private school champions as the Fork Union boys rank as one of the top track teams in the state of Virginia including the public schools. On the day at the St. Christopher's School Field House, Fork Union racked up a whopping total of 188 points with seven event winners and five runner-up performances.
Fork Union senior Axel Mostrag, fresh off his US #9 all-time 2:26 1000 meter race last weekend in New York, ran another national leaderboard performance by winning the 1600 meter run with the fastest flat track time in the country at 4:14.65 (converts to 4:15.85 full mile on Spier's US Top 5 List). The time also moves Mostrag back on top with the fastest time in the state as he beat Eddie Judge's 4:16.25 facility record from last week at the St. Christopher's Mid-Atlantic Track Clash. Teammate Szymon Rola also rolled out a fast time in the event after clocking 2:30 1000 last week in the same race with Mostrag as he finished second at the VISAA Championships in a personal best time of 4:20.76. Fork Union had an impressive three runners in the race under 4:30 indoors with Jeremy Haney in fourth at 4:27.66 giving Coach Winston Brown three of the top four finishers in the race and more importantly 23 points.
Jamie Reichlen of Fork Union holds the facility record at the St. Christopher's Field House for 1000 meters at 2:32.14 from the St. Christopher's Invitational, but his 2:37.11 win this past Saturday may have been just as impressive as the record run as he was doubling back in a short period time from a 1:06.94 500 to win the event by nearly four seconds.
Fork Union was also tough in the relays as they nearly swept all three events as they did not run their "A" team in a 8:37.44 second place finish to Collegiate, who ran a solid time of 8:27.95 to win the 4x800. However, FUMA's 4x200 (1:34.47) and 4x400 (3:31.46) both garnered wins as their win in the final event of the meet was only a microcosm of the team's outright dominance of the other VISAA schools as they won the event by nearly eight full seconds.
Brian Zitterkopf in the high jump with a clearance of 6'4" and Dominic Gregory in the triple jump with a leap of 42'11.75" also won events individually for Fork Union.
Femi Oyalowo led Woodberry Forest to their second place team showing with 88 points as he was the team's lone event winner and the only thrower to go over 50 feet in the shot put with a top mark of 51'00.25".
While Mostrag's nationally ranked performance in the 1600 meter run certainly made him one of the top performers in the meet, Greenbriar Christian's Aaron Ransom was also deserving of such an award as the only individual to win more than one event as he was greedy in taking three first place finishes on Saturday in Richmond. Ransom won indoor state titles in the 55 meter dash (6.55) and 300 meter dash (36.12) on the track as well as posting the winning mark in the long jump at 22'4.25".
Potomac School's Johns Ross denied 2006 VISAA outdoor 3200 meter state champion Matthew Richardson of College an indoor title in the event as it took a personal best day from Ross to do it. Ross ran a great race to pick up a 9:39.43 win over Richardson in second place and just under nine seconds behind at 9:48.24.
The indoor meet should continue to grow in size with the VISAA's official recognition of the event as well as the more private schools starting up indoor track programs. There was decent contigency of the Northern Virginian private schools in the meet with the likes of Bishop O'Connell, Episcopal, Paul VI, Potomac School, and others. Paul VI's Greg Copper joined Potomac School's Ross as the other indoor state champion from the Northern Virginian crowd with a 8.03 clocking in the 55 meter hurdles.
The St. Catherine's girls suffered heavy losses due to graduation from last spring's VISAA outdoor state champion squad. With the likes of distance runner Katie Doswell and Casey Jordan now having moved on to compete collegiately at Duke University and Boston University respectively, Coach Ben Ackerly would need some of his younger girls from last year to attempt to fill the void of points that athletes like Doswell and Jordan were able to produce individually.
No athlete for St. Catherine's squad answered the call better for points than junior Carrie Wortham. Wortham individually earned a total of 28 points for the team cause as she was one of the top female performers in the distance races along with fellow Richmond private schooler Barbara Strehler of Trinity as they traded first place finishes in the 1600 and 3200 meter races.
There was not much separation between either in two classic races on the day. Less than two tenths of a second separated each in both races as Wortham at 5:19.09 edged Strehler at 5:19.21 for a narrow 1600 meter win, while the margin was even smaller in a 3200 meter victory for the VIS Division I cross country state champ Strehler. Only seven hundredths of a second decided first place in the 16 lap event with Strehler as the winner at 11:39.16 and Wortham finishing as state runner-up in 11:39.23. Many 55 meter dash races only wish to have close of an outcome.
Wortham was not finished with just her performances on the track as Wortham is also one of the state's better pole vaulters as she finished just off her 10'10" personal best and state's fourth best clearance by making it over 10'9" at St. Christopher's on Saturday to add ten more points to the team total for St. Catherine's.
Virginia Ginn has been winning private school outdoor state championship titles in the high jump since she was in middle school. She is getting a late start on the indoor state championships with the first year of Virginia having an official indoor state championship only coming this year with Ginn now as a junior. However, Ginn did her first step in at least making it two for two in her only opportunities for indoor state championships as the team's second individual champion of the meet. She successfully cleared 5'2" to pick up the win.
St. Catherine's also got surprising victories from the sprints with Candra Johnson pulling out a 7.52 win over Bishop Ireton's Colleen McFadden (7.56) in the 55 meter dash as well as being part of the squad's winning 1:51.56 4x200 meter relay. Glennis Lofland may have had the team's best meet in the sprints by finishing as a state runner-up in the 500 and 300 meter dash with solid times of 1:18.81 and 43.27 respectively.
Potomac School senior Samantha Adelberg won both events as the Brown University recruit nearly set two facility records as she was able to achieve the feat in the 500 meter dash with a 1:17.36 clocking, but just missed the 300 meter record by nine hundredths of a second with a first place time of 41.92. Adelberg also was a member of a dominant 4x400 meter relay squad from Potomac School as they ran a swift time, especially for a private school, of 4:06.23 to win by six seconds.
Coach Mike Schroer now has two athletes on the St. Christopher's Field House facility record list with Adelberg and thrower Morgan Watts. With her winning toss of 37'9 in the shot put, Watts moved ahead of the previous best for the facility. The two facility record performances from Adelberg and 4x400 meter relay win to close the meet helped Potomac School move into second place as a team in the final standings with 102 points.
Norfolk Academy's Christine Sargent was nearly able to join Greenbriar Christian's Aaron Ransom and St. Catherine's Carrie Wortham as the third triple event winner on the day as Sargent won both the 55 meter hurdles (8.98) and triple jump (35'0.75"), while placing second in the long jump (16'6"). Sargent also placed fourth in the 55 meter dash (7.71), fifth in the shot put (28'0.25"), and seventh in the high jump (4'6") to help Norfolk Academy finish third as a team with 38.5 points coming from her individually.
Paul VI's Abby Clement had a great meet as she took part in her team's facility record run of 9:44.46 in the 4x800 meter relay to win the event by a ridiculous margin of 46 seconds to lap the entire field. Clement then came back in the 1000 meter run and showed no affects of feeling tired from her strong 4x800 leg earlier by winning a state championship in a personal best time of 3:06.15.